All posts tagged: part of the problem

Trump’s dangerous January 6–pardon promise

Trump’s dangerous January 6–pardon promise

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Donald Trump’s plan to pardon people in prison for their crimes on January 6—people he now calls “hostages”—is yet another dangerous and un-American attack on the rule of law. First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic: A Loyal Cadre in Waiting This past weekend, Donald Trump stirred up one of his usual controversies by declaring that there would be a “bloodbath” if he isn’t elected. Trump’s supporters played a game of gotcha with outraged critics by claiming that Trump was merely describing an economic meltdown in the auto industry. Unfortunately, Trump decided, as he so often does, to pull the rug out from under his apologists by defending bloodbath as a common expression and clarifying that he meant it to refer to “getting slaughtered economically, when you’re getting slaughtered socially, when you’re getting slaughtered.” Oh. So much …

The Climate Contradiction That Will Sink Us

The Climate Contradiction That Will Sink Us

You’d be forgiven for thinking that the fight against climate change is finally going well. The clean-energy revolution is well under way and exceeding expectations. Solar is set to become the cheapest form of energy in most places by 2030, and the remarkable efficiency of heat pumps is driving their own uptake now. Sales of electric vehicles could surpass those of gas-burning cars in the next six years. The world’s biggest powers are putting huge sums toward infrastructure to usher in some form of energy transformation. Pledges are being made; legislation is being passed. The world, it seems, is finally lurching in the right direction. But none of that is enough, practically speaking, because of one enormous hitch: The world is still using more energy each year, our consumption ticking ever upward, swallowing any gains made by renewable energy. Emissions are still rising—more slowly than they used to but, nonetheless, rising. Instead of getting pushed down, that needle is fitfully jiggling above zero, clawing into the positive digits when it needs to be deeply pitched …

How to Talk About the Middle East

How to Talk About the Middle East

Welcome to Up for Debate. Each week, Conor Friedersdorf rounds up timely conversations and solicits reader responses to one thought-provoking question. Later, he publishes some thoughtful replies. Sign up for the newsletter here. Last week, I noted the polarizing conflict in the Middle East and asked how citizens of faraway countries should handle differences about the best way forward so as not to tear their own societies apart. Replies have been edited for length and clarity. I just think people need to remember they aren’t required to publicly declare their opinions on world events. We all need to calm down, try to educate ourselves on the history behind the conflict, and listen to the people actually being directly affected by this tragedy, instead of just pumping more empty, ill-informed rhetoric into the world. I generally think I have answers to every question but on Israel versus the Palestinians, I am at a loss. The monstrous atrocities by Hamas on October 7 have placed the Israelis in the most clear-cut, no-win situation I have ever seen. …

Why So Many Americans Have Stopped Going to Church

Why So Many Americans Have Stopped Going to Church

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here. Church attendance in America has been on the decline in recent decades. Are Americans losing their ability to incorporate religion—or any kind of intentional community—into their lives? First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic: How American Life Works “Take a drive down Main Street of just about any major city in the country, and—with the housing market ground to a halt—you might pass more churches for sale than homes,” two sociologists wrote in The Atlantic in January. And the facts bear out that visual: As Jake Meador, the editor in chief of the quarterly magazine Mere Orthodoxy, notes in a recent essay, about 40 million Americans have stopped going to church in the past 25 years. “That’s something like 12 percent of the population, and it represents the largest concentrated change in church attendance in American history,” …