Dave Rubin’s lazy new book
From our US edition
It’s a case study in what not to do
Ben Sixsmith
Wednesday
Sunday
The New York subway shooter’s private hell
A common theme among America’s spree killers is a fondness for rambling online. Isla Vista shooter Elliot Rodger griped about his inability to get a girlfriend. Troy Sesler made videos about anime that grew increasingly dark before he flipped out and killed his family. Randy Stair made numerous sketches and vlogs detailing his fondness for
Sunday
The Ukraine war is not a video game
In a typically baffling column in the New York Times, Thomas L. Friedman has said that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine might represent ‘our first truly world war’ because, among other reasons, ‘virtually everyone on the planet can… observe the fighting at a granular level.’ This is primarily absurd because it implies that being able to
Thursday
The men who want to be castrated
From our US edition
Where does identity end and illness begin?
Saturday
Biden’s Warsaw speech was both baffling and moving
From our US edition
He ended by saying that Putin ‘cannot remain in power’
Thursday
Eating donuts in Poland as the bombs fall
From our US edition
A country waits on edge for more refugees from Ukraine
Sunday
Fifty years of Fear and Loathing
From our US edition
Hunter S. Thompson saw the twenty-first century coming
Monday
Blackpill: inside the incel death cult
From our US edition
An online in-joke becomes real-world terrorism
Sunday
‘West Elm Caleb’ and the vindictiveness of a social media feeding frenzy
The saga of ‘West Elm Caleb’ will make you wish that you had never used the internet. It will make you wish that you had never heard of the internet. It is the sort of thing that would make Ted Kaczynski feel vindicated, if his prison guards forced him to look at social media as
Thursday
The Capitol riot transformed right-wing activism in America
From our US edition
Its criminal implications were deeply significant, of course, but it was also a disaster for the right
Wednesday
Are Bored Apes racist?
A plague of apes has spread across social media. Wherever you look, blank simian faces stare back at you. Their features? Sickening. Their prices? Equally so. The apes have brought in more than $1 billion (£750 million) in sales. Eminem, Mark Cuban and Shaquille O’Neal are just some of the famous names who own an
Monday
Tastings from an energy drink connoisseur
From our US edition
What energy drink, I ask myself, will aid an energetic think?
Thursday
How is the new Gawker so dull?
From our US edition
The original site was a hive of mean-spirited moralists. The new iteration is worse
Thursday
Jimmy Carr's anti-vaxxer joke isn't funny
Jimmy Carr was once the smug face of shock comedy. As a stand-up comedian, and a host of various comedy shows, he used to joke with his trademark poker face about looks, disabilities and sexual violence. The Welsh, the Scots and obese women and children were also targets. When controversy inevitably came, Carr stood his ground. He caused
Wednesday
Party politics has no place in the Maxwell trial
The trial of Ghislaine Maxwell has kicked off in New York and rich and powerful men across America and Europe are doubtless biting their nails and whispering to their lawyers. Ms. Maxwell is on trial on charges of sex trafficking of a minor and sex trafficking conspiracy, but others are being caught in the crossfire.
Monday
Kid Rock conservatism
From our US edition
Can hatred of snowflakes keep him and his fans in the right-wing fold?
Wednesday
The return of Thomas Pynchon?
From our US edition
The mysterious novelist posts on a movie character’s Twitter account — or does he?
Sunday
Down the QAnon rabbit hole
From our US edition
The conspiracy theorists are still around and they have big insights about JFK and the Devil
Tuesday
Hillary Clinton’s new thriller is a paranoid fever dream
You already know that State of Terror, Hillary Clinton’s new novel, written in collaboration with the best-selling author Louise Penny, is going to be awful. You want to why. If the novel is a corpse then let this critic be the coroner. To be fair, State of Terror offers as much literary competence as you
Thursday
Dave Chappelle’s last special is no masterpiece
From our US edition
The comic has developed the irritating habit of emphasizing how transgressive he is being
