Tom Nichols

Humiliating and dangerous: Trump has now finally just made America an ally of the Kremlin and is aiding Putin in his war against an American friend and partner. Shameful betrayal of a US friend, and pathetic submission to a US enemy. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/1...

Well, as long as there's a good reason

Endless excuses that are not really that good, tbh. I grew up in a time when people worked all day, too, and amazingly, the olds voted back then, and the youngs did not. "My irregular school schedule!" is not a thing.

My favorite political ad of all time and it's not even close

Hey - don't tell anyone which party I supported. That's been a closely guarded secret, one I've never shared here

I keep saying it

Young people don't vote, you see, because conservatives have taken over schools and media and stuff (like, since the early 70s?) Some of you need history lessons - and anger management counseling or something

Not that persuasively, apparently

She voted for "more tuna"

I also voted early this year. First time in my life.

When I was young and Republican, protests (especially about nuclear weapons) were, to me, non-events, because I knew that the no-nukes folks could get 300,000 people into Central Park; I also knew that it would mean jack-squat at the polls. I hope that this year, they mean something.

I did not intend to take anything away from the student protesters in Serbia - who were brave...and *organized.* But far more important is that the protests were accompanied by grassroots organizing and *voting in large numbers* Brazil, Hungary, Poland, Serbia... Voting, in a coalition. #Lessons

Yes, and that's the other part of it: Protests are effective ways to raise awareness, but then (as Serbia and Hungary show) you have to follow it up with organizing and voting. Marching isn't enough. In this country, we valorize protest - but don't do the other stuff. (I hope this year, I'm wrong.)

In other countries, there’s a very strong relationship between public protests and voting. My exasperation is that it doesn’t seem to carry through here, especially among the young.

The protests aren’t what brought him down. The voting is what did it.

I’ll try to do better because I really want to do the work, and I’ll catch up

But the ones that always get called violent are the ones that are, you know....violent. Saying that some people apply it to all protests doesn't mean that all protests are non-violent.

Yes! This is why one wall of my office is just this riot of 1960s/70s comic book color. When I was younger, I had Very Serious Things on my wall (including a Soviet print of the portrait of MV Frunze). At this age, it's Iron Man and Supes and Gojira

I just saw Project Hail Mary recently. It's really, really good. Intelligent and fun science fiction, a great popcorn movie.

My favorite 21st century Hans Zimmer piece might be the finale to Man of Steel. But pull up Crimson Tide and listen to how he integrates the Navy hymn, "Eternal Father Strong to Save" into the music

I knew a man (Silent Generation, I think) whose maxim was "never thank someone for your pay." I think saying thank you on payday is a nice ritual, but I like the thinking behind that maxim: You don't thank people for fulfilling a basic contract. (I just like being polite, believe it or not)

When the shitshow that is our 21st century politics gets you down, I recommend watching "Darkest Hour" and realizing that everyone has the opportunity to choose what's right - and most of us can do it without facing the existential threat faced by Sir Winston.

Heh. "Meaningful work" to me is like the phrase "work-life balance." That's something my parents wouldn't even have been able to parse. I took my shot at a job that gave me control over my time, but even I don't really use that phrase either.

I think over the past 100 years or so, people have conflated "what the market will pay" with "appropriate and right" I agree that capitalism has no innate moral content. But I think it's been sold to people that way. (And again, I am an ardent capitalist. I just have no illusions about it, either.)

My choice here was "Darkest Hour": www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...

These riots are about the bored nihilism of young men, mostly, not about education www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/1...

These are my toes

You have the right to be questioned by an officer at least one rank superior

True. But I think over time, people have tried to rationalize capitalism as somehow a moral good in a way that someone like Adam Smith would never have tried to do. (I say this as an ardent but hopefully clear eyed capitalist)

BENT COPPERS.

Someone trying to convert @radiofreetom.bsky.social in their post presidency to the fam club 🤣🤣🤣

Well, the world needs ditchdiggers too, son

The biggest lie of capitalism is that it is efficient and justly rewards people for their labor and efforts

An actual 1969 original that I bought at an auction

I am honored

Speaking of dorky, I hung up my very cool illustration from the Atlantic art department for my MTV and nuclear war article that featured Reagan, the Soviets and a bunch of 80s pop stars

You all dragged me into arguing, but you did not stop my redecoration project

Aaaaaand we've reached the crazy portion of the evening. "It's meaningful but not personally rewarding" is not the point. No job is just randomly moving things around like the workers in the Fritz Lang movie Metropolis, but "meaningful" has a human context to it.

Listen, I like @besttrousers.bsky.social, he's just an irredeemable Bolshevik who must be deported to Sweden, even if he's not from there

When I hear "dropped out," I assume permanence. The article authors did not add "for a short period." The context in the piece points to "dropping out," "missing from the economy," etc, as a chronic problem, not a blip. Matt and I now disagree about basic word meanings, and there we must leave it.

The ability to wreck your life by betting on your phone is bad. We're gonna argue about *this*, too?

This reminds of something a doctor once told me about why drug companies say you should only take something for 6 weeks: Because that's only how long the drug was tested. "This measure is only for men who haven't looked for work in 28 days," as if they started looking again on day ...29?

So, just to be clear, when an article says men have "dropped out of the workforce", we are supposed to add (in our heads) "for 28 days", and then ignore paragraph after paragraph about drugs, screens, women entering in their place, etc, and reject both the plain meaning and context that follows.

Okay, so two experts are ringing the alarm bells - at considerable length in a magazine - because of some transitory unemployment among men who are willing to work and are really only out of the game for 28 days