Liberal Currents
@liberalcurrents.com
A community of mere liberals. Discussing, defending, and applying the many varieties of liberalism. liberalcurrents.com
"It’s this frictionless element of modern betting that is perhaps the most nefarious aspect of all. And it is something that addiction experts see as a fatal flaw. And gambling companies marry that ease of use to the shiny tricks of social media like Facebook and Instagram." (from February)
From Pill Mills to Prop Bets: Prediction Markets and Mobile Sports Betting Apps Are Fueling America’s Next Addiction Crisis
Against the gamblification of the world.
liberalcurrents.com
"Institutional knowledge walks out the door constantly, as projects become dependent on people who are not meant to stay. Many capable researchers eventually leave not because they lack talent but rather because they realize that the bargain on offer is quite literally a pyramid scheme."
Seeing Like a Gardener: A New Framework for the Public Funding of Science
Chapter 11 (pp. 84–91) from The Reconstruction Papers.
liberalcurrents.com
"This is not a time for forgiveness, for looking solely towards the future. That path was tried before, by the Obama and Biden administrations, and following it has contributed to the present environment of lawless government and populist discontent." www.liberalcurrents.com/on-the-pract...
On the Practical Case for a Book of Grudges
If we're going to set this right, a comprehensive list is needed.
liberalcurrents.com
All In with Chris Hayes@allinwithchris.bsky.social · 13h agoThe White House released new ads promoting Trump—and they’re paid for by the U.S. government. “The whole thing is weird,” says Chris Hayes.
"A future administration will have some obvious decisions to make. But if all that happens is restoring the status quo, we will have wasted an opportunity to rethink the relationship between the US government and science, one that has persisted since the post-World War 2 era."
Seeing Like a Gardener: A New Framework for the Public Funding of Science
Chapter 11 (pp. 84–91) from The Reconstruction Papers.
liberalcurrents.com
"Democrats on net highly support the public ownership and operation of the healthcare and pharmaceutical industry, the electrical grid, rail system, and artificial intelligence." www.liberalcurrents.com/what-are-dem...
What Are Democrats Thinking?
Democratic voters want to end the filibuster, nationalize artificial intelligence, and prosecute every Trump toady.
liberalcurrents.com
i drank a miller high life today. can i get a column in the atlantic now
"What if the connection between reactionary MAGA politics and the sexual abuse of children is deeper than we want to admit?" (from July 2025) www.liberalcurrents.com/we-need-to-t...
We Need to Talk About Pedocon Theory
The connection between Donald Trump and Jeffrey Epstein is no accident, but reveals a deep logic at the heart of reactionary politics.
liberalcurrents.com
Radley Balko@radleybalko.bsky.social · 15h agoWait for it . . .
"Today we are surrounded by a million 'mad prophet' Howard Beales now served up customized and personalized to your exact demographic ideological aesthetic micropreference telling us that they don't know what to do about the depression and the inflation and the Russians and the crime in the street."
“Network” at 50: Now We’re All Mad as Hell
Paddy Chayefsky’s take on television captured the Long 1970s—and anticipated the rise of social media.
liberalcurrents.com
"In Texas when it comes to issues with schools, when it comes to issues with the funding of infrastructure, Republicans make hay of it. But, you know, if you have a memory that goes back a few years, you can go, 'whoa, weren't you guys in charge of this stuff the entire time?'" (from July)
Ken Paxton and the Potential Boogaloo Congressman (Half the Answer #95, with Steven Monacelli)
Ken Paxton isn't the only Looney Toon running for a position in the United States Congress this November. An extremist gun YouTuber is the Republican nominee for a House seat in the district that cont...
liberalcurrents.com
“One should never underestimate the influence that the media has on their audience. Journalists too often assume a posture of powerlessness in order to dodge responsibility for their own choices, and that of their employers. They do have choices. Those choices do matter.”
