Last month I was in the ER, the most vulnerable emotionally that I’ve ever been while putting myself in the hands of a stranger. That the intake doctor had a lanyard heavy with Pride pins mattered. It’s such a tiny gesture, but the amount of safety I felt because of it, during an agonizing moment in my life, was huge.
“On Tuesday, the Democratic National Committee served tacos outside the Republican National Committee’s headquarters—a nod to a trendy new acronym spelling out “Trump always chickens out.” If the point was to push a slogan that works perfectly in one area (tariffs, where the president is constantly ramping up and backing down) and less perfectly in several others (immigration and general authoritarianism, where the president is running roughshod over the rule of law), then perhaps it was mildly successful. Still, the endeavor was most notable because of a comment from Vice President JD Vance: “We have,” he tweeted, “the lamest opposition in American history.” On this—and perhaps this alone—it’s hard to disagree with the vice president. […] America has never needed an effective opposition party as badly as it needs one now; instead we have the most feckless Democratic leaders of the past 100 years.”
“Like, we’re being taught by mainstream culture that getting an English degree is a waste of time, and that thinking about the meaning of stories will not prepare you for life in the world. This, in turn, comes from the assumption that the purpose of a college degree is as a qualification for a middle-class career — rather than a sign that you have learned something that has value in its own right. That you have gained critical thinking skills, of exactly the sort that studying literature would give you. If I were feeling extra snarky, I might point out that critical thinking skills would indeed be a drawback if you’re trying to get a career pumping up the A.I. hype bubble, but never mind.”
