Current Affairs
@currentaffairs.bsky.social
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Our stunning 57th issue is here, featuring whimsical cover art by Toni Hamel!
🧠 Elon Musk’s creepy plan to put a chip in your brain
🗑️ The struggles of striking garbage workers
📚 A deep dive into Thomas Pynchon’s novels
Become a subscriber:
www.currentaffairs.org/membership
🧠 Elon Musk’s creepy plan to put a chip in your brain
🗑️ The struggles of striking garbage workers
📚 A deep dive into Thomas Pynchon’s novels
Become a subscriber:
www.currentaffairs.org/membership
The Democratic Party could embrace this, but they instead literally sell access—and, let’s be clear, policy—to Super PAC bundlers. The preferences of billionaires are irreconcilable with grassroots energy and working-class interests. www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-yan...
The Yankees and the Democrats Suck For the Same Reason
How two wealthy institutions—with total power, entrenched leadership, and data obsession— perfected the art of losing.
www.currentaffairs.org
February 7, 2026 at 11:33 PM
The Democratic Party could embrace this, but they instead literally sell access—and, let’s be clear, policy—to Super PAC bundlers. The preferences of billionaires are irreconcilable with grassroots energy and working-class interests. www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-yan...
Democrats’ deference to the gilded patrons of their consultant class only makes them useful foils to Trump’s fake populism.
www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-yan...
www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-yan...
The Yankees and the Democrats Suck For the Same Reason
How two wealthy institutions—with total power, entrenched leadership, and data obsession— perfected the art of losing.
www.currentaffairs.org
February 7, 2026 at 11:32 PM
Democrats’ deference to the gilded patrons of their consultant class only makes them useful foils to Trump’s fake populism.
www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-yan...
www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-yan...
The Yankees and the Democrats share a doomed philosophy: Want to win? Look to the data! Data fails to win? Just get more data! Why are both so content with proven, enduring failure
www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-yan...
www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-yan...
The Yankees and the Democrats Suck For the Same Reason
How two wealthy institutions—with total power, entrenched leadership, and data obsession— perfected the art of losing.
www.currentaffairs.org
February 7, 2026 at 11:29 PM
The Yankees and the Democrats share a doomed philosophy: Want to win? Look to the data! Data fails to win? Just get more data! Why are both so content with proven, enduring failure
www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-yan...
www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-yan...
The two groups’ shared management style yields a common result. The old guard reigns. Another direction is obvious and needed, but neither organization seems interested in the fundamental realignment of priorities. Failure becomes routine and expected.
www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-yan...
www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-yan...
The Yankees and the Democrats Suck For the Same Reason
How two wealthy institutions—with total power, entrenched leadership, and data obsession— perfected the art of losing.
www.currentaffairs.org
February 7, 2026 at 11:22 PM
The two groups’ shared management style yields a common result. The old guard reigns. Another direction is obvious and needed, but neither organization seems interested in the fundamental realignment of priorities. Failure becomes routine and expected.
www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-yan...
www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-yan...
Deep divisions exist within the Democratic caucus, but the Democratic establishment keeps their influence intact with few policy shifts toward the party’s populist wing. www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-yan...
The Yankees and the Democrats Suck For the Same Reason
How two wealthy institutions—with total power, entrenched leadership, and data obsession— perfected the art of losing.
www.currentaffairs.org
February 7, 2026 at 11:19 PM
Deep divisions exist within the Democratic caucus, but the Democratic establishment keeps their influence intact with few policy shifts toward the party’s populist wing. www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-yan...
It's not just incumbency that explains this common decline. Both the Democrats and their baseball equivalent operate from a top-down hierarchy that insulates their failed leaders.
www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-yan...
www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-yan...
The Yankees and the Democrats Suck For the Same Reason
How two wealthy institutions—with total power, entrenched leadership, and data obsession— perfected the art of losing.
www.currentaffairs.org
February 7, 2026 at 11:12 PM
It's not just incumbency that explains this common decline. Both the Democrats and their baseball equivalent operate from a top-down hierarchy that insulates their failed leaders.
www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-yan...
www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-yan...
It boggles my mind, both following my baseball team and watching my supposedly allied party, to see the same leaders still in charge after repeated, disastrous campaigns. www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-yan...
The Yankees and the Democrats Suck For the Same Reason
How two wealthy institutions—with total power, entrenched leadership, and data obsession— perfected the art of losing.
www.currentaffairs.org
February 7, 2026 at 11:10 PM
It boggles my mind, both following my baseball team and watching my supposedly allied party, to see the same leaders still in charge after repeated, disastrous campaigns. www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-yan...
