The Discourse Report: October 19, 2022
The Discourse Report: October 19, 2022
Welcome to DiscRep, Berny Belvedere’s daily guide to the public discourse. As always, here are 10 or so items. To discuss any of them, post a comment below.
Note: Today’s edition is free for all. If you’d like to receive DiscRep in your inbox every day, become a member.
—Recently, former BuzzFeed News EIC and New York Times media columnist Ben Smith launched a new news product called Semafor. It’s a site, first and foremost, but it’s also got a bunch of excellent newsletters in its lineup. I like what I see so far. Check it out here. And here’s a representative entry: David Weigel’s excellent write-up of how the political winds are blowing in Oregon.
—Today, Arc readers received Nicholas Grossman’s latest: “Saudi Arabia Broke the Bargain.” Grossman: “Unless the Saudis reverse course—with whatever face-saving measures make it work—the U.S. should begin removing security assistance.”
—In The Bulwark, Arc contributor Christian Schneider offers a thoughtful meditation on the value—and pull—of Twitter. “Before social media, you had to seek out laughs on your own. You could read a funny book or magazine, or go see a movie. You could call a friend or take them to dinner and guffaw all night. You could try to spend more time with the one person at work who made you chuckle.” But now? Now we have Twitter!
—Over at The Dispatch, Jonah Goldberg blasts Peter Thiel. “There’s just something weird about a billionaire libertarian with multiple passports—and a work-in-progress billet on a floating city—and who made his money in Big Tech, funding ‘nationalist’ candidates who rail against globalist elites.”
Three Key Moments in Xi Jinping’s Monumental Rise to Power in China (The Wall Street Journal)
CCP Congress: What Will Xi Do Next? (The Economist)