In a review of Thomas Chatterton Williams's new book, Matt Johnson explores how the conflagration of 2020 can help us explain—and overcome—America’s present malaise. persuasion.community/p/what-2020-me…

Part of the game is that you get some reviews in which you have to wonder if the reviewer read the book or was even willing to read it. But then there reviews like this one, in which the reader is so sensitive to the book’s concerns that it really restores your faith in the whole

The problem with Rufoism -- empowering Trump to inflict a "ladder of pain" (Rufo's words) on universities until they bend to his will -- is that it's dictatorial, oblivious to the principle that we have a government of laws and not men. It's based on the fallacy that "if an

These senators had every last shred of information they needed to know that Kennedy’s confirmation would be a disaster for American health. They chose to placate Trump. Suddenly they’re finding their courage when it’s too late. Absolutely pathetic and contemptible.

The humiliating failure of Trump’s Ukraine policy in a single sentence

A view from orbit on September 11, 2001. A day of unimaginable loss. We will always remember.

Summer of Our Discontent - Ce qu’a signifié l’été 2020 selon Thomas Chatterton Williams contreligne.eu/2025/09/usa-su… via Contreligne

Hey, remember when Trump had to be shamed into lowering flags for John McCain? I do

These people are acting like complete fucking lunatics

NEW from Quillette Narrated: Matt Johnson on George Orwell, Henry Miller and the seamy side of life. Read by the mellifluous William Laing 🇦🇺 🇮🇱🇦🇺. 🎧 quillette.com/2020/10/08/geo…

It was terrific fun supplying the audio track for this. I’d known less about Henry Miller than about Orwell; man, what divergent worldviews. I’m glad they got on well in spite of it all. That corduroy jacket of Miller’s as a contribution to the war is an image that will stay…

AIPAC is a powerful *American* organization mainly because millions of Americans genuinely support Israel. You can be critical of Israel without deliberately missing this basic point, which I discussed in Quillette last year quillette.com/2024/05/29/the…

"The elegies for the liberal international order—increasingly fashionable over the past decade—are premature," writes Matt Johnson for Quillette. quillette.com/2025/09/29/the…

"......but it will need to be reimagined in the post-Trump era." Matt Johnson quillette.com/2025/09/29/the…

American citizens aren’t raw material for military training, you psychopath

Watching this Fox News bozo boast about extrajudicial killings on social media is one of the more surreal moments in a mind-bendingly surreal era