“The Algorithm” Does Not Exist
Giovanni Medalla Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.In 2009, when Facebook changed its newsfeed significantly for the first time, there wasn’t much uproar over “the algorithm.” Now we’re all talking about it—whatever “it” is. The algorithm and its ramifications have been the focus of…
The Mirage of “Middle Class”
Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.In June, Democratic advisers began circulating the usual warning: The party needed to change its message. As the Washington Post explained, focus group testing had shown that the slogan of “‘economic fairness’ was a loser.” Instead, Democrats should talk…
Anarcho-Tyranny: How the New Right Explains Itself
Rafa Goicoechea Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.The same day Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg charged Daniel Penny with manslaughter for choking to death Jordan Neely—a homeless man who’d been acting in a way Penny perceived as threatening—Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) recorded a podcast.…
The Word That Makes Brutal Budgets Sound “Truly Evil”
Triboro Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.The cuts have come even for the word itself. “Austerity” is a cornerstone of conservatism—a catch-all term for limiting government spending to promote capitalist growth—and yet the expression seems to have disappeared from deficit hawks’ speeches. “I call…
“Suicide by Cop”: How Police Present Killings as Unavoidable
Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.American police speak in a peculiar lexicon. When an officer guns somebody down, it is an “officer-involved shooting.” When a department spokesperson speaks of “the use of force,” police violence is reduced to basic physics. “Fatality” dulls a plainer…
Dog Whistle or Just Racist?
Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.Republican strategist Lee Atwater is the godfather of the modern political dog whistle. He didn’t go around calling it that—I can’t actually find any evidence that he even used the term—but in a 1981 interview about how the GOP won…
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