Thomas Chatterton Williams

Tomorrow on andrewyang.com/podcast @chatterton.bsky.social joins to talk his new book about how America became a little bit too certain in our beliefs around 2020 or so.

Appreciate this shout in the NYTBR’s 22 Books Coming in August preview:

To See How America Unraveled, Go Back Five Years What the summer of 2020 wrought

The mass unrest during the summer of 2020 “certainly did not cause the sacking of the Capitol,” @chatterton.bsky.social argues. “But that winter siege amounted to an outgrowth of the summer revolt—the rotten fruit of imitation.”

Thank you!

To See How America Unraveled, Go Back Five Years What the summer of 2020 wrought

The mass unrest during the summer of 2020 “certainly did not cause the sacking of the Capitol,” @chatterton.bsky.social argues. “But that winter siege amounted to an outgrowth of the summer revolt—the rotten fruit of imitation.”

To See How America Unraveled, Go Back Five Years What the summer of 2020 wrought

I have an adapted excerpt of my new book Summer of Our Discontent (out Aug. 5) in @theatlantic.com today. It's about the blindness of "moral clarity" and the push and pull of self-righteous lawlessness between the illiberal left and right: www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

The summer of 2020 — when America went mad with rage In Summer of Our Discontent, the liberal thinker Thomas Chatterton Williams warns against the ‘mutually assured destruction’ of identity politics

Really appreciate this early UK review of Summer of Our Discontent in @thetimes.com: “Williams is one of America’s more interesting intellectuals. … This is a clever and compelling book that embraces complexity.” www.thetimes.com/culture/book...

Luigi Mangione received more sympathy than the HR lady and the CEO.

And I really don’t think random onlookers should revel in their destruction and all but ensure their employer has to perform a sacrifice.

I really don’t think people (in *most* situations) should lose their *jobs* for having a consensual affair. The penalty of having your family fall apart or living with the guilt is more than enough.

I had forgotten about this. And I remember seeing a billboard not long after saying "Racism is a Disease" or something to that effect. Meanwhile the Target two blocks from my condo was burned and looted TWICE.

Right?

bsky.app/profile/chat...

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docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1F... this entire paragraph is relevant. “Protests against systemic racism … must be supported.” The 1288 public health professionals who signed the letter say they “support the gatherings as vital to the national public health.”

Incredible feat of memory holing here. No one said anyone was “forced.” The messaging was flipped, which is a fact. They will now tell you what you know to have happened in 2020 didn’t happen. This is part of the reason I wrote my book, as a form of witness-bearing to this moment of madness.

I didn’t say anyone was “forced.” I
said messaging flipped, which is a fact.

Thank you!

I’ll be on The Daily Show tonight discussing Summer of Our Discontent with the man Jordan Klepper 🙏🏽

The Sunday Long Read: Alec MacGillis, Public Libraries, Texas Flood The week's best journalism. Every Sunday.

‪Check out this week's SLR, guest edited by @alecmac.bsky.social and including writers like @freshparsley.bsky.social‬, @ichotiner.bsky.social, @chatterton.bsky.social + more mailchi.mp/sundaylongre...

The checkbox question | CNN Politics Atlantic staff writer Thomas Chatterton Williams joins Michael Smerconish to discuss his latest piece called “Zohran Mamdani reveals the absurdity of affirmative action.”

Really appreciated @smerconish.bsky.social’s treatment of the complicated subject of racial identity and affirmative action this morning: nam11.safelinks.protection.outlook.com?url=https%3A...

Opinion | Decapitating the National Security Council leads to foreign policy chaos Blunders on Ukraine and Venezuela point to dysfunction caused by Trump’s hollowing out of the NSC.


Hegseth did not notify the White House in advance about his decision to stop the arms shipments to Ukraine. On Monday, Trump told the Pentagon to resume shipping weapons to Kyiv. This is what happens when the NSC, which is in charge of policy coordination, has been decapitated. wapo.st/3IjUCXv

Zohran Mamdani Reveals the Absurdity of Affirmative Action Is the nominee for New York City mayor “African American”? Wrong question.

I wrote about how Zohran Mamdani and Clarence Thomas essentially agree on one important point: the ethnic and racial identity boxes we are forced to check ourselves into are too constraining to capture who we really are. We should stop relying on them. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...

This couple is living their best life

Elon's openly Nazi AI is something out of a Philip K. Dick nightmare.

Agreed

Opinion | The Grip That Race and Identity Have on My Students

"No one wins when we simply lose together in a more equitable fashion," writes Thomas Chatterton Williams. "A great tragedy of contemporary American life is that this crucial lesson does not seem to be intuitive. Instead, it must be learned in the school of direct and painful experience."

Opinion | The Grip Race and Identity Has on My Students

I’ve got a guest essay in the
@nytopinion.nytimes.com this morning touching on themes and concerns I also explore in my forthcoming book SUMMER OF OUR DISCONTENT: THE AGE OF CERTAINTY AND THE DEMISE OF DISCOURSE—available for pre-order now and in stores on August 5. www.nytimes.com/2025/07/08/o...