Despite embodying a Republican ethos, the New York Yankees is run with all the flailing ineptitude of the Democratic Party.
www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-yan...
www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-yan...
The Yankees and the Democrats Suck For the Same Reason
How two wealthy institutions—with total power, entrenched leadership, and data obsession— perfected the art of losing.
www.currentaffairs.org
February 7, 2026 at 11:06 PM
Despite embodying a Republican ethos, the New York Yankees is run with all the flailing ineptitude of the Democratic Party.
www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-yan...
www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-yan...
How two wealthy institutions—with total power, entrenched leadership, and data obsession— perfected the art of losing.
www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-yan...
www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-yan...
The Yankees and the Democrats Suck For the Same Reason
How two wealthy institutions—with total power, entrenched leadership, and data obsession— perfected the art of losing.
www.currentaffairs.org
February 7, 2026 at 11:03 PM
How two wealthy institutions—with total power, entrenched leadership, and data obsession— perfected the art of losing.
www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-yan...
www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-yan...
The closest thing we have to public debate right now is the spectacle of Jubilee’s “Surrounded” videos, which turn debate into a kind of game show where you have to argue against the clock. But where does someone go now for sustained engagement with ideas? www.currentaffairs.org/news/how-big...
How Big Tech Killed Online Debate
On forums and blogs, people used to have detailed back-and-forth arguments. Can a democratic society survive if we don’t even bother arguing about ideas anymore?
www.currentaffairs.org
February 7, 2026 at 10:13 PM
The closest thing we have to public debate right now is the spectacle of Jubilee’s “Surrounded” videos, which turn debate into a kind of game show where you have to argue against the clock. But where does someone go now for sustained engagement with ideas? www.currentaffairs.org/news/how-big...
It seems we are not just in a post-truth era, we are in a post-argument era, where everyone realizes that the thing that matters is not whether you make sense but whether you have power.
www.currentaffairs.org/news/how-big...
www.currentaffairs.org/news/how-big...
How Big Tech Killed Online Debate
On forums and blogs, people used to have detailed back-and-forth arguments. Can a democratic society survive if we don’t even bother arguing about ideas anymore?
www.currentaffairs.org
February 7, 2026 at 10:09 PM
It seems we are not just in a post-truth era, we are in a post-argument era, where everyone realizes that the thing that matters is not whether you make sense but whether you have power.
www.currentaffairs.org/news/how-big...
www.currentaffairs.org/news/how-big...
The transition from forums and blogs to “social media” and video has disfavored longform writing, and it is a transition that has been engineered by massive companies.
www.currentaffairs.org/news/how-big...
www.currentaffairs.org/news/how-big...
How Big Tech Killed Online Debate
On forums and blogs, people used to have detailed back-and-forth arguments. Can a democratic society survive if we don’t even bother arguing about ideas anymore?
www.currentaffairs.org
February 7, 2026 at 10:05 PM
The transition from forums and blogs to “social media” and video has disfavored longform writing, and it is a transition that has been engineered by massive companies.
www.currentaffairs.org/news/how-big...
www.currentaffairs.org/news/how-big...
On forums and blogs, people used to have detailed back-and-forth arguments. Can a democratic society survive if we don’t even bother arguing about ideas anymore?
www.currentaffairs.org/news/how-big...
www.currentaffairs.org/news/how-big...
How Big Tech Killed Online Debate
On forums and blogs, people used to have detailed back-and-forth arguments. Can a democratic society survive if we don’t even bother arguing about ideas anymore?
www.currentaffairs.org
February 7, 2026 at 9:59 PM
On forums and blogs, people used to have detailed back-and-forth arguments. Can a democratic society survive if we don’t even bother arguing about ideas anymore?
www.currentaffairs.org/news/how-big...
www.currentaffairs.org/news/how-big...
Predatory developers are using “Heir’s Property” laws to force sales of Black Americans’ homes, then buy them up cheap. We need a systematic change in policy to stop them.
www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-obs...
www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-obs...
The Obscure Law Destroying Black Homeownership in America
Predatory developers are using “Heir’s Property” laws to force sales of Black Americans’ homes, then buy them up cheap. We need a systematic change in policy to stop them.
www.currentaffairs.org
February 5, 2026 at 8:17 PM
Predatory developers are using “Heir’s Property” laws to force sales of Black Americans’ homes, then buy them up cheap. We need a systematic change in policy to stop them.
www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-obs...
www.currentaffairs.org/news/the-obs...
