David Wallace-Wells has a fantastic and nuanced look back on the pandemic. This seems 100% in line with my feelings and memories, but most media figures forget what’s uncomfortable and remember only what they can use as a cudgel against their political foes. Speaking on the Know Your Enemy Podcast:
This is based on a March 4 article in the NY Times that I have not yet read:
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2025/03/04/opinion/covid-impact-five-years-later.html
Separately, David Brooks writing in The Atlantic seems to be the first prominent conservative intellectual* to grapple with the fact that performative trolls have had a much greater influence over the Republican party for decades than other National Review-types will ever admit.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/05/trumpism-maga-populism-power-pursuit/682116
I’m not going to consider Charlie Sykes here — I feel like he was a bigger part of the problem that he’ll ever admit.
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