The "Danger Within"

On doomscrolling, depression, and democratic resilience during these dark times.

Dear readers, dear friends,

Like many of you, we’ve felt unmoored by the political chaos of the past couple of weeks. Deportations, detentions, firings of veterans and park rangers (and more), cuts to free lunches for low-income kids, defunding of scientific research, anti-trans laws, the gutting of the Department of Education, countless needless deaths from the cuts to USAID—we lie awake at night, sinking into depression. The absolute nadir for us was seeing the repulsive, professional Twitter-troll JD Vance—fresh after lecturing the Munich Security Council about Europe not dealing with the “danger within”—wag his finger at Volodymyr Zelensky, berating him for not being “grateful” enough to the United States. We were sickened by the sight of a sovereign nation's president, invaded by an aggressor, forced to grovel and beg for his country's survival. Most disgustingly, President Trump later remarked, “This is going to be great television,” as if deaths in a country at war are just chip…