"Blame the Screens"

"Moving online created a parallel universe that bore some relationship to the physically experienced world, but in other cases could exist completely orthogonally to it. While previously 'truth' was imperfectly certified by institutions like scientific journals, traditional media with standards of journalist accountability, courts and legal discovery, educational institutions and research organizations, the standard for truth began to gravitate instead to the number of likes and shares a particular post got. The large tech platforms pursuing their own commercial self-interest created an ecosystem that rewarded sensationalism and disruptive content, and their recommendation algorithms, again acting in the interest of profit-maximization, guided people to sources that never would have been taken seriously in earlier times. Moreover, the speed with which memes and low-quality content could travel increased dramatically, as well as the reach of any particular piece of information. Previously, a major newspaper or magazine could reach perhaps a million readers, usually in a single geographic area; today, an individual influencer can reach hundreds of millions of followers without regard to geography."

Francis Fukuyama at Persuasion argues that "is the one factor that stands above the others as the chief explanation of our current problems."

September 2025 Acquisitions

Books:

Caine, Hard Core Logo, .

Glynn, Quadrophenia, .

Harris, World Film Locations San Francisco, .

Holland, Introducing Literary Theory, .

Katz and , Rock and Roll Explorer Guide to San Francisco, .

Bill Morrison, The Beatles Yellow Submarine, 2018.

Sim, Introducing Critical Theory, .

Tilley, Disneyland Is Your Land, .

Tyler, My Little Golden Book About San Francisco, .

Wardlow's Perspectives on Nutrition, .

Music:

Curtis Harding, Departures & Arrivals: Adventures of Captain Curt, 2025.

Stereolab, Instant Holograms on Metal Film, 2025.

Neil Young, Talkin to the Trees, 2025.

Various, DIY--Do It Yourself: Punk, Post Punk, Punk Funk & Beyond: The Rise of the Independent Music Industry, 2007.

Various, K-Pop Demon Hunters, 2025.

Various, New Wave for the Next Generation, 2003.

Various, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, 1975.

Various, Under the Influence: Ian Brown, 2003.

The Return of History

"I think that there was excess state regulation and state interference in economies that had developed by the 1970s. And so, you had politicians like Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher that tried to roll back some of that regulation. They were supported in this by very prominent economists, like Milton Friedman. The problem was that [they] went too far and attempted to undermine all forms of state activity, even necessary ones, for example, of regulating the financial system. And as a result, we ended up with a globalization that increased inequality and led to substantial instability in the global financial system. And this, of course, provoked a populist backlash that you see both on the left and the right, which partially explains why we are where we are today."

In a 2022 El Pais article, Sergio C. Fanjul interviews Francis Fukuyama.

"It's Worth Reconsidering"

"Some of these old standards will feel alien to zoomers and alphas. In his 2022 book The Nineties, the critic Chuck Klosterman explores the decade's hostility towards 'selling out,' which he calls “the single most nineties aspect of the nineties'. Selling out involved a respected artist deciding to make work that was more 'palatable' and therefore more commercially viable. By 2010, says Klosterman, 'it was hard to illustrate to a young person why this act was once seen as problematic; by 2020 it was difficult to explain what the term literally expressed'."

Rachel Aroesti at The Guardian calls for a return of "cultural snobbery."

"A New Generation of Democrats Needs to Recapture This Same Spirit"

"Democrats need to move away from the language of equity, which implies that it would be acceptable to close the racial gaps in health or education by helping members of the disadvantaged racial groups improve while denying any help to lower-income whites. Obama understood this reality instinctively, as he made clear in his 'A More Perfect Union' speech. He called on all Americans to 'realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.' Like the 44th president did, today's Democrats must talk along these lines regularly and weave these concepts into their communication about all kinds of issues, not just on special occasions."

Ian Reifowitz at The Liberal Patriot writes about "How Democrats Lost Obama's Vision of American Identity."

While Bridget Bowman, Ryan Nobles and Frank Thorp V at NBC News write that "Bernie Sanders makes his next moves to reshape the Democratic Party."

"Destruction Is So Much Easier Than Construction"

"Hysterical hyperbole? I would love to think so. But during seven weeks in the US this summer, I was shaken every day by the speed and executive brutality of President Trump's assault on what had seemed settled norms of US democracy and by the desperate weakness of resistance to that assault. There's a growing body of international evidence to suggest that once a liberal democracy has been eroded, it’s very difficult to restore it."

At The Guardian, Timothy Garton Ash writes that "Americans have 400 days to save their democracy."

