The right-wing, Muskian myth of ‘free-speech absolutism’ — The New European commissioned me to write this explanation for folks over there explaining what is behind Musk’s claims of free-speech absolutism. Elon Musk, recent convert to the cult of far-right fascism known as the Republican Party, is currently suffering history’s worst case of buyer’s remorse. He also claims to…

From my vast experience of three weeks, a guide to diving in — An academic friend asked for help joining Mastodon. I wrote a detailed email in response that I thought it might be useful to others. I’m also going to teach a master class in Mastodon at my school on Dec. 5 — much interest, I’m told — so here is my…

Jonathan Freedland’s ‘The Escape Artist: The Man Who Broke Out of Auschwitz to Warn the World’ — This is perhaps the single most effective chronicle of the Holocaust I have read. Jonathan Freedland does not attempt to convey the full scope of the Holocaust or of Auschwitz; that is an impossibility in any literature. He tells the story of one man, Rudolf Vrba — born Walter Rosenberg…

A federated future and suggestions for citizens and institutions — Maybe we’ll look back and see that Elon Musk did us, the civilized citizens of the net, a favor by forcing us off our cozy if centralized, corporatized, and corrupted internet to find and build an alternative future grounded in the founding principles and dreams of this networked age. …

The great man has spoken of the internet at last — In 2006, Jürgen Habermas, the preeminent theorist of the public sphere, spoke of the internet for the first time, only in a footnote, all but dismissing the net as “millions of fragmented chat rooms.” Many have waited for more. …

What’s wrong with Sen. Klobuchar’s JCPA — Senator Amy Klobuchar’s oxymoronically titled Journalism Competition and Preservation Act — it might better be named the Journalism Lobby Blackmail Bill — was just dealt a kick to the kidneys by a confused Ted Cruz amendment. It is delayed but not dead. It is still wrong-headed and dangerous and here…

Is the age of broadcast and blockbusters at an end? — TV has had more supposed golden ages than the Queen had bling: Sid Caesar’s brief blip during TV’s infancy was hailed as one such shimmering age only because what followed — America stranded on Gilligan’s Island — was so unbearable as to make his Show of Shows’ Vaudeville shtick seem…