Weimar has bequeathed three distinct cautions for the political right of any era about what not to do in comparable situations: join in disseminating a Big Lie; take inadequate action and impose an inadequate penalty after a treasonous uprising; and cement an alliance between traditional conservatives and fascists.
Author: Christopher R. Browning | Source: The Atlantic | Subject: Politics & Public Policy
Freedom is inherently risky, which is the reason for rules and limits in the first place.
Author: Ellen Willis | Source: The Atlantic | Subjects: Concepts, Freedom | Liberty, Life & Society
We can embrace marriage, hoping to transcend its contradictions, or reject it, hoping to find something better. Either way, we are likely to be disappointed.
Author: Ellen Willis | Source: The Atlantic | Subjects: Life & Society, Love, Relationships
Consider the following propositions: First, because human behavior is ultimately determined by outside factors, human beings cannot be held responsible for their actions. Second, punishment doesn’t work anyway. These propositions are legacies of modern psychology. And, the author argues, they are nonsense
Author: John Staddon | Source: The Atlantic (February1995) | Subjects: Articles & Links, Excerpts, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy, Psychology | Behavior
A healthy democracy requires a strong conservative party and a strong liberal party arguing for their views publicly and vigorously.
Author: Jeffrey Goldberg | Source: The Atlantic | Subject: Politics & Public Policy
Being president is impossible. […] To “succeed” in the job, a person needs a broader range of skills than any real human being has ever possessed. Public eloquence. Private persuasive power. IQ. EQ. Stamina. Luck. A generous imagination, but also cold-bloodedness. A thousand traits more. The question is not whether any president will “fail.” It is in which particular way, and how the world will … [ Read more ]
Author: James Fallows | Source: The Atlantic | Subjects: America, International, Politics & Public Policy
The default setting in world history is authoritarianism. Freedom is a rare appearance on the historical map of the world, and requires extraordinary, extraordinary vigilance and effort to preserve it. And when I see leaders here or elsewhere moving toward authoritarianism, it sets off alarm bells. Because I do read history. The history of the world is strongmen lying to people, gaining power over them … [ Read more ]
Author: Mitt Romney | Source: The Atlantic | Subjects: History, Politics & Public Policy
Statistics often tell us more about collection procedures than they do about the phenomenon they are supposed to reflect.
Author: Andrew Hopkins | Source: The Atlantic | Subjects: Education | Scholarship, Facts | Bias, Math & Science
It’s possible to care deeply without taking ourselves so seriously.
Author: Faith Hill | Source: The Atlantic | Subjects: Life & Society, Personal Improvement
From the very beginning, the land of the free has also been about the freedom to make and spend money. America put God on our money, but for many Americans, money is God. This nation put profit over morality through centuries of slavery. Individual expediency in the name of capitalism is as American as the right to bear arms. Around the world, no idea has … [ Read more ]
Author: Xochitl Gonzalez | Source: The Atlantic | Subjects: America, Economics | Economy, International, Life & Society, Material Possessions, Politics & Public Policy
Many psychologists believe that as a species, humans are not evolved to enjoy the here and now. Rather, we are wired to time-travel mentally, mostly into the future, to consider new scenarios and try out new ideas. The social psychologist Martin Seligman goes so far as to call our species Homo prospectus.
Author: Arthur C. Brooks | Source: The Atlantic | Subjects: Life & Society, Psychology | Behavior
The hottest commodity of today’s online cultural ecosystem is open conflict. Chitchat on podcasts and livestreams is transfixing because it’s unruly, argumentative, and unafraid of causing offense.
Author: Spencer Kornhaber | Source: The Atlantic | Subjects: Culture, Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy
The so-called Breitbart Doctrine stated that “politics is downstream from culture”—that is, the ideas conveyed by popular entertainment shapes consumers’ worldviews. This proposition called for conservatives to build a shadow Hollywood that tells conservative stories and raises up conservative stars… In the long run, though, the doctrine’s biggest impact has been encouraging the right to get creative with online culture.
Author: Spencer Kornhaber | Source: The Atlantic | Subjects: America, International, Politics & Public Policy
Back in 2021, I wrote a book about the rise of “illiberal populism,” the self-destructive tendency in some nations that leads people to participate in democratic institutions such as voting while being hostile to democracy itself, casting ballots primarily to punish other people and to curtail everyone’s rights—even their own. These movements are sometimes led by fantastically wealthy faux populists who hoodwink gullible voters by … [ Read more ]
Author: Tom Nichols | Source: The Atlantic | Subject: Politics & Public Policy
The NatCons are wrong to think there is a unified thing called “the left” that hates America. This is just the apocalyptic menace many of them had to invent in order to justify their decision to vote for Donald Trump.
They are wrong, too, to think there is a wokeist Anschluss taking over all the institutions of American life. For people who spend so much time … [ Read more ]
Author: David Brooks | Source: The Atlantic | Subjects: America, International, Politics & Public Policy
Conservatives have lately become expert culture warriors—the whole Tucker Carlson schtick. This schtick demands that you ignore the actual suffering of the world—the transgender kid alone in some suburban high school, the anxiety of a guy who can’t afford health care for his brother, the struggle of a Black man trying to be seen and recognized as a full human being. It’s a cynical game … [ Read more ]
Author: David Brooks | Source: The Atlantic | Subject: Politics & Public Policy
Rage and frenzy will pull down more in a half an hour, than prudence, deliberation, and foresight can build up in a hundred years.
Author: Edmund Burke | Source: The Atlantic | Subjects: Life & Society, Politics & Public Policy, Psychology | Behavior
Fear casts out love. And not only love. Fear also casts out intelligence, casts out goodness, casts out all thought of beauty and truth.
Author: Aldous Huxley | Source: The Atlantic | Subjects: Fear, Life & Society, Personal Improvement, Psychology | Behavior
One way to look at the rise of Donald Trump is as part of a decades-long backlash among the American leadership class to the idea of accountability. Since Richard Nixon was forced to resign, powerful people in both political parties have worked assiduously to ensure that their leaders would escape the consequences of their actions… This is not just about Trump; his impunity is the … [ Read more ]
Author: Adam Serwer | Source: The Atlantic (February 26, 2026) | Subjects: America, International, Politics & Public Policy
[Paul O’Keefe] and two co-authors—[Carol] Dweck and Greg Walton of Stanford—recently performed a study that suggests it might be time to change the way we think about our interests. Passions aren’t “found,” they argue. They’re developed.
Author: Olga Khazan | Source: The Atlantic | Subjects: Career, Education | Scholarship, Life & Society, Personal Improvement