In my second year working for the Prospect, I once again had the opportunity to report on many eclectic subjects. I traveled to Finland to investigate their enormous grocery store co-op, wrote about Elon Musk’s sundry disasters, and explored how the American people are processing the economy of 2023.
“The Cooperative That Could”
Once again, just like my article last year about the Faroe Islands’ tax system, I partnered with People’s Policy Project to travel to a Nordic country and report on its unusual institutions. This time, I went to Finland and wrote about their giant cooperative S Group, which accounts for 47 percent of the Finnish grocery market. It turns out that cooperative enterprises can sometimes beat capitalist ones at their own game, even they don’t have megalomaniac billionaire CEOs.
“The Occupation Is Eating Israeli Democracy”
In this March article, I covered the massive protests against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s plan to end the independence of that country’s judiciary so as to stymie his own trial for corruption and cement himself in power. Referencing the history of apartheid South Africa, I argued that his appalling corruption and incompetence is just the kind of governance produced by apartheid institutions. That later turned out to be much more true than I had supposed.
“Israel’s Strategic Calamity”
The reporting since the October 7 attacks in Israel has confirmed that they easily could have been prevented. The Netanyahu government had detailed intelligence about the attacks, yet the possibility it was true was disregarded; meanwhile, much of IDF had been redeployed from around Gaza to the West Bank to protect violent, feral settlers whose representatives in the Knesset are key members of Netanyahu’s coalition. Yet rather than come to grips with that failure, his government started a war of revenge on Gaza that has killed civilians by the tens of thousands, created a rising risk of regional war, and has even started to alienate Israel’s most important ally, the U.S.
“Elon Musk Shows How Oligarchy Poisons the Speech Commons”
When Elon Musk bought Twitter, he promised that he was going to preserve free speech. In truth, he has banned journalists and critics willy-nilly, and restored the accounts of innumerable white supremacists and conspiracy theorists. That, together with his replacement of the verification badge system with an “I paid Elon Musk eight dollars” badge, has turned Twitter into an absolute cesspool of misinformation, gutter racism, and abuse. Perhaps it should not be possible for one guy to accumulate hundreds of billions of dollars.
“The Cybertruck Is the Dumbest Thing I’ve Ever Seen”
This year, the first Cybertruck deliveries happened, more than four years after it was initially announced. It took so long because of Elon Musk’s decision to make the body panels out of stainless steel, which not only was pointless and expensive, but also allowed the other car manufacturers to beat Tesla to market with their own electric trucks. Great work all around from a true business titan.
“Tesla Faces Off Against Nordic Labor Solidarity”
For several years now, Tesla’s auto mechanics union in Sweden has been trying to get the company to agree to a collective-bargaining agreement, which is a standard part of the labor system in that country. This October, the union gave up and started a strike, which inspired sympathy strikes across the whole Swedish economy, and subsequently spread to Norway, Denmark, and Finland.
“The Death Cult of the American Car”
American traffic deaths are soaring relative to our peers in rich nations. The reason is obvious: “There are too many cars and trucks that are too heavy and tall, driving too fast on streets that are too wide, with too many points of conflict.”
“The Useful Idiots Fueling the Right-Wing Transphobia Panic”
The last couple of years have seen a full-blown moral panic over children supposedly being bum-rushed into irreversible gender surgery, assisted by many center-left journalists and publications, especially The New York Times. There’s just one problem: All the terrifying anecdotes being spread around are not remotely true.
“Why the Full Employment Created by Bidenomics Should Be Celebrated”
The past year has seen serious economic disruptions in many areas. Inflation was high for some time, interest rates are up, and housing costs are higher than they’ve been in many years. But the extremely low unemployment created by President Biden’s American Rescue Plan has been hugely beneficial, especially for unions and workers at the bottom of the income ladder who need help the most.
“Republicans Want to Ban All Abortions, Even if It Kills Mothers”
Conservative states that banned abortion after the Dobbs decision sometimes included exceptions in cases of rape, incest, or to protect the health of the mother. Recent events proved that those exceptions are almost entirely fraudulent. A Texas woman named Kate Cox, whose fetus turned out to have a fatal and dangerous abnormality, sued in an attempt to get legal permission to get necessary care. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton and the Texas Supreme Court said no. The implication is clear: If a woman has a fatally dangerous pregnancy, both the fetus and the woman should die.
“Does COVID-19 Damage the Immune System?”
A persistent cohort of critics have claimed that any infection of COVID-19 does harm to one’s immune system, and some have even argued it’s like a form of airborne HIV. I spoke with some experts who informed me that this is not true, and while a small minority of severe COVID cases can cause lingering immune system dysfunction, this is not at all unique to that virus.