"But the Crucial Difference Is at the Top"

"Different rules apply. After an act of violence, Democrats must be gracious, empathetic and call for calm on all sides, while Republicans can mock the victims, blame only one side and demand more violence. And there's a further asymmetry: a single post from a random, anonymous user online will be treated as a statement from 'the left', while the outpourings of the right's most powerful voices, in politics or the media, and including the president himself, somehow get a free pass."

Jonathan Freedland at The Guardian writes that "[t]he US is on the brink of another era of political violence–and Donald Trump 'couldn't care less.'"

"The United States Has Entered a New Era of State Capitalism"

"The real question is no longer whether the state will act, but whose interests it will serve. Will it merely prop up incumbents and invite capture? Or can public ownership and golden shares be harnessed for resilience and equity? If progressives don't seize this moment to define a democratic, public-minded industrial policy, they will find themselves living in one designed by the Trump administration."

Todd Tucker at The New Republic tells Democrats, "Don't Let Trump Define What State Capitalism Can Be."

"The First Step, Which Is Often the Hardest, Is to Get Our Thinking Straight"

"The vast majority of us are global consumers and, at least indirectly, global investors. In these roles we should strive for the best deals possible. That is how we participate in the global market economy. But those private benefits usually have social costs. And for those of us living in democracies, it is imperative to remember that we are also citizens who have it in our power to reduce these social costs, making the true price of the goods and services we purchase as low as possible. We can accomplish this larger feat only if we take our roles as citizens seriously."

Back in a 2009 Foreign Policy article, Robert B. Reich describes "[h]ow Capitalism Is Killing Democracy."

August 2025 Acquisitions

Books:

Horace Clarence Boyer and Lloyd Yearwood, The Golden Age of Gospel, 2000.

Kevin Starr, Material Dreams: Southern California Through the 1920s, 1991.

Music:

Chairmen of the Board, The Best of Chairmen of the Board, 2002.

Chi-Lites, The Best of the Chi-Lites, 2007.

Dr. Feelgood, Down by the Jetty, 1975, 2025.

Aretha Franklin, Live at Fillmore West, 1971.

Franz Ferdinand, The Human Fear, 2025.

Randy Newman, The Natural, 1984.

Wet Leg, Moisterizer, 2025.

"'A Lot Has Changed in the Past Ten to Fifteen Years'"

"Other moral panics in recent history—around comic books, Satanism, and marijuana, for instance—fell by the wayside after they became so unhinged that reasonable people turned away.  But the Sensitivity Era appears far from over. The unavoidable takeaway from Szetela's sharply-etched and powerfully argued book is that left-wing illiberalism has been institutionalized. It's already deeply entrenched in schools, libraries, literary agencies, and publishing houses."

John McMillan at The Dispatch reviews Adam Szetela's That Book Is Dangerous! How Moral Panic, Social Media, and the Culture Wars Are Remaking Publishing.

"It's Nice to Hear Someone Do Something Different"

"The real reason that indie started to die, or at least felt as though it did, is Spotify. As streaming supplanted downloads and album sales, it automated music discovery. Instead of reading Pitchfork or asking a record-store clerk for recommendations, more and more people began to let algorithms suggest their next obsession. This had a variety of consequences. One is that it's become harder than ever for challenging music—music that you need to listen to a few times in order to love—to gain a foothold. The prestige associated with doing something different has started to fade."

Spencer Kornhaber at The Atlantic reviews Chris DeVille's Such Great Heights: The Complete History of the Indie Rock Explosion.

"'We Have Gone From Zero to Hungary Faster Than I Ever Imagined'"

"There's something else, too. Trump's dictator-like behaviour is so brazen, so blatant, that paradoxically, we discount it. It's like being woken in the night by a burglar wearing a striped shirt and carrying a bag marked 'Swag': we would assume it was a joke or a stunt or otherwise unreal, rather than a genuine danger. So it is with Trump. We cannot quite believe what we are seeing."

Jonathan Freedland at The Guardian states that "the US is entering full authoritarian mode."

"'The Past Is the Key of the Present and the Mirror of the Future'"

"Today, the writing and teaching of history has been drawn into the vortex of the culture wars. Why is history so controversial? The French historian Ernest Renan had an answer. Historical analysis, he famously wrote in the late 19th century, has always been linked to broader ideas about the nation-state. National consciousness, or at least the sense of unity and patriotic pride that accompanies nation-building, he argued, rests in part on historical mythology. Indeed, Renan wrote, because 'historical error' plays a significant role in the creation of a national consciousness, advances in the field of history—including the replacement of myth by accurate accounts of the past—are often seen as 'a threat to the nation.'"

