American Doom

Next week, Donald Trump will be inaugurated as president. The ensuing months and years will bring much chaos and catastrophe. I say that not to scare you but because it’s the truth. Much of the legacy media continues to fail to meet this fraught moment by acting as if this is politics as usual — American life as usual. (See these many examples as well as the general turmoil at the Washington Post....

A week from today, Donald Trump will be inaugurated as president. The ensuing months and years will bring much chaos and catastrophe. I say that not to scare you but because it’s the truth. Much of the legacy media continues to fail to meet this fraught moment by acting as if this is politics as usual — American life as usual. (See these many examples as well as the general turmoil at the Washingt...

Note: I’m out this morning with a very in-depth look at Mother Jones at how election deniers took over Georgia in the last four years. That story has gone live as I am typing this, and I’m incredibly proud of it so I hope you take the time to read it. It’s the culmination of three years’ worth of non-stop work covering the election denial movement in Georgia and elsewhere. It wouldn’t be possible...

Yo. Today I’m in Luke O’Neill’s Hell World with a reflection on the election denier madness I’ve seen over the last four years. You can read it here and support Luke’s work by subscribing to his killer newsletter. Fun fact: I’ve been writing for Luke off and on longer than any other publication I’ve written for. The Internet can still be fun! Also just a reminder that tomorrow night I’ll be hostin...

Today, I’m pleased to share a conversation on that I had recently with DeRay McKesson, one of the young civil rights leaders who was on the ground in Ferguson in the wake of Michael Brown’s death. Since then, DeRay has gone on to become a best-selling author and political force for racial justice among many of his other successes. While we’ve disagreed on some things over the years — primarily wha...

Today on the American Doom podcast I’m speaking with Katie Paul of the Tech Transparency Project (TTP). Katie has been looking into militia groups online over the past four years, and she’s found a lot of right-wing clamoring for political violence — some of which has ramped up in recent months as platforms like Facebook have taken their hands off the reins of content moderation.  Her work is a tr...

My guest today on the American Doom podcast is Steven Monacelli, a writer and journalist in Texas who focuses on right-wing extremism there. Steven and I first met in May of 2021 when I travelled back to Dallas — where I lived for a couple of years while covering immigration and the border — to attend a QAnon conference . The event was actually called, quite ridiculously, the “For God & Country Pa...

Dalton Mattus was arrested a little more than two weeks ago for possessing a pair of handmade pipe bombs. Police found more at his home. What hasn’t been reported in the local press is that Mattus posted prolifically about every right-wing, anti-government conspiracy imaginable. He is a symbol both of the online radicalization toward right-wing extremism that pervades the United States, and the th...

Last week I wrote about the wars to come , in which I describe what I think will be the natural — and possibly violent! — right-wing reaction to recent campus protests. That prediction, if you want to call it that, is based on my experience covering unrest over the last decade. Throughout much of that time, I was in conflict scenarios writing and reporting for my longtime editor, Justin Miller. Mu...

It’s a big day here at American Doom, where I’m excited to share the first episode of the podcast version of this newsletter. Today, I’m speaking with my old pal Alex Wroblewski, a photojournalist who I first worked with back in 2014. We did a story together for VICE back then, and since then have crossed paths at protests and riots across the country. He’ll be covering Trump’s rally in Wisconsin...

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This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.american-doom.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.american-doom.com/subscribe

This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.american-doom.com/subscribe