Ben Burgis is a Jacobin columnist, an adjunct philosophy professor at Rutgers University, and the host of the YouTube show and podcast Give Them An Argument. He’s the author of several books, most recently Christopher Hitchens: What He Got Right, How He Went Wrong, and Why He Still Matters.
Socialist philosopher G. A. Cohen was a brilliant thinker who subjected Marxism to the same scrutiny he would any other ideology. If you want to see Marxism at its most nondogmatic and precise, you should read G. A. Cohen.
The new magazine Compact claims to fight for a “strong social democratic state” that also defends “familial and religious” community against “libertine” corruption. That combination of right-wing morals and left-wing economics is never going to happen — and it shouldn’t.
A growing chorus of voices is calling for Joe Biden to establish a no-fly zone — an action that would risk the future of human civilization.
By viciously attacking transgender kids and their families, Texas governor Greg Abbott and his conservative admirers have proven that they’re talking nonsense when they claim to care about shielding families from the overreach of government bureaucrats.
Last night, Joe Biden sounded like he was about to declare World War III. He won’t, thankfully — but he also won’t do much for working people.
Instead of celebrating Stephen Breyer’s retirement, we should be weakening the Supreme Court’s power. Popular majorities should determine the course of our society — not nine unelected lawyers.
When socialists talk about creating a more equal society, we don’t mean a society where everyone has an exactly equal share of everything. We mean a society where power has been equalized by extending democracy into the economy.
Right-wingers oppose social programs like Medicare for All on the grounds that they create “powerful new bureaucracies.” But it’s means-tested benefits, not universal programs, that empower bureaucrats to act like petty tyrants.
Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes is a living embodiment of what’s wrong with the Silicon Valley venture capital sinkhole. But we can’t get too mad at her for defrauding some of the worst rich people in the world.
Conservatives and libertarians love to cite studies ranking different countries’ levels of “economic freedom” as evidence for the glories of capitalism. There’s just one problem: the rankings are nonsense.
California governor Gavin Newsom ran for office promising to pursue racial justice. But his stance on two recent bills shows that his anti-racism is pure rhetorical posturing.
Once again, Senate Democrats are allowing a nonbinding ruling by the Senate parliamentarian to torpedo their agenda. Could the Dems be any more pathetic?
HBO has a new documentary about Barack Obama. It’s so devoid of politics that a viewer just learning about Obama would have no idea he escalated the war in Afghanistan and presided over eight years of rising economic inequality.
Some hawkish pundits are asking why must America leave Afghanistan when it has a permanent military presence at over 700 military bases around the world. They’re accidentally suggesting a good point: America should leave Afghanistan, and those 700 bases should go, too.
The idea that the United States should have stayed in Afghanistan to stop it from falling to the Taliban is dangerously misguided. But there is one thing the US can and should do: admit every single Afghan refugee.
Recent battles over eviction moratoriums and homeless encampments have shown the depressing limits of our political horizons. We need to envision a radically different system that guarantees everyone the right to decent, stable housing.
Centrist pundits and politicians are cheering the new bipartisan infrastructure bill, even though it slashes a range of vital spending programs contained in the original. We don’t need continued fetishization of bipartisanship — we need measures that actually aid the working-class majority.
There are few summertime activities more essential than trips to the beach. But huge swaths of waterfront throughout the country are private property, off-limits to the public. This is a crime: all beaches should be public.
As protests break out in Cuba, some politicians are calling for US intervention. That would be a disaster. The best thing the United States can do to help the Cuban people is lift its brutal, inhumane embargo.
Pedro Castillo is the next president of Peru. His election was a repudiation of neoliberalism and right-wing authoritarianism — and it could signal a permanent sea change in Peruvian politics.