Eric Foner at The Nation writes that "[h]eated controversy over what history books students and interested adults should encounter has a long history."

"More Prolific Than Even the Hollywood Studios in Their Golden Age Peak"

"The strange paradox of the streaming era is that as the quest to personalise entertainment has continued, entertainment itself is becoming steadily more impersonal. The user, and the fantasy of unlimited choice, is king. The auteur, and singularity of perspective, are now subordinate–and the tsunami of AI threatens to wash them away completely."

Phil Hoad at The Guardian asks, "what has the Netflix algorithm done to our films?"

"The Broader Threat Posed by Right-Wing Authoritarianism"

"With the rise of right-wing populism and neofascism, the crisis has become acute. Neofascism sees the trade union movement as its enemy while at the same time trying to appeal to the working class who make up labor's membership. However, to win over this base, the far right is harkening back to previous pseudo pro-worker appeals by embracing racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic politics that can present as being in the interest of everyday working people."

At In These Times, Bill Fletcher, Jr., concludes that "[t]rade unionism must either be anti-fascist, or it will be nothing at all."

While Carl Davidson at ZNetwork calls for a "Third Reconstruction."

And Dustin Guastella at Damage blames the "MANGO class."

"The Role of a Humanist Is to Preserve Knowledge, Safeguard Learning From the Market and the Tides of Popular Interest, and Ward Off Coarse Appeals to Economic Utility"

"Depending on whom I asked, the move to scale back humanities doctoral programs is either a prudent acknowledgment of the cratered job market for tenure-track professorships and a wise attempt to protect the university's humanities division from looming financial and political risks, or it is a cynical effort, under cover of the Trump administration's assaults, to transfer resources away from 'impractical,' unprofitable, and largely jobless fields (such as, say, comparative literature) and toward areas that the university's senior leadership seems to care about (such as, say, STEM and 'innovation'). One faculty member I spoke with mentioned a consulting firm that was brought on to help Chicago as it considers changes to its humanities division, including possibly consolidating the departments from 15 down to eight. Many professors worried that the move to impose uneven changes—reducing admissions in some while halting them in others—may be an attempt to create circumstances that will ultimately make it easier to dissolve the paused programs. 'Let no good crisis go unleveraged,' Holly Shissler, an associate professor in the Middle Eastern Studies department, said with a dark laugh. 'You engineer a situation in which there are no students, and then you turn around and say, "Why are we supporting all these departments and faculty when they have no students?"'"

Tyler Austin Harper at The Atlantic asks, "If the University of Chicago Won't Defend the Humanities, Who Will?"

Demeritocracy

"If we sort people only by superior intelligence, we're sorting people by a quality few possess; we’re inevitably creating a stratified, elitist society. We want a society run by people who are smart, yes, but who are also wise, perceptive, curious, caring, resilient, and committed to the common good. If we can figure out how to select for people's motivation to grow and learn across their whole lifespan, then we are sorting people by a quality that is more democratically distributed, a quality that people can control and develop, and we will end up with a fairer and more mobile society."

In a 2024 Atlantic article, David Brooks writes about "How the Ivy League Broke America."

While at The Hill, Jenna Robinson argues that "[i]t's well past time to bring back standardized testing" in college admissions.

"'I Was in Paradise'"

"For Telegraph's record stores, too, the road has been rocky. The shops have faced a procession of existential threats (eBay, MP3s, Napster, Amazon, Spotify—the list goes on), and many have shuttered. Yet, somehow, Amoeba and Rasputin have weathered it all. The latter celebrated its 50th anniversary last year. The two shops share something in common: a commitment to vinyl, the medium that refuses to die."

In a 2022 California article, Coby McDonald tells the story of Berkeley's record stores.

"The Revisionist Narrative Also Has the Potential to Become a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy"

"If people are convinced that public-health measures don't work in the first place, they will be less likely to follow them, which, in turn, will render them even less effective. This dynamic could even undermine the one measure that the non-right-wing COVID revisionists generally support: vaccines. After all, if people are convinced that the public-health establishment is full of lying ideologues, why make an exception for vaccines? Unchecked COVID revisionism, in trying to correct the errors of the last pandemic, might leave us even less prepared for the next one."

Rogé Karma at The Atlantic gives a warning about the next pandemic.