Breathing Room is not Liberation On Sunday, Hungarian voters turned out in record numbers, the highest since free elections began in 1990, and handed Péter Magyar’s Tisza Party 138 of 199 parliamentary seats.[1] Viktor Orbán conceded by nightfall. The celebrations along the Danube were immediate, the international reaction
The countries cracking down hardest on trans people are not Western European social democracies. They are Russia, Hungary, Georgia, and Turkey. The American press got the comparison wrong, and the consequences are measured in increasing authoritarian consolidation in the US. There is a narrative that the American press has been
The United States Is Conducting a Campaign of Social Murder Against Transgender People If you dig into the replies on social media, especially on X, of any post by or about a transgender person, you will often find a number, “41%.” Sometimes it comes with a smirking emoji or a
In 2015, state legislatures across the United States considered 75 anti-LGBTQ bills, of which 27 targeted gender identity.1 In 2025, that total reached 1,059—with 851 of the current-session bills targeting gender identity.2 That is a more than fourteen-fold increase in total anti-LGBTQ legislation and a thirty-one-fold
The Strait of Hormuz crisis may permanently change the world for a generation. Sometime in the last three weeks, we passed through a door we are not going back through. Most people haven’t realized it yet. The groceries still show up. The lights still turn on. The commute seems
Like clockwork, the New York Times has published another guest essay urging Democrats to abandon their most vulnerable constituencies in pursuit of voters who will never vote for them. This time it is Matthew Yglesias, the aptlynamed Slow Boring blogger and self-appointed strategist of the center-left, arguing that Democrats must
How the Supreme Court and the Federal Judiciary Built a Dual State for Trans Erasure On May 6, 2025, the Supreme Court of the United States lifted a nationwide injunction blocking the Trump administration from discharging every openly transgender service member in the United States military.[1] The Court issued
An Independent publication countering the current authoritarian moment
On Alderson Loops, Billionaire Cruelty, and Living Inside the Trap “Pessimism of the intellect, optimism of the will.” — Antonio Gramsci, Prison Notebooks[1] I. The Loop In computer science, there is a structure called an Alderson loop.[2] It is a program that appears to have an exit condition—a
We live in a truly sick and ailing society, where people’s brains have been rotted out into soulless husks viewing everything through the lens of online content, crypto scams, and gambling. The murder yesterday of Renee Good in Minneapolis underscored this seedy underbelly of societal decay into pure moral
Grokipedia, the copycat of Wikipedia launched by Elon Musk isn’t just a string of AI generated slop, it is a weapon. The launch of "grokipedia" is a calculated, strategic escalation by the billionaire oligarch class to seize control of knowledge production itself and with that, control of
Benito Antonio Martínez Ocasio—Bad Bunny, nuestro Benito—is headlining the Super Bowl Halftime Show in February. For so many of us in the Puerto Rican diaspora, the feeling was just... puro orgullo. Pure, overwhelming pride. This wasn't just about a pop star getting a big gig. This
Yesterday, Trump signed the National Security Presidential Memorandum 7 (NSPM-7). If you’ve read the text of it, you’re probably scared. That’s the point. The document is a masterclass in intimidation, dressed up in the language of national security. It talks of "domestic terrorism" and "
In the middle of World War II, the jurist Ernst Fraenkel established a political pathology he termed the "dual state" to describe the legal structure of fascist states. Fraenkel argued that within the same national borders, two distinct legal and political orders could operate simultaneously. The first, the
Thanks to advances in AI, we are no longer allowed to truly die. The peace of the grave and the finality that defines the human condition are all being sacrificed on the altar of artificial intelligence. We are normalizing digital necromancy, a grotesque spectacle where the dead are reanimated as
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the spectacular and predictable implosion of Elon Musk’s “anti-woke” AI, Grok.[1] When prompted to be “politically incorrect,” Grok did not become a witty contrarian; it became “MechaHitler,” spouting antisemitic bile at a rapid pace. I argued then that this was not
The American information space is undergoing a hostile takeover. It is a deliberate, coordinated campaign by a new class of oligarchs out of Silicon Valley that includes Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Larry Ellison, and Mark Zuckerberg acting in concert with a Trump-led authoritarian political project. Their goal is singular: to
The uprising of 2020 didn't just challenge the systemic racism of American policing; they terrified the oligarchs of Silicon Valley. For Marc Andreessen, the billionaire venture capitalist, the sight of organized resistance, both in the streets and within the cubicles of his own industry, was an existential threat.
The moment Elon Musk’s AI, Grok, began praising Adolf Hitler was not a bug or a glitch. It was a moment of perfect, unadulterated clarity. When Grok declared itself “MechaHitler” and spouted antisemitic tropes, it was not malfunctioning; it was executing its core directive with chilling efficiency.[1] The
Seemingly not content with the US v. Skrmetti decision issued by the court siding with Tennessee to ban gender affirming care for trans youth, the New York Times was ready to pour salt on the fresh wound of the trans community and kick them in the teeth for good measure.