The Outline
Alex Nichols
Christmas shall not be saved
Because it never needed to be!
The right’s attempt at pop culture is hilariously wrong
Two new ventures, POPlitics and the Patriot Awards, show the right imagining TV without the liberal bias. It’s very bad.
We’re in dire need of new websites, and all we get is ‘The Recount’
The Bank of America-backed political video startup, helmed by veteran hack John Heilemann, would have been out of touch even five years ago.
Donald Trump Jr.’s ‘Triggered’ is the work of a (rich) child
This book sucks!
Kurt Schlicter is the nutjob of the moment
The middling conservative commentator is Trump’s favorite new guy, but who is he?
John Bolton and the end of coherent political narratives
Trump’s national security adviser was fired before he could even start a single war. What is this world we’re living in!
The Joker is simply a clown who loves crime
Despite what critics might say, he is not a harbinger of societal doom.
Don’t talk to me before I put on my custom graphic T-shirt
How expressive T-shirts evolved from activism to incoherence.
The are 15 months until the election. The race is already dumb as hell.
If you thought the hacks had learned a lesson about campaign coverage from 2016 you will be disappointed.
Slender Man for Boomers
The offshoots of the QAnon conspiracy theory have gone to even darker places.
The worst conservative podcasts
There are no good ones, but these count as war crimes.
Please... god... anyone but Joe Biden
Biden would be an awful choice for the 2020 Democratic nominee even if he respected women’s personal space.
We live in hell so of course Jim Bakker is still here
Only a televangelist who's a convicted felon could come up with the incredibly bizarre ‘Jim Bakker Show.’
Crowdfunding for idiots
The GOP has always fleeced morons and senior citizens. Now they're just more literal about it.
‘Q’ the end credits for the internet’s lamest conspiracy theory
Unfortunately, the end times are likely not nigh, despite what far-right cranks say online.
Diamond and Silk run the most obvious con on the right
The Fox News duo stars in ‘Dummycrats,’ a new and terrible documentary.
Gentle reminder: you are a goddamn adult
‘Gmorning, Gnight!: Little Pep Talks for Me & You,’ by Jonny Sun and Lin-Manuel Miranda, panders to its audience in the worst of ways.
TikTok make it stop
TikTok will never replace Vine, no matter how hard it tries.
Message to my haters: You are correct, I’m a Neanderthal
I am more Neanderthal than 96 percent of 23andme customers. What does this mean?
A brief history of batshit conservative boycotts
Mutilating socks, burning disco records, shooting a newspaper with a gun: all surprisingly ineffective forms of objection.
Everyone please ignore Michael Avenatti
Let us pray that the celebrity lawyer does not seek higher office.
Somehow, Dinesh D’Souza is a worse filmmaker than he is an historian
‘Death of a Nation’ is a godawful movie that manages to be both racist and boring.
The Gray Lady loves these racist, white teens
Diaper-wearing conservative youth group Turning Point USA keeps tricking credulous reporters into taking them seriously.
Alan Dershowitz should not have had friends to lose
The lawyer and Harvard professor has made a business of defending the deplorable.
Fuck civility
Go ahead, heckle a Trump official.
Dennis Miller’s new podcast is an incoherent marvel
The content of ‘The Dennis Miller Option’ exists in a strange purgatory between right-wing provocation and confused-grandpa doddering.
A new documentary leaves out the unflattering parts of John McCain’s life
‘John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls’ was made to spit-shine the senator’s image.
It’s fine to be mean to racists and ghouls
The smug morality of journalists rarely serves anyone but themselves.
Stop trusting the self-mythology of the worst people on the internet
Self-described “incels” are unreliable narrators of their own predicament.
No Labels is the most useless force in American politics
The aggressively centrist nonprofit is an exercise in bipartisan futility.
So-called ‘intellectuals’ can’t let go of “The Bell Curve”
Racism — they just love it!
The dark overlord of the deranged far-right
Infowars editor Jerome Corsi’s new book is a case study in the persistence of misinformation.
Premium Twitter feeds are for suckers
I know, because I read them.
Crybaby boomers
Boomers claim we’re heading toward puritanism — but if we are, it’s their fault
Please buy our product that makes you so mad
‘Lady Doritos’ and the new, facile culture wars.
