It’s Tuesday, September 16. This is The Front Page, your daily window into the world of The Free Press—and our take on the world at large. Today: The Trump TikTok deal that might not be legal. How Israel’s strike on Qatar changed the Middle East as we know it. Zohran Mamdani engineers a savvier, more durable form of wokeness. And more.
But first: Has the death of Charlie Kirk brought cancel culture back?
It’s never easy to set the bounds of civilization, to determine what is and is not welcome in polite society, what should be illegal, and what should simply be a canceled lunch—or a rescinded job offer. And that’s really what we’re talking about when we talk about cancel culture. What are the bounds of acceptability in our society? When does a different opinion become one so abhorrent that you don’t want that person as your kid’s preschool teacher? What about as your bank teller?
On the one hand, it seems crazy to ostracize someone for one bad post. On the other, what if the post is really bad? This week, many, many people posted online that they were glad Charlie Kirk had been assassinated. Or maybe just that they aren’t mourning his death. Teams of vigilantes are archiving those posts. Some of those most thrilled by his death are losing their jobs over it, since maybe it’s a little weird to have someone like that teaching third grade.
So today we bring you four stories: Matthew Continetti explains why allegations of “conservative cancel culture” are overblown. River Page on whether the right is repeating the mistakes of the 2010s progressive left. Eliana Johnson on how not everything is cancel culture, guys. Adam Rubenstein defends the recently canned Washington Post editor Karen Attiah, who—it just so happens—fanned the flames of his cancellation in 2020. And tune in today at 1 p.m. for a livestream on cancellations with River Page, Christopher F. Rufo, and me.
—Nellie Bowles
A TikTok Deal? Don’t Count On It. |
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Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced yesterday that the U.S. and China had agreed on a “framework for a TikTok deal.” If a deal that satisfies China and adheres to U.S. law sounds improbable, that’s because it is, writes Joe Nocera. “I would not be surprised if whatever deal is announced publicly doesn’t follow the law,” one expert said. “I’d be more surprised if it does follow the law.” Read Joe’s column on the two burning questions about a TikTok deal: Would it be legal? And is it even real? | | |
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Mamdani’s Post-Woke Playbook |
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Sensing a vibe shift within his own party, Zohran Mamdani has successfully reinvented wokeness and shifted its focus from identity to affordability. Wokeness may have peaked, writes Princeton politics professor Gregory Conti, but “peaking is not the same as vanishing.” His essay explores the cultural tides beneath Mamdani’s savvy, softened strategy—one that courts Trump voters and borrows from the “abundance” agenda to keep the movement alive. | | |
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Can Socialism Ever Really Work? |
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Bhaskar Sunkara is founding editor of the socialist magazine Jacobin, current president of The Nation, and one of the most prominent voices on the American left. Coleman is a believer in free markets, so he sat down with Sunkara to challenge his beliefs on billionaires, rent control, and whether socialism could ever work beyond theory. While they disagreed on plenty, they also found surprising common ground—from the need for more housing to the importance of good schools—as they debated what it might take to make this country better. | | |
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