The Hammer: Power, Inequality, and the Struggle for the Soul of Labor Highlight

Reporting critically about policy itself is denigrated as “taking sides.” Thus, the messy, cutthroat battles for material resources and the distribution of wealth that characterize our capitalist society get transformed into narratives in which everything is spoken about primarily in terms of how it will affect politicians and elections, rather than how elections and politicians will affect the world. Will the outlawing of abortion drive Democrats to the polls? Will the climate change–fueled storms devastating our coastal red states be a risk factor to the Republican Senate caucus? Is the meteor that just struck your home bad news for the president? This media tic—so ingrained that most people who have digested the news their whole lives barely even think about it—makes it difficult to properly frame the impact of movements. Movements do not succeed or fail based on their ability to get friendly politicians elected. Rather, movements are their own sort of institution, persisting through generations as permanent standing armies engaged in battle with monumental problems.