The Audience Gets a Vote
A media strategy is just that: a strategy, with both strengths and limits.
liberalcurrents.com
On today’s #DogShirtTV, @benjaminwittes.lawfaremedia.org & @hollybfletcher.bsky.social welcome @adamgurri.liberalcurrents.com, cofounder of www.liberalcurrents.com, to discuss defending liberalism as an ideology in the modern world. www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0aH...
Liberal Currents with Adam Gurri
YouTube video by #DogShirtTV
youtube.com
"Even Jim Crow’s regime of vote suppression in the Southern states was always piecemeal, as a result of America’s decentralized federalist system." www.liberalcurrents.com/the-voter-ro...
The Voter Roll Purge That Helped End Trinamool Rule
Are elections more safely run by one accountable body, or by 10,000 uncoordinated ones?
liberalcurrents.com
Great conversation. Dylan is doing the work. We talk about the toll of that towards the end of the episode.
Liberal Currents@liberalcurrents.com · yesterdayOut of the Jaws #12: Independent war journalist and streamer Dylan Burns joins Ryan and Adam to talk about his experience embedding in Ukraine since the early months of the war. "The most transparent battlefield in history" has changed radically since 2022. www.liberalcurrents.com/dont-abandon...
"What sociologist Ulrich Beck called 'the causes of our affliction' became ever more abstract and complex, impersonal and apocalyptic all at once. Pollution, radiation, inflation: invisible killers all. So, what do we do about it? The answer has been the same since the late 1970s."
“Network” at 50: Now We’re All Mad as Hell
Paddy Chayefsky’s take on television captured the Long 1970s—and anticipated the rise of social media.
liberalcurrents.com
"Soaked and bedraggled in a raincoat and pyjamas, steaming rage shouted into a television camera, Finch’s interpretation of Howard Beale—a network news anchor gone around the twist—is as immortal as it is widely misunderstood." www.liberalcurrents.com/network-at-5...
“Network” at 50: Now We’re All Mad as Hell
Paddy Chayefsky’s take on television captured the Long 1970s—and anticipated the rise of social media.
liberalcurrents.com
Out of the Jaws #12: Independent war journalist and streamer Dylan Burns joins Ryan and Adam to talk about his experience embedding in Ukraine since the early months of the war. "The most transparent battlefield in history" has changed radically since 2022. www.liberalcurrents.com/dont-abandon...
Don't Abandon Ukraine (Out of the Jaws #12, with Dylan Burns)
Tactical and technological innovations on the battlefield and the brutal realities of war.
liberalcurrents.com
www.liberalcurrents.com/fascists-rea...
Fascists Really Believe It
Millions could die because of ideas intellectually and morally equivalent to the ‘lizard people’ conspiracy theory.
liberalcurrents.com
Ami Fields-Meyer@fieldsmeyer.com · yesterdayWe were mid-handshake and he pulled me in and grabbed tighter and got upset and raised his voice and said: "What are you talking about man?! Those aren't real people. They're illegal aliens!"
1976's "Network" turns 50 this year. The pitch black satire of television always felt a little over the top, despite its star-studded cast's performances. But then social media came along and validated everything this movie warned us about--and more. We're all mad as hell now.
“Network” at 50: Now We’re All Mad as Hell
Paddy Chayefsky’s take on television captured the Long 1970s—and anticipated the rise of social media.
liberalcurrents.com
“But it’s out of Howard Beale, their venerable “grand old man of news,” who snaps when he’s fired for poor ratings, that Christensen carves her masterpiece. She exploits his outbursts, turning them from cries for help into what we’d now call content.” www.liberalcurrents.com/network-at-5...
“Network” at 50: Now We’re All Mad as Hell
Paddy Chayefsky’s take on television captured the Long 1970s—and anticipated the rise of social media.
liberalcurrents.com
"Chayefsky had a lot to say about television, and he said it with an unflattering, searing bite—and it’s all the more relevant in an age when we each carry a television studio in our pockets and all dream of becoming a hit." www.liberalcurrents.com/network-at-5...
