joshuago’s politics Bookmarks

Voting because Michael Moore told you to vote is really not going to do anybody any good. Voting divorced from education is a deadly mix.

News can no longer be (only) about the mass update. Stories need to be targeted to those who might be able to improve the situation. And journalism’s products — which are more than its stories — must be designed to facilitate this.

We find ourselves in a moment at which the freedoms our forefathers intended for us are endangered by the very government meant to secure those freedoms.

Homeownership contributed to the hollowing out of cities and kept renters out of the best neighborhoods. It fed America's overuse of energy and oil. It made it more difficult for those who had lost a job to find another. Perhaps worst of all, it helped us become casually self-deceiving: by telling ourselves that homeownership was a pathway to wealth and stable communities and better test scores, we avoided dealing with these formidable issues head-on.

Every era has its heresies, and if you don't get imprisoned for them you will at least get in enough trouble that it becomes a complete distraction.

Our culture places less emphasis on the need to struggle against one’s own mental feebleness.

The first America tends to make the finer-sounding speeches, and the second America often strikes cruder, more xenophobic notes. But both understandings of this country have real wisdom to offer, and both have been necessary to the American experiment’s success.

Change that is too arbitrary and too frequent petrifies firms, especially before their rules have been tested in the courts.

Of course, the U.S. is unique. And just as we have the world’s most advanced economy, military, and technology, we also have its most advanced oligarchy.

In times like these, deficit spending to pump up the economy doesn’t make consumers feel more confident; it makes them feel more insecure because they see a political system out of control.