Ben Sixsmith

Is Taylor Swift a psyop?

31 January 2024 8:38 am

In 2024, right-wingers are facing a doddery, often incoherent Democratic president, an even more incoherent VP (who doesn’t have the…

What happened to QAnon?

27 June 2023 12:30 pm

“There’s a storm coming,” popular historian turned esoteric political commentator Neil Oliver posted on Twitter in May, “Maybe not today.…

In defense of Twitter

20 November 2022 2:11 pm

Twitter probably isn’t going anywhere. Major platforms don’t just vanish, after all. If we’re not still posting in 2023, then…

The New York subway shooter’s private hell

17 April 2022 4:00 pm

A common theme among America’s spree killers is a fondness for rambling online. Isla Vista shooter Elliot Rodger griped about…

The Ukraine war is not a video game

10 April 2022 5:30 pm

In a typically baffling column in the New York Times, Thomas L. Friedman has said that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine…

‘West Elm Caleb’ and the vindictiveness of a social media feeding frenzy

23 January 2022 7:06 pm

The saga of ‘West Elm Caleb’ will make you wish that you had never used the internet. It will make…

The Capitol riot transformed right-wing activism in America

6 January 2022 10:21 pm

The invasion of Capitol Hill on January 6, 2021 represented the rise and fall of pro-Trump anti-governmental activism in a…

Are Bored Apes racist?

5 January 2022 9:20 pm

A plague of apes has spread across social media. Wherever you look, blank simian faces stare back at you. Their…

Jimmy Carr's anti-vaxxer joke isn't funny

3 December 2021 12:49 am

Jimmy Carr was once the smug face of shock comedy. As a stand-up comedian, and a host of various comedy…

Party politics has no place in the Maxwell trial

1 December 2021 11:40 pm

The trial of Ghislaine Maxwell has kicked off in New York and rich and powerful men across America and Europe…

Kid Rock conservatism

23 November 2021 4:24 pm

Kid Rock feels like he emerged from a time capsule left for us in the ’90s, perhaps along with Dunkaroos…

Down the QAnon rabbit hole

8 November 2021 3:40 pm

Lies, in many cases, are comparable to sparks. They might not be very dangerous in and of themselves but under…

capitol

The carnival in the Capitol

8 January 2021 2:39 am

Generally, events that we think are significant will be passed over by historians — much in the same manner as…

great reset

What is the Great Reset?

18 November 2020 4:14 am

The phrase has shot throughout the fringes of Right-Wing Twitter like a virus through a karaoke bar. According to Pauline…

nursing homes

Duty of care: the trouble with America’s nursing homes

10 October 2020 2:51 am

We can debate the value of sacrificing normal life to COVID-19. Personally I think the measures are increasingly destructive —…

zuckerberg

Mark Zuckerberg’s quest for redemption

27 September 2020 1:01 am

Stung by recent criticism, and fearing major regulation, Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, has announced the establishment of…

qanon

Cuckoo Q: are the QAnon crowd as crazy as they seem?

21 August 2020 3:54 am

‘Have you guys been following 4Chan?’ asks Marjorie Taylor Greene in a 2017 video. A mysterious ‘patriot’ named ‘Q’, Greene…

andrew cuomo

In many ways, Andrew Cuomo is just a metaphor

18 August 2020 10:01 pm

With the United States lurching from crisis to crisis, the Democrats want their convention to present them as the tough,…

Two faces of Polish rebellion

14 July 2020 5:18 am

The narrowness of President Andrzej Duda’s victory in this weekend’s Polish presidential elections, where he defeated Rafał Trzaskowski, the Mayor…

Kanye West and the uncancellables

8 July 2020 1:47 am

For better or worse, the rapper, producer and sneaker salesman Kanye West is almost certainly not running for president, as…

canceled cancel culture

Conservatives talk about cancel culture too much

20 June 2020 3:29 am

If you are on the right I suspect you have heard leftists saying something like this: ‘Thousands of people are…

America’s riots could be contagious

2 June 2020 2:44 am

It’s kind of amazing. For weeks we have been arguing about the minute details of viral transmission. Can you be…

dirtbag

The Democratic civil war has been a long time coming

4 March 2020 3:07 am

Bernie Sanders has had an unlikely ally during the 2020 Democratic nomination race: Donald Trump. The president has repeatedly insisted…

joe rogan

Why aren’t leftists happy Joe Rogan endorsed Bernie?

25 January 2020 6:36 am

As a twenty-something man who spends excessive amounts of time on the internet I have of course watched countless hours…

bernie bros

My evening with the Bernie Bros

17 January 2020 7:10 am

The stench of beer and cheap deodorant filled the bar in which the ‘Bernie Bros’ were meeting. The scene looked…