Kyslytsya is correct - the current UN structure makes it incapable of credibly enforcing international law
Security Council Vetoes Must be Reformed to Maintain the UN's Capacity and Legitimacy
The UN has long been held up as a model of international idealism—supporters see it as a possibility to create a better world, while even detractors tend to characterize it as if anything too idealis...
liberalcurrents.com
NOELREPORTS@noelreports.com · 2d agoUkraine’s First Deputy Foreign Minister Serhiy Kyslytsya used the aging UN Conference Room 1 as a metaphor for the institution itself, saying both need fundamental renewal. He argued the UN is no longer a pillar of the world and questioned whether its next Secretary-General could change that.
"What was written off as delusional hysterics in 2016 are now daily headlines a decade later. Defeating our modern-day oppressors may not require a capital-r Revolution against the government, but it does require a revolutionary change to our government." (July 4)
Every Act Which May Define a Tyrant
A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.
liberalcurrents.com
"A huge swath of the administration is strip-mining our country in every way they possibly can. … Congressional Democrats should continue producing official documentation of what is occurring… And any chamber they take in November needs to have its investigative powers used to the hilt." (from July)
Editor's Notes: Trump Is a Crook, and the Concern Trolling Over Fraud Is Beneath Contempt
This administration has gutted the machinery of anti-fraud enforcement and pilfered the country on an unprecedented scale.
liberalcurrents.com
"A future liberal administration will need to juggle a million priorities at once… They also must work to deter future misbehavior by bringing legal consequences upon those within the government who have engaged in naked corruption, and upon the outside firms and individuals who facilitated it."
On the Practical Case for a Book of Grudges
If we're going to set this right, a comprehensive list is needed.
liberalcurrents.com
Elleiana Green@elleianagreen.bsky.social · 2d agoNEW: @iamjmsn.bsky.social artist behind 'Love Me' in Trump's new ad told @politico.com he didn't authorize the White House to use his song. "I am looking for a lawyer now in order to see what our options are and how to proceed," he said.
If you enjoy reading our stuff at Liberal Currents and haven't checked out a podcast, Caitlin and Trent are a big part of what we do, and you have a hundred episodes to binge
Liberal Currents@liberalcurrents.com · 2d agoHalf the Answer #105: Donald Trump appears to be deteriorating…in every way possible. Physically, mentally, internationally, grammatically—somehow, orange man worsening, while word salads, IVs, and naps are great again. Ryan Cooper of the American Prospect helps us think through what it means.
Half the Answer #105: Donald Trump appears to be deteriorating…in every way possible. Physically, mentally, internationally, grammatically—somehow, orange man worsening, while word salads, IVs, and naps are great again. Ryan Cooper of the American Prospect helps us think through what it means.
Orange Man Deteriorating: What It Means for 2026 and 2028 (Half the Answer #105, with Ryan Cooper)
Word salads, IVs, and naps are great again.
liberalcurrents.com
"I call Liberal Currents a community, and we use the word everywhere. In our writings on ourselves, in our description of the Discord server, in conversations about the publication. This is not some marketing tactic: we are a community. We always have been." www.liberalcurrents.com/editors-note...
Editor's Notes: A Labor of Love
To the community that kept me going through it all.
liberalcurrents.com
"Hanania is an early case of the type we will likely face in much greater numbers after Trump is gone. That is, some chunk of the far-right commentariat will try to make safe passage back to mainstream media. We should not let them." www.liberalcurrents.com/richard-hana...
Richard Hanania Doesn't Even Try to Hide His Male Supremacism
Hanania is a reminder of the dangers of rehabilitating extremist intellectuals.
liberalcurrents.com
Some looking back at our roots today for my Editor's Note www.liberalcurrents.com/editors-note...
Editor's Notes: A Labor of Love
To the community that kept me going through it all.
liberalcurrents.com
