‘Conservatives have elevated the figures on the right who held the wrongest and nuttiest positions’
Jonathan Chait at The Atlantic
“The recent fifth anniversary of the onset of the coronavirus pandemic put the difference between the contemporary right and left on stark display,” says Jonathan Chait. While “liberals have engaged in searching self-reflection” on “school closings, the lab-leak hypothesis [and] the political aftereffects,” the “Covid experience has been transformed into a positive talking point for Republicans, a development nobody expected back when Americans were dying by the thousands and Trump was brainstorming weird medical ideas live from the White House.”
‘They aren’t aspirational, they’re cautionary tales’
Felipe Patterson at Newsweek
Why can’t we look away from HBO’s “The White Lotus”? The show “isn’t just a critique of the rich. It’s a mirror to our own complicated relationship with them,” says Felipe Patterson. “We remain obsessed with the lifestyles and scandals of the elite.” But in a world “where economic disparity is growing and the rich seem more untouchable than ever,” the series “offers a way to process our collective frustration. It’s voyeuristic, cathartic and uncomfortable.”
‘Workplace wellness isn’t what most companies think it is’
Patricia Grabarek and Katina Sawyer at Time
“Across industries, burnout and disengagement have become the defining crises of the modern workforce,” say industrial-organizational psychologists Patricia Grabarek and Katina Sawyer. So how is it possible to keep employees “well, energized, and productive”? If “organizations want to boost engagement and performance, they need to stop focusing on quick-fix wellness programs and start investing in better leadership,” say Grabarek and Sawyer. “The most impactful strategies” of successful leaders: “vulnerability and authenticity.”
‘Trump is running a mafia state’
Jeet Heer at The Nation
Atlantic editor Jeffrey Goldberg revealed that he was mistakenly admitted into a Signal group chat “where high-ranking officials of the Trump administration planned a military attack on Yemen,” says Jeet Heer. But “wars are not meant to be planned on group chats.” The chat “offers a remarkable window into the inner workings of the Trump administration,” and the security breach is “one of the biggest intelligence fiascos in American history.”