Compact

"A culture that forbids internal debate will invariably fall into groupthink ... setting the stage for potential catastrophe." @benryanwriter has the goods on the gender medicine org WPATH, whose inner workings were cloaked in secrecy until now: compactmag.com/article/how-ge…

New Atheism was supposed to deliver us from the dead hand of dogma. Instead it incubated a narrow and punitive form of identity politics. Here is the story of its spectacular collapse: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/who…

Members of WPATH, the transgender medicine group, were encouraged to call CPS to “enforce the need for affirmation by parents.” compactmag.com/article/how-ge…

“A culture that forbids internal debate will invariably fall into groupthink.” @benryanwriter in @compactmag compactmag.com/article/how-ge…

“WPATH members rarely put into plain language any concern that adolescents might ever be mistaken about being transgender.” Read Benjamin Ryan’s @benryanwriter piece in COMPACT: compactmag.com/article/how-ge…

"When institutions teach monocausal history, Candyman waits patiently in the dark, ready to claim those whose stories no longer count." Great essay from @compactmag on what gets lost when film adaptation translocates stories & traumas. Candyman (1992) may not capture the concerns of Clive Barker's "The Forbidden", but it's an excellent film on its own terms—exquisitely frightening & quintessentially American. Barker himself contributed to the screenplay & was impressed by the result. Most of all, @TonyTodd54's performance is unforgettable. compactmag.com/article/in-can…

The 1992 horror film 'Candyman' has long been a favorite of mine, but there's a back story to its adaptation from a Clive Barker story I wasn't aware of until recently. Susan Pickard tells it here: compactmag.com/article/in-can…

“Here the horror is not racism, but abandonment.” Susan Pickard in @compactmag compactmag.com/article/in-can…

“The great mass of the poor, the marginal, the vulnerable of Liverpool disappear.” Read Susan Pickard’s piece in COMPACT: compactmag.com/article/in-can…

Israel needs a whole new approach to Christian affairs, @Lazar_Berman argues. compactmag.com/article/behind…

“Israeli officials eventually woke up to the magnitude of the error.” Read Lazar Berman’s piece in COMPACT: compactmag.com/article/behind…

Christian identity politics is not a sign of revival, but a symptom of religious decline. washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/…

"Trump’s ever tighter links to Big Tech are an acknowledgment of the limits of his political project—an attempt to outsource the “vision thing” to the supposedly forward-looking segment of the private sector." Read @g_shullenberger's latest newsletter substackfwd.xyz/?url=https://c…

Democrats' power comes from constituencies that demand more government. But to win elections, they need to win over voters who see government as a burden. Until they resolve this, they're going to lose. @alicianieves__ for @compactmag compactmag.com/article/democr…

"Several of my favorite reads of the past year have been serialized novels I read via an app on my phone, receiving the chapters piecemeal, a week at a time." I prefer the feel of a book in my hands, but this about convinced me that this is the future of the novel: compactmag.com/article/substa…

Democrats need to win back middle class voters in battleground states to retake the White House in 2028 — but their tax-and-spend agenda has damaged their reputation with these voters. New middle class tax cut proposals from leading Democratic Senators Booker and Van Hollen show the party knows it has a problem. My new piece in @compactmag: compactmag.com/article/democr…

James Fishback, Candace Owens, and Megyn Kelly are promoting a new form of Christian identity politics. My column for the @washingtonpost washingtonpost.com/opinions/2026/…

Leading Democrats have coalesced around a new policy idea: middle-class tax cuts. It’s an admission that the party’s longstanding tax and spend approach is a liability with the voters in needs to win, says @alicianieves__: compactmag.com/article/democr…

“Polling over the past year has consistently shown that cost-of-living concerns are top of mind for voters.” @alicianieves__ in @compactmag compactmag.com/article/democr…