Daily Bafflements

• Pankaj Mishra writes about the new angry world we live in, in which old liberal dichotomies no longer make sense. Quoting Tocqueville, he argues that “people liberated from old hierarchies ‘want equality in freedom, and, if they cannot get it, they still want it in slavery.’”

• Teen Vogue’s latest piece of good political coverage is entitled “Donald Trump is Gaslighting America,” and it’s worth reading:

Trump won the Presidency by gas light. His rise to power has awakened a force of bigotry by condoning and encouraging hatred, but also by normalizing deception. Civil rights are now on trial, though before we can fight to reassert the march toward equality, we must regain control of the truth. If that seems melodramatic, I would encourage you to dump a bucket of ice over your head while listening to “Duel of the Fates.”

“At times of turmoil, your brain plays tricks on you,” Laurie Penny wrote in her postelection warning about the Trumpian war of nerves.

• Baffler contributor Tom Geoghegan has some tips for things we can do under the electoral college to blunt its effect.