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The Super Bowl Is an Economic Indicator [Derek Thompson, The Atlantic]

By Spencer Chen
In [The Atlantic]
February 12, 2023
559 views
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• The Super Bowl is a useful measure of which firms and sectors believe themselves to be the future of the economy, and can be used to detect bubbles.
• In 2000, 14 dot-com companies bought ad time in the Super Bowl, but the dot-com bubble had popped the next year.
• Last year, a cluster of crypto companies ran ads during the Super Bowl, but since then, crypto-asset values have crashed and several crypto firms have gone bankrupt.
• This year’s Super Bowl is going to feel a lot like 2019 or 2020, with Anheuser-Busch leading all firms with three minutes of airtime and other alcohol brands, M&M’s, Doritos, movie studios, and automakers also in.
• The yo-yo nature of the pandemic economy has caused many economic activities to go up and down, including gas prices, shipping costs, durable goods, savings rates, housing investment, and tech employment.
• The crypto bubble reflected in last year’s Super Bowl is a microcosm of the U.S. economy, and although the 2023 Super Bowl clearly represents a return to the old normal, the bursting of the crypto bubbles may presage the rise of a new digital economy.

Published February 12, 2023
Visit The Atlantic to read Derek Thompson’s original post The Super Bowl Is an Economic Indicator

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Can Giorgia Meloni Govern Italy? [Rachel Donadio, The Atlantic]

By Spencer Chen
In [The Atlantic]
February 12, 2023
608 views
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• Giorgia Meloni is the first far-right leader in Italy since World War II and the first woman to lead the country.
• She has been a professional politician since she was a teenager and has built her politics around appeals to traditional national identity.
• Her government has tried to impede humanitarian ships’ ability to dock at the closest Italian ports after rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean.
• Meloni has a conspiratorial bent and rails against globalization, political correctness, and cancel culture.
• She has positioned herself as the voice of a middle class that feels left behind by elites and has pushed symbolic issues such as using fewer English and French terms.
• She draws inspiration from the French thinker Renaud Camus’s “Great Replacement” theory, which posits that nonwhite and non-Christian immigrants will eventually supersede white Europeans.
• Meloni’s rise to power was enabled by Silvio Berlusconi, who gave mainstream respectability to conservatives like her.
• Her party, Brothers of Italy, is rooted in postwar incarnations of the fascist movement and has a flame representing the spirit of fascism in its symbol.
• Giorgia Meloni is an Italian neo-nationalist politician who has been gaining popularity in recent years.
• She is the leader of the Brothers of Italy party and is the current president of the European Conservatives and Reformists.
• Meloni is known for her hardline stance on immigration and her opposition to the “citizens’ income”, a monthly subsidy for unemployed people.
• She has drawn inspiration from fantasy fiction, such as The Neverending Story and The Lord of the Rings, to find new heroes for a conservative cultural identity.
• Meloni has been criticized for her close ties to far-right European parties, such as Poland’s Law and Justice party and Spain’s Vox party.
• Despite her harsh rhetoric, Meloni’s party is to the left of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders in its support for a welfare state.
• Meloni is currently managing her two junior coalition partners, Berlusconi and Salvini, who both crave the spotlight and envy Meloni.
• Meloni has been criticized for her dismissive terms towards her political opponents, and for appointing archconservative and anti-abortion/anti-gay-marriage figures to prominent positions.
• Meloni’s program is largely defensive, and she has proposed harsh prison terms for people who organize illegal raves, and has adamantly pursued defamation suits against journalists.
• Critics fear that Meloni’s leadership could lead to an “illiberal democracy” and the shrinking of public space for adversaries.
• Meloni has requested more support from the EU to share the burden of contending with migrants, but her greatest obstacle may be the inertia of Rome’s bureaucracy.

Published February 12, 2023
Visit The Atlantic to read Rachel Donadio’s original post Can Giorgia Meloni Govern Italy?

