IN THE February 8, 2021, ISSUE
Why Americans Adore Conspiracy Theories
For some men, fantasies are dearer than life.
Magazine
Also In This Issue
Articles
Against Conservative Civil War
Populists and establishmentarians need to learn from each other.
The Storming of the Capitol: An Eyewitness Account
2:18 p.m.: Our reporter barricades the door with a couch and some chairs . . .
What to Do about Social-Media Double Standards?
The culture, not Section 230, is our problem.
Features
How We Lose against China
Social media and internal political extremes could undermine the United States.
Books, Arts & Manners
Kevin Williamson’s Prescient Big White Ghetto
A review of Big White Ghetto: Dead Broke, Stone-Cold Stupid, and High on Rage in the Dank Woolly Wilds of the ‘Real America,’ by Kevin D. Williamson.
Wagner: Master of Masters
A review of Wagnerism: Art and Politics in the Shadow of Music, by Alex Ross.
Conservatism’s Contested Tradition
A review of Conservatism: The Fight for a Tradition, by Edmund Fawcett.
A Grammarian Addresses Pandemics
Exploring Noah Webster’s thoughts on plagues.
Promising Young Woman’s Fantastical ‘Me Too’ Vigilantism
Its caricature of sexual relations is so calculated, that you can’t really be all that frightened by the spirit that it represents.
Sections
C’mon, Zingerola!
Before we roll over and submit, we need to figure out whether we’re dealing with purposeful malevolence or good ol’-fashioned human clusterbuggery.
From the Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. Presidential Archives . . .
A letter from Donald J. Trump.
The Least Wonderful Time of the Year
As punishment for my life choices, each awards season I get strafed with reminders that this or that film is being offered ‘for your consideration.’