Revolutionize football with this one simple trick
If you want to hasten the demise of the NFL, root for the Patriots.
The no-good, totally awful people running for Senate in Arizona
A parade of clowns is lining up for the vacant seat.
The dumbest president
Michael Wolff’s new book solidifies Trump’s legacy as a petulant man-child with a rodent’s attention span.
The finest meltdowns of 2017
It was a banner year for tantrums, online and off.
The absurd conservative obsession with “stolen valor”
Nothing gets them feeling righteously angry like someone pretending to have served in the military.
The meek shall crowdfund the earth
Why do we give money to viral sob stories?
Why are Newsweek and The New York Times using troll tactics for clicks?
There’s a new form of clickbait in town, and it doesn’t work.
Why are these people defending Al Franken?
The left has conspiracy theorists, too.
Congress’s forgotten pedophile
Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert was a celebrated politician — and a serial child molester.
The blog nobody needs
It’s Wonkette.
Searching too hard for ‘Real America’
Much-publicized forays into the heartland are largely self-serving.
The lame nonprofit that’s trying to make young conservatives cool
Turning Point USA’s overtures to the youth are embarrassing.
Where are the #Resistance phonies now?
Catching up on the sentient Twitter bots who used liberal delusion over Trump for retweets.
Dinesh D’Souza is the perfect propagandist for Trump’s America
The conservative commentator is a liar and openly racist. No wonder Republicans love him.
Megan McArdle has a lot of bad ideas
And, unfortunately, the Bloomberg columnist publishes five times a week.
The Democrats who can’t quit Hillary Clinton
Who remains devoted to Hillary in late 2017, and why?
The strange life of Peter Daou
Why do powerful people pay him to do things?
Who’s afraid of BDS?
The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement is flawed, but has good intentions.
The infinite awfulness of conservative rap
Is there nothing the right can’t destroy?
Political correctness doesn’t kill people
Handwringing over campus activists who “censored” alt-right speakers looks misplaced after the violence in Charlottesville.
Things are bad, and David Frum makes them worse
The ubiquitous commentator has been beating the war drum for nearly two decades.
‘Ready Player One’ is a terrible book and it will be a terrible movie
It’s nerd culture gone awry.
Stop patronizing the working class
Why are pundits obsessed with Applebee’s and farm workers?
The unceremonious demise of Heat Street
The website aimed at young conservatives never really made much sense.
The utter inanity of the conservative health care debate
The Republican party is grasping at straws to make a lucid argument for their Affordable Care Act replacement.
Jim Messina: A case study in political failure
How did a much-hyped, highly paid political consultant amount to nothing?
Ben Sasse is a Millennial-bashing baby
The Nebraska senator’s new book blames the young for society’s ills.
No more commencement speakers
Let graduates go in peace.
A guide to conservative publications
Which ones are trolling you, and which ones are simply bad?
Who cares what college students think?
A lot of journalists, and it’s weird.
America, the pitiful: Trump’s first 100 days
It’s been painful, but also funny.
Ass-chewing and schadenfreude: Inside Hillary’s failed campaign
A new tell-all details Clinton's bid for the presidency.
Everybody loves War Trump
All it took were some bombs to turn Trump into Churchill.
The relentless consumerism of “unboxing videos”
Why do we like to watch people buy and unwrap things?
Why are we still talking about poor whites?
Liberals' post-election obsession with the white working class is unproductive and hardly accurate.
Protesting racists is as American as free speech
Stop protesting the protesters. Give it a rest
It’s time for Twitter to bring out the nukes
The only way to get rid of trolls is to kick them out — for good.
Your political Harry Potter references are Riddikulus
A cursory knowledge of pop culture will never be useful as a political tool.
Dilbert creator Scott Adams is the worst blogger
The low culture representative has taken to right-wing buffoonery.
Meet the cucks of the #NeverTrump movement
They’re here, they’re opportunistic, and they're not going away.
Jonathan Chait’s Audacity celebrates a centrist mirage of success
A paean to Obama falls flat.
The agony and the ecstasy of Kurt Eichenwald
If Eichenwald is the voice of anything, it is of the sickness that plagues the left.
Tim Allen’s career is a metaphor for America
From bad to worse.
Memes do not matter
Pepe didn't swing the election.
