Decentralization is Insurance
And no one's excited to buy insurance.
Aaron Ross Powell
Politics, culture, and philosophy through a radical liberal lens. Co-host of the Inner Life of Liberalism podcast.
Latest posts
We Needn't Have a One True Platform
On Bluesky, user numbers, and the silliness of endless growth.
Distinguishing Labor from Work
We should get rid of the former, if we can, but we should absolutely keep the latter.
Your Internet Doesn't Need to Be Big
But it definitely can be better.
NIMBYism's Slow Cancellation of the Future
How the cost of housing undermines creative dynamism
A Couple of What They Call Media Hits
Liberal virtues and right-wing vices.
Skillful and Unskillful Politics
Skill is a combination of good intent and sufficient knowledge to act well.
The Ambiguity of "Growth"
Anti-growth rhetoric sounds appealing, but it privileges the present over the future.
American History as Fandom Lore
On MAGA canon and cosplay.
Out Now: Liberalism's Inner Life
The first episode of The Inner Life of Liberalism podcast.
My New Project: The Inner Life of Liberalism Podcast
Subscribe now in your favorite podcast app.
The Thing About Griping About Bluesky
Let a thousand mutually suspicious communities bloom.
Don't Harm Your Enemies. Make Them Less Harmful.
Speaking with intent to harm trains the speaker in habits of hatred. The cost of online cruelty isn't only to the target.
What the Ancients Knew About Posting Well
An early Buddhist text gives us four questions to ask before posting—and most of what we post fails the test.
Two Helpful Essays Illuminating Liberal Practice
Two short Buddhist essays from Thanissaro Bhikkhu on karma as feedback loop, identity as inheritance, and intention as a skill you can practice.
The Ethics of Not Being Offended
Discomfort isn't harm. Treating it as harm burns the finite moral attention we need for the suffering that actually exists.
The Kids Aren’t Into Retro Tech Because of Surveillance Capitalism
Teenagers buying CDs aren't making a political statement. They just like CDs.
ReImagining Liberty Ends (And What's to Come)
After 101 episodes, it's time to move on to new projects.
Who Is AI Music For?
Google's music-making AI makes songs. I just can't figure out why anyone would listen to them.
The Inner Life of Liberalism
The practices that make your life better are the same ones that sustain a free society. It's time liberalism took that seriously.
Argumentation and Illumination: Two Ways Philosophy Works
Some philosophy works by proving a conclusion. Some works by making something visible you couldn't see before. Here's why the distinction matters.
ReImagining Liberty 098: The Practice and Inner Life of Liberalism (w/ Jason Canon)
A podcast conversation.
If You’ve Only Ever Played D&D, You’re Missing Out
Tabletop RPGs are story engines. Why would you want to tell only one kind of story?
The Faux-Sophistication of Doomer Despair
It's okay to feel despair in the moment. But it's dumb to insist we've already lost.
Trump is Governing a Country that Doesn't Exist—And Destroying One That Does
Cognitive decline and a curated information environment means Trump has no idea what's happening in the world outside his head.
The Regime Has No Defense Against a Good Neighbor
America’s political divide is between neighborliness and neighborhood pariahs, and neighborliness is winning.
ReImagining Liberty is taking a short break
A brief pause for the next big thing.
What Pete Hegseth’s Kettlebell Swings Tell Us About MAGA Ideology
MAGA is built on a fundamental lack of the internal protective quality that warns us when we are debasing ourselves.
My Favorite Movie of 2025
It's not the year's best movie, but Spinal Tap 2 brought me the most joy.
ReImagining Liberty 096: The Irrationality of Rationalists (w/ Samantha Hancox-Li)
A podcast conversation.
You Can't Escape the Algorithm
Chronological feeds won't fix social media
Spending Time with Spinal Tap (Again)
A late sequel that doesn't try to be a movie. It's a hangout—and it's exactly what it needs to be.
ReImagining Liberty 095: Adam Gurri on Opposition Meda versus Complicit Media
A podcast conversation.
MAGA is an Auto-Humiliation Movement
Trump is shameless, yes. But he also has a fetish for humiliating himself.
The End of the Showman Presidency
In Trump 1.0, he'd back down when he was unpopular. Now he doesn't.
The Answer to Student AI Writing Slop is Authorial Voice
LLMs are bad at sounding unique. So we should help young writers to develop their own unique prose style.
ReImagining Liberty 094: A New American Reconstruction
A conversation with Andy Craig and Shikha Dalmia
Why Elites Believe in Racial IQ Differences and Evolutionary Psych
Both help deflect critiques of elite status being less earned than elites want to think.
The “Likable”/“Unlikable” Political Realignment
American conservatism is a home for unlikeable people who’ve turned their unlinkability into a political project.
Most Americans Aren’t Fascists, and That’s a Big Problem for the GOP
When you let rot into your coalition, your entire coalition eventually turns rotten.
The Anti-Anti-Trans Election
Running against trans people failed and America proved itself a better place than the worst among us want it to be.
Leaflet, Blogging, and How to Fix Social Media
Decentralization, network overlap, and why we should all blog, too.
What It Means to View Ethics as a Practice
Ethics isn't a body of knowledge you study. It's a skill you practice—and that distinction changes how you should approach living well.
No Kings and Letting Ourselves Hope
There are more of us than there are of them. And we have decency on our side.
You Haven’t Been Canceled. You’re Just Unlikable.
People don't like jerks. But jerks think people instead can't handle their ideas.
If Trump is So Unpopular, Why are Institutions Capitulating?
The American people can't stand Trump. His polling is abysmal. And yet private and public institutions capitulate. Why?
Two Kinds of Libertarians
Some libertarians oppose the state because it reinforces social hierarchies. Others because it threatens them. Only the former is worthy of the name.
Elite Complicity in the Rise of Fascism
America's elites downplay Trump's authoritarian fascism out of a corrupt sense of class consciousness and solidarity.
How to Be in a World on Fire
The values and perspectives our political moment demands of us.
Trumpism and the Status Anxiety of Abusers
The MAGA movement appeals to mediocre men who mistake the arrival of meritocracy for discrimination, and turn to abuse to reclaim dominance they never earned.