An American Tale
How Cold War officialdom made the world safe for propaganda
Baffler Archives: Salvos
Columns
I Saw Satan
Breaking away from a Boomer Christian cult
A Different Class
Behind the policing of culturalized class authenticity is a deep and worsening contradiction at the heart of Anglo-American politics on the right.
The Century of Spin
Edward Bernays spun the much-maligned practice of propaganda into modern, softer-sounding public relations.
Beggar’s Opera
One side effect of a career as a do-gooding headset jockey is that it will probably make you really, really hate liberals.
Critique of Pure Niceness
Philosophers have been keen to set themselves up as defenders of civility.
Consolation Prizes
The White House Council of Economic Advisers can officially report that we live in the best of all possible economic arrangements.
The Whitest News You Know
We need a far more profound conception of white supremacy and how the mainstream press has always been complicit in it.
After the Storm
We are in thrall to the fetish of progress: the belief that history has a direction and a purpose.
Who, the People?
Who counts as the people, and how can that definition be revised and updated in shifting historical circumstances?
Known Assailants
Unless you’re here, living in this particular blue-collar, working-class world, it’s hard to see the fault lines . . .
Nothing Before Us
Assurances of progress alternate with threats of catastrophe; promises of improvement are answered by warnings of decline.