Reposted by Current Affairs
Washington Post is shuttering its book section, part of the ongoing war against literacy & knowledge.
We at Current Affairs want to pick up the slack by expanding book reviews. Writers: pitch us anytime! And if you subscribe/donate we'll use the funding to commission book coverage.
We at Current Affairs want to pick up the slack by expanding book reviews. Writers: pitch us anytime! And if you subscribe/donate we'll use the funding to commission book coverage.
February 4, 2026 at 8:58 PM
Washington Post is shuttering its book section, part of the ongoing war against literacy & knowledge.
We at Current Affairs want to pick up the slack by expanding book reviews. Writers: pitch us anytime! And if you subscribe/donate we'll use the funding to commission book coverage.
We at Current Affairs want to pick up the slack by expanding book reviews. Writers: pitch us anytime! And if you subscribe/donate we'll use the funding to commission book coverage.
There’s an inverse relationship between how important your work is, and how well you’ll be paid and treated. www.currentaffairs.org/news/all-pow...
All Power to the Garbage Workers!
From New York in 1677 to India in 2025, the people who collect our trash are among the labor movement’s greatest heroes.
www.currentaffairs.org
February 4, 2026 at 9:40 PM
There’s an inverse relationship between how important your work is, and how well you’ll be paid and treated. www.currentaffairs.org/news/all-pow...
Around the world, the situation for garbage workers reveals one of the core absurdities of capitalism.
www.currentaffairs.org/news/all-pow...
www.currentaffairs.org/news/all-pow...
All Power to the Garbage Workers!
From New York in 1677 to India in 2025, the people who collect our trash are among the labor movement’s greatest heroes.
www.currentaffairs.org
February 4, 2026 at 9:39 PM
Around the world, the situation for garbage workers reveals one of the core absurdities of capitalism.
www.currentaffairs.org/news/all-pow...
www.currentaffairs.org/news/all-pow...
The people who do society’s most basic and vital work ought to be paid well and respected for it. www.currentaffairs.org/news/all-pow...
All Power to the Garbage Workers!
From New York in 1677 to India in 2025, the people who collect our trash are among the labor movement’s greatest heroes.
www.currentaffairs.org
February 4, 2026 at 9:14 PM
The people who do society’s most basic and vital work ought to be paid well and respected for it. www.currentaffairs.org/news/all-pow...
Washington Post is shuttering its book section, part of the ongoing war against literacy & knowledge.
We at Current Affairs want to pick up the slack by expanding book reviews. Writers: pitch us anytime! And if you subscribe/donate we'll use the funding to commission book coverage.
We at Current Affairs want to pick up the slack by expanding book reviews. Writers: pitch us anytime! And if you subscribe/donate we'll use the funding to commission book coverage.
February 4, 2026 at 8:58 PM
Washington Post is shuttering its book section, part of the ongoing war against literacy & knowledge.
We at Current Affairs want to pick up the slack by expanding book reviews. Writers: pitch us anytime! And if you subscribe/donate we'll use the funding to commission book coverage.
We at Current Affairs want to pick up the slack by expanding book reviews. Writers: pitch us anytime! And if you subscribe/donate we'll use the funding to commission book coverage.
hm, a "ghost network of concentration camps" sounds pretty bad.
February 4, 2026 at 7:40 PM
hm, a "ghost network of concentration camps" sounds pretty bad.
Reposted by Current Affairs
JANUARY: @currentaffairs.bsky.social runs a fake ad for a new Trump EPA mascot called "Carson the Carcinogenic Cloud"
FEBRUARY: the Trump administration debuts "Coalie the Coal Lump" to push fossil fuels
Who in the admin is reading our magazine for ideas and how much are they going to pay us?
FEBRUARY: the Trump administration debuts "Coalie the Coal Lump" to push fossil fuels
Who in the admin is reading our magazine for ideas and how much are they going to pay us?
February 4, 2026 at 5:40 PM
JANUARY: @currentaffairs.bsky.social runs a fake ad for a new Trump EPA mascot called "Carson the Carcinogenic Cloud"
FEBRUARY: the Trump administration debuts "Coalie the Coal Lump" to push fossil fuels
Who in the admin is reading our magazine for ideas and how much are they going to pay us?
FEBRUARY: the Trump administration debuts "Coalie the Coal Lump" to push fossil fuels
Who in the admin is reading our magazine for ideas and how much are they going to pay us?