Visiting assistant professor of public policy and liberal studies at Wesleyan University, and editor and publisher of the Editorial Board

Politics

Censorship Is Now so Broadly Defined as to Mean Anyone Disagreeing with Me Is Censoring Me

Free speech and counter-speech are not “cancel culture”

July 26, 2021 • by John Stoehr

_____ Newspapers and magazines and any kind of media in printed form have always, and I mean always, reserved the right to publish or not publish whatever they feel like publishing or not publishing for whatever reason—even just because. I come from printed stuff. This belief is baked into me. When ...

Censorship Is Now so Broadly Defined as to Mean Anyone Disagreeing with Me Is Censoring Me

Columnists

How Do We Solve a Problem Like ‘Vaccine Skeptics’? Stop Respecting Their Excuses for Bad Behavior

We’ve tried respect. It didn’t work

July 21, 2021 • by John Stoehr

_____ Henry Enten used to be a very fine writer for FiveThirtyEight before he became a talking head for CNN. I don’t hold that against him, though. He’s a number-cruncher. In this day and age, we need number-crunchers. And we need them to do more than crunch numbers. We need them ...

How Do We Solve a Problem Like ‘Vaccine Skeptics’? Stop Respecting Their Excuses for Bad Behavior

Columnists

Facts About the Covid Vaccinations Are Totally Political, Because All Facts Are Totally Political

We need a new consensus

July 14, 2021 • by John Stoehr

_____ As you know, Dr. Anthony Fauci is the White House chief pandemic advisor. He appeared on the Sunday morning talk shows as part of the administration’s renewed effort to achieve its goal of vaccinating 70 percent of the US population. But his appearance seemed to do more than that. It ...

Facts About the Covid Vaccinations Are Totally Political, Because All Facts Are Totally Political

Columnists

The Very Serious Debate Club

On Josh Barro and his ilk

July 7, 2021 • by John Stoehr

_____ Josh Barro is a columnist for Business Insider. He’s a member of what I’ll call the Very Serious Debate Club. The VSDC constitutes, and I’m guessing here, probably half of the pundit corps in this country. These are men, and they are usually men but not always, who don’t have ...

Columnists

Does Being a Billionaire Mean Being a Liar?

ProPublica has tax returns suggesting an answer

June 30, 2021 • by John Stoehr

_____ ProPublica is doing the Lord’s work. Specifically, investigative reporters Jesse Eisinger, Jeff Ernsthausen, and Paul Kiel are doing it. Two weeks ago, the nonprofit news group published the first in a planned series of pieces revealing, in exquisite detail, the moral character of the very obscenely rich. The series will ...

Does Being a Billionaire Mean Being a Liar?

Columnists

Conservative Democrats are Telling Stories About Republicans that Republicans Keep Blowing Up

Will being made a fool change Joe Manchin’s mind? Probably

June 22, 2021 • by John Stoehr

_____ The Democrats in the United States Senate will take up a procedural vote later today to debate of a handful of measures to overhaul the country’s voting laws. All eyes are on Joe Manchin, the conservative Democrat from West Virginia, who has offered his own voting proposal in addition to ...

Conservative Democrats are Telling Stories About Republicans that Republicans Keep Blowing Up

Columnists

How the Press Corps Severs Public Debate from the Constraints of History, Creating Space for Real Harm

To illustrate, let me draw your attention to a local story

June 14, 2021 • by John Stoehr

_____ It’s a pain in the ass, but if you dig down deep enough and for long enough, you’ll probably find at the root of any mainstream debate over “culture war” issues some kind of misrepresentation, distortion, falsehood, or lie. So much of what counts as “debate” begins and ends with ...

How the Press Corps Severs Public Debate from the Constraints of History, Creating Space for Real Harm

Columnists

The Business PACs Are Back in Business

Surprise! One-party rule might be profitable

June 8, 2021 • by John Stoehr

_____ Roll Call reported political action committees (PACs) have restarted making contributions to members of the United States Congress. This includes the 147 Republicans who voted against certifying Electoral College votes after the militant storming of the United States Capitol. Cash to both parties mostly stopped in the weeks after the ...

Columnists

No, It’s not Shocking that QAnon Believers Long for a Military coup. For Them, This Is the End Times

There are millions of Americans for whom hate is their faith

June 2, 2021 • by John Stoehr

_____ Donie O’Sullivan is a reporter for CNN. His beat appears to be American conspiracy theories. He was on Anderson Cooper’s show last night with reporting on a QAnon conference last weekend during which former Donald Trump adviser and pardoned traitor Michael Flynn said a Myanmar-style military coup “should happen” in ...

No, It’s not Shocking that QAnon Believers Long for a Military coup. For Them, This Is the End Times

Columnists

Let’s Call the Republican Party by its Proper Name—Fascist

A word that gets the side eye from main stream commentators should be part of the conversation

May 25, 2021 • by John Stoehr

_____ Journalist John Harwood had a piece in CNN Sunday reflecting on an essay published in 2012 that accurately predicted the coming of today’s GOP. “Let’s just say it: the Republicans are the problem” was written by Thomas Mann, who was at the time with the Brookings Institution, along with Norm ...

Let’s Call the Republican Party by its Proper Name—Fascist

Columnists

There’s Just One Reason to Oppose a Bipartisan Commission to Investigate the 1/6 Insurgency

Are the House Republicans afraid of what it will find?

May 19, 2021 • by John Stoehr

_____ Imagine if, after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, the Republicans in the United States House of Representatives said let’s move on. The United States Congress need not investigate. Other agencies are already doing that work. There’s no sense in duplicating efforts. There’s no sense in being counterproductive. Anyway, ...

There’s Just One Reason to Oppose a Bipartisan Commission to Investigate the 1/6 Insurgency

Politics

Liz Cheney Is Right Where She Needs to Be

The patriots among us are getting woke

May 12, 2021 • by John Stoehr

_____ It’s done. The Republicans in the United States House of Representatives voted this morning to oust Wyoming Congresswoman Liz Cheney as chairwoman of the House GOP conference. I’ve been writing obliquely about this pending vote, as I’ve been trying to make other points. But let me be plain. Ousting one ...

John Stoehr

Censorship Is Now so Broadly Defined as to Mean Anyone Disagreeing with Me Is Censoring Me

Free speech and counter-speech are not “cancel culture”

How Do We Solve a Problem Like ‘Vaccine Skeptics’? Stop Respecting Their Excuses for Bad Behavior

We’ve tried respect. It didn’t work

Facts About the Covid Vaccinations Are Totally Political, Because All Facts Are Totally Political

We need a new consensus

The Very Serious Debate Club

On Josh Barro and his ilk

Does Being a Billionaire Mean Being a Liar?

ProPublica has tax returns suggesting an answer

Conservative Democrats are Telling Stories About Republicans that Republicans Keep Blowing Up

Will being made a fool change Joe Manchin’s mind? Probably

How the Press Corps Severs Public Debate from the Constraints of History, Creating Space for Real Harm

To illustrate, let me draw your attention to a local story

The Business PACs Are Back in Business

Surprise! One-party rule might be profitable

No, It’s not Shocking that QAnon Believers Long for a Military coup. For Them, This Is the End Times

There are millions of Americans for whom hate is their faith

Let’s Call the Republican Party by its Proper Name—Fascist

A word that gets the side eye from main stream commentators should be part of the conversation

There’s Just One Reason to Oppose a Bipartisan Commission to Investigate the 1/6 Insurgency

Are the House Republicans afraid of what it will find?

Liz Cheney Is Right Where She Needs to Be

The patriots among us are getting woke

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