The Theory Brief

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Have Denmark’s Right-Leaning Social Democrats Finally Learned Their Lesson?
Denmark’s recent elections suggest the Social Democrats’ rightward turn on immigration won’t always win. Voters expect more from the left—even in the…
 • Victor Shammas
The Trillion-Dollar Vassal
How Trump 2.0, Israel’s Gaza war, and Norway's two-trillion-dollar sovereign wealth fund converged in a firestorm of finance, geopolitics, and genocide.
 • Victor Shammas
This Week in Links #2
A selection of links: Things worth reading and thinking about this week.
 • Victor Shammas
Dan Wang's "Breakneck": A Lesson in Disavowed Hawkishness
Like Klein and Thompson's Abundance, Dan Wang wants the U.S. to build. But Breakneck isn't about raising living standards—it's about preparing for war.
 • Victor Shammas
This Week in Links #1
Things worth reading and watching in the last week of October 2025.
 • Victor Shammas
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PTA’s “One Battle”: Cartoon Leftists Amid Real-World Fascists
Why Paul Thomas Anderson's "One Battle After Another" doesn't work in this political moment.
 • Victor Shammas
Harris’s 107 Days and the Missing Reckoning: Gaza
Early coverage of Kamala Harris’s campaign memoir, 107 Days, has been unfair. Yet Harris still won't adequately deal with the Biden administration's…
 • Victor Shammas
The Poverty of Abundance
Abundance liberalism won't defeat fascism.
 • Victor Shammas
Norway's Right is Obsessed With Immigration and Crime
Norway is a safe, prosperous, and diverse society. So why can't the right stop talking about immigration and crime?
 • Victor Shammas
Lemkin's Concept of Genocide
A 1945 letter from jurist Raphael Lemkin takes us back to a historical moment when the concept of genocide was just beginning to take hold.
 • Victor Shammas
Ringo's "Peace and Love" and the Problem of the Empty Signifier
Ringo Starr just wants "peace and love." What could possibly be wrong with that?
 • Victor Shammas
Review: Not Enough Fight
'Fight' by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes offers a gripping account of the 2024 presidential election, placing blame on both Biden and Harris for…
 • Victor Shammas
The Dangers of TACO
Trump Always Chickens Out, or TACO, was a playful way of criticizing Trump's early second-term policies. But goading Trump into taking a firmer stance…
 • Victor Shammas
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