r/IfBooksCouldKill

The supposedly Abundance political movement has translated into cuts for affordable housing, less money to serve homeless youth and AIDS patients - it's killing people.

What the hell is in that Ezra Klein book?

begging for the michael-peter bump-set-spike

an absolutely asinine take from today’s nyt: apparently, we are not that politically polarized because all of us experience ordinary human loss, awwwww. mercifully, i have been preparing for just such idiocy via a rigorous training program of listening to michael & peter take on bret stephens, pamela paul, bari weiss, david brooks, and now the wapo. thanks, fellas!😘

also, i used a sports metaphor in the title as an homage to peter, but i also don’t actually sports, in homage to michael.

>"in every way, the DSA of 2026 is a better organization than the one I joined in 2007. But my real worry is one that’s almost the opposite of the one Chait has. He is afraid the old democratic socialism is being strangled by a cabal of ultraleftists. My fear runs the other way. The likeliest outcome of electing this many socialists is not a lurch into authoritarian communism, but a new wave of reformers who govern competently, who create some good jobs and enshrine health care as a right, but who have no path to, or even desire for, a society free of capitalist exploitation and domination."

Published on the last day of pride month ffs. A few choice paragraphs:

>But the capaciousness that makes “queer” appealing to some also makes the term remarkably easy for anybody — regardless of orientation — to adopt as a kind of radical chic identity label. Because the word “queer” can describe any departure from social norms, it becomes an open door through which almost anyone can walk. Polyamorous? Queer. Vaguely uncomfortable with gender expectations? Possibly queer, too.

>That elasticity has helped fuel a sharp rise in young people identifying as something other than straight, even if they are unlikely to ever pursue a same-sex relationship. Some of this increase represents people who were previously closeted but are now free to be honest about their sexual orientation, which is a welcome development. But the broader trend of casting the queer net ever wider has muddled a once-clear public message about who gay people are. Being gay begins to look less like an inborn trait and more like a chosen ideology or aesthetic.

>Subsuming the fixed reality of gayness under the much more malleable banner of queerness undermines a core premise behind gay rights: that sexual orientation isn’t chosen. And polling suggests that premise is, indeed, being weakened; the share of Americans who believe people are born gay has declined over the past decade.

Oh yes for sure, let's blame queer kids for the erosion of support for gay rights. It's definitely the fault of teenagers and not the work of reactionary political movements who have been organizing and agitating for years. Makes total sense

In April, Olivia Nuzzi and Vice founder Shane Smith found themselves crossing paths at an intimateWest Hollywood gathering hosted by MAHAblogger Jessica Reed Kraus, also known as HouseInHabit. The event, co-hosted by Substack, celebrated journalist Jay Beecher, whose controversial book challenges the prevailing narrative surrounding Ghislaine Maxwell’s role in Jeffrey Epstein’s crimes. The guest list, curated by Kraus, featured an eccentric mix of media figures. As Kraus later wrote, “A reporter on the phone the next day noted that most in attendance had endured some form of cancellation themselves.”
Later that evening, Nuzzi, Smith, Kraus, and other guests decamped to Chateau Marmont, the storied Hollywood hotel where the Los Angeles elite often gather. It was there that Nuzzi was spotted with Smith. While Nuzzi has largely remained out of the spotlight over the past year, she hasn't exactly shied away from LA's most visible social scenes.