Two articles exploring the impact of cancel culture and group think on democratic discourse and on the press: “Mob Justice Is Trampling Democratic Discourse” by Anne Applebaum in The Atlantic, and “The Problem With Media” by Ross Barkan. I’m going to come back to these two articles, but let me just pull out some quotes right now.

Barkan writes,

But there is an underlying irony to the current reckoning around race and the new rush to instill anti-racist teachings in newsrooms. Today’s newspapers are more likely than at any point in recent history to be staffed with the children of elites.

And on the death of local news, he says:

Today’s 28-year-old living in an exurb doesn’t understand how much coverage of a town meeting, a county executive’s office, or a public school they would’ve read 20 or 30 years ago. They merely see nothing and learn to live with it. 

And from Anne Applebaum:

Right here in America, right now, it is possible to meet people who have lost everything—jobs, money, friends, colleagues—after violating no laws, and sometimes no workplace rules either. Instead, they have broken (or are accused of having broken) social codes having to do with race, sex, personal behavior, or even acceptable humor, which may not have existed five years ago or maybe five months ago. 

Some teachers’ union leaders are trying to push the line that it didn’t matter that kids didn’t learn to read or do math last year, because they learned RESILIENCY!

Some entrepreneurial types made $$ when life went online last year.

Picture: I’m a sucker for the Colonial Caribbean decor. It’s all pink and green with dark wooden furniture. And big fat ceramic lamps. This was the lobby of our resort.

Food: I make chicken thighs on a sheet pan about once a week. Usually, I just put some spice rub on it, a pad of butter, and roast at 425, but I also do more complicated versions of it with vegetables. This looks good.

Watching: The Chair, Titans, And on Thursday, What We Do in the Shadows. Success is coming out soon, too.