7 Hard Thoughts on the Russian Invasion of Ukraine: Warning: some of these thoughts are dark and possibly hurtful to those who loved ones may be in danger. Those I hear from in the region report being safe, so far, but the stories from the citizens, colleagues, and the corp…

by Benjamin Peters Written October 25, 2013 Republished February 22, 2022 Michael Gordin, an omnivorous historian of science at Princeton University, is known for many intellectual feats, among them the “Gordin method” of book reviewing. In its mythic telling, it goes something like this. 1. Morning: read the book. 2. Afternoon…

February 21,2022 Today Russia sent more troops and tanks into the separatist regions of Ukraine, an escalation of tactics in play since 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea and sped a decade of separatist violence in eastern Ukraine. In hopes of reframing the mounting tragedy, this late-night essay hurriedly rereads Putin’s…

Big Tech is Weaponized Media: Or Why Social Media, Even After Deplatforming, Still Backs the Trump Insurrection Conspiracists Social Media Companies are Not the Good Guys. They are Not Even “Tech.” (They are, However, Mostly Guys.) …

46 Reasons to Elect Biden the 46th President Drafted in October 2020 Posted after electoral recounts confirm a clear Biden win — Intro: our bipartisan electoral system demands that we vote against the worse candidate by electing the less bad candidate. The choice is that simple if also emotionally costly…

Tl;dr: Things are stressful. Think negatively on purpose. Find peace in working the voting system against Trump. Introduction: I drafted this post almost a season ago in the Summer of 2020, before we knew that Biden would select Harris as VP candidate, before a new Supreme Court Justice would be…

Introduction: I wrote the open letter to my conservative friends quickly back in the Spring, when Trump was threatening to shoot protestors (feels like decades ago). This post kicked off for me a series of public-facing posts during the election season. Since then I’ve learned that, were I to rewrite…

Why “Socialism” is Not the Argument You Are Looking For: American Capitalism and Socialism is a Both/And, not an Either/Or. Accusations of “socialism” are particularly popular right now. Here’s why everyone needs to calm down and think: bank accounts, bond market, public works, corporate law, and much else. Starting with…

30 Tips on Using Media from a Media Scholar: August 13, 2020 Ad Fontes chart on media bias from 2017 (deliberately out of date*) Here are a few best practices and tips on how to consume the news. Tl;dr: Pay for your local newspaper before you pay (in money or…