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America Has Gone Too Far in Legalizing Vice [Matthew Loftus, The Atlantic]

By Spencer Chen
In [The Atlantic]
February 11, 2023
514 views
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• The National Council on Problem Gambling has taken the stance that gambling addiction is the fault of the individual, allowing state lawmakers to ignore arguments that more access to gambling might make it easier for people to lose control.
• Since the Supreme Court struck down previous restrictions on sports betting in 2018, 36 states have legalized it, and new ballot initiatives are proposed every year.
• When arguments are made for loosening the government’s restrictions on vice, proponents usually emphasize how the responsible use of the vice might alleviate pain or address the worst excesses of the War on Drugs.
• This way of seeing the world overlooks the fact that our hearts and minds are shaped not only by reason but also by our experiences, affections, and habits, which are just as often inexplicably self-destructive as they are reasonable.
• Electronic slot machines are designed to get players addicted, and sports-betting companies have enticed colleges and universities to allow them to promote their products on campus.
• Marijuana legalization has contributed to a rise in opioid-related deaths, and higher-potency products are more dangerous.
• The industries that profit off addiction want to frame the question of access around “responsible use” and occasionally suggest that some people might have a genetic predisposition to addiction.
• We should make it as difficult as possible to access things that impair our ability to make good decisions, and policy plays a role in shaping the environment so that we can develop our virtues.
• Some judicious restrictions are better for everyone: Gambling should take place in casinos, not on smartphones, and marijuana should

Published February 11, 2023
Visit The Atlantic to read Matthew Loftus’s original post America Has Gone Too Far in Legalizing Vice

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The Maryland Politician Who Is Arguing for a Four-Day Workweek [Caroline Mimbs Nyce, The Atlantic]

By Spencer Chen
In [The Atlantic]
February 11, 2023
569 views
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• Maryland State Capitol building is the only state capitol to have served as the nation’s capital.
• Maryland lawmaker Vaughn Stewart has proposed a four-day workweek bill to create a five-year experiment with $750,000 in tax credits for Maryland businesses.
• Stewart believes that the four-day workweek is the future and is connected to the original American dream of increased productivity and less work.
• The bill is supported by 92% of Americans and has attracted more attention than any of Stewart’s other bills.
• The bill is not without criticism, with some libertarians arguing that the state should not meddle in private businesses.
• Stewart believes that the bill is necessary to improve the quality of life for Marylanders and that it is not a large expense in the grand scheme of the state budget.

Published February 11, 2023
Visit The Atlantic to read Caroline Mimbs Nyce’s original post The Maryland Politician Who Is Arguing for a Four-Day Workweek

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The Quiet Desperation of Tom Brady [Mark Leibovich, The Atlantic]

By Spencer Chen
In [The Atlantic]
February 11, 2023
620 views
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• Tom Brady recently retired from the NFL after 23 years of playing.
• Scott Stossel reflects on a conversation he had with Brady a few years ago, where he asked if Brady ever worried that too much of his life was consumed by football.
• Brady’s father, Tom Brady Sr., worries about how his son will cope without the structure, mission, and intensity of football.
• Brady’s extreme commitment to football obscured the desperation behind his decision to keep playing.
• The physical and psychological aftermath of football is well-documented, and many players have suffered after retirement.
• Brady’s retirement announcement video was praised as gracious and heartfelt, but Stossel was struck by the waterless and overcast tableau of the video.

Published February 11, 2023
Visit The Atlantic to read Mark Leibovich’s original post The Quiet Desperation of Tom Brady

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Society Tells Me to Celebrate My Disability. What If I Don’t Want To? [Emil Sands, The Atlantic]

By Spencer Chen
In [The Atlantic]
February 11, 2023
654 views
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• Emil Sands has a form of cerebral palsy called hemiplegia, which affects one side of the body.
• As a child, Emil had a noticeable limp and needed help in class. He had a personal classroom assistant, Yulia, who massaged his foot each morning to relax his muscles.
• At age 12, Emil was called a “disabled cunt” by his lifelong best friend.
• Emil had an operation on his Achilles tendon to mitigate his limp.
• In secondary school, Emil had to do a twice-daily therapy program of swimming, stretching, and working with weights.
• In the changing room, Emil longed for a different body, as puberty had made him fat and his “Bad Side” remained a perpetual disappointment.
• He was envious of the other swimmers’ bodies and felt like he could never measure up.
• He stopped swimming and developed psychosomatic symptoms, which he believes were connected to the pool.
• He swapped his swims for more time in the gym and more stretching.
• He also began to spend his lunchtimes in the art studios, where he created a portfolio and was inspired by his art teacher.
• He now goes to the gym every day, but is wary of people noticing his disability.
• He is still grappling with the ways he has been made to feel that his body does not belong.

Published February 11, 2023
Visit The Atlantic to read Emil Sands’s original post Society Tells Me to Celebrate My Disability. What If I Don’t Want To?

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TGIF: Real Housewives of the SOTU [Nellie Bowles, The Free Press]

By Spencer Chen
In [The Free Press]
February 10, 2023
593 views
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• Jamie Reed, a whistleblower, exposed the “morally and medically appalling” treatment of transitioning children at the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital.
• Sen. Josh Hawley and Missouri’s Attorney General Andrew Bailey launched investigations in response to Reed’s piece.
• President Biden delivered a State of the Union address, during which Marjorie Taylor Greene heckled him.
• Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is attempting to seize control of Disney’s Reedy Creek Improvement District.
• Atomwaffen founder was arrested for plotting to attack the power grid outside Baltimore.
• Kamala Harris is struggling to gain support from her own party.
• Don Lemon is having public breakdowns.
• John Fetterman was hospitalized.
• James O’Keefe was reportedly suspended from Project Veritas.
• The New York Times published a puff piece on Kamala Harris that went horribly wrong.
• Jews are still being talked about, with Joe Rogan making an antisemitic comment.
• Salman Rushdie is back with a new book and a new face.
• Dr. Fauci is now charging $100,000 per speech.

Published February 10, 2023
Visit The Free Press to read Nellie Bowles’s original post TGIF: Real Housewives of the SOTU

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DEI Is an Ideological Test [Graeme Wood, The Atlantic]

By Spencer Chen
In [The Atlantic]
February 10, 2023
630 views
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• Politics is everywhere, and has been for a long time.
• Christopher F. Rufo, a conservative polemicist, has been appointed to the board of New College, a public liberal-arts school, and has vowed to rid the place of leftist excesses.
• Many universities ask faculty applicants to write a statement of commitment to an extreme form of diversity, equity, and inclusion, which is known as “anti-racism”.
• Rufo has vowed to eliminate oaths to such doctrines and to replace the DEI office with a much smaller office of color blindness.
• Justice William O. Douglas argued that the state should not contract the spectrum of available knowledge.
• Critics have accused Rufo of trying to turn New College into a space of extremist indoctrination.
• Rufo has argued that universities’ embrace of DEI follows what the activist and sociologist Rudi Dutschke called the “long march through the institutions”.
• Rufo is a political appointee interfering politically in a highly political environment, and his initiative could go badly for him and for his governor.

Published February 10, 2023
Visit The Atlantic to read Graeme Wood’s original post DEI Is an Ideological Test

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Jalen Hurts and Patrick Mahomes Had to Disprove a Misconception [Jemele Hill, The Atlantic]

By Spencer Chen
In [The Atlantic]
February 10, 2023
581 views
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• Sunday’s Super Bowl LVII will be the first time two Black quarterbacks face each other in the championship game.
• The NFL banned Black players from 1934-1946, and even after reintegrating, the prevailing assumption was that Black athletes weren’t intelligent enough to play quarterback.
• Marlin Briscoe was the first Black quarterback in the modern era, but he was given little playing time and eventually asked to be released.
• Warren Moon was the first Black quarterback in the NFL Hall of Fame, but he had to go to the Canadian Football League before the NFL sought him out.
• Today’s Black quarterbacks still face stereotypes and double standards, such as the Arizona Cardinals initially putting a “homework clause” in Kyler Murray’s contract extension.

Published February 10, 2023
Visit The Atlantic to read Jemele Hill’s original post Jalen Hurts and Patrick Mahomes Had to Disprove a Misconception

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The Catch-24 of Replacing Joe Biden [David A. Graham, The Atlantic]

By Spencer Chen
In [The Atlantic]
February 10, 2023
607 views
T

• Joe Biden is likely to run for president again in 2024, despite the fact that most Democrats don’t want him to.
• Biden is motivated to run again to turn back the threat to American democracy posed by Donald Trump and his heirs.
• Biden’s approval ratings are the best they’ve been since the end of 2021, but voters are still not buying it.
• Biden has the wisdom and ego to not worry too much about being wanted, and he has neutralized many of his potential challengers by drawing them into his administration.
• Kamala Harris is unlikely to draw a challenge from the sort of candidate who’d try to unify the party in the way Biden has, and she hasn’t had any signature moments or policies.
• Pete Buttigieg and Mitch Landrieu are potential claimants to the moderate mantle from outside the administration, but they face difficulty in running against Biden.
• Biden has managed to stare down sectors of the Democratic base on key issues without losing them, and the positive reception of his State of the Union only solidifies his position.

Published February 10, 2023
Visit The Atlantic to read David A. Graham’s original post The Catch-24 of Replacing Joe Biden

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