'These businesses have appealed to generations'

'An awkward truth about American work'

Lora Kelley at The Atlantic

Moments of "cultural change present openings for cons," as "early in the pandemic, the number of multi-level-marketing schemes (or MLMs) exploded," says Lora Kelley. MLMs "promised a kind of life that was too good to be true." The "low quality of many legitimate jobs has long provided cover for shadier schemes." Many of the "messages that MLMs adopt to reel in workers rely on a central contradiction, criticizing the corporate grind while extolling the free market."

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'The end of writing and reading will be the end of freedom'

Nicole Krauss at The Washington Post

At the "crossroads where we now stand, among the many other things at stake, is the future of reading, writing and literature," says Nicole Krauss. We have "lost not just our ability to concentrate on deciphering long passages of written language." Writing and reading "are not effortless," but without that effort, we will slide deeper and deeper into inchoateness, darkness, violence, diminished freedom for all and a diminished state of human being."

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'Trump's pause on infrastructure funding impacts more than just highways'

Deborah N. Archer at Time

Without "protections in place, a new wave of infrastructure will repeat old patterns of destruction," says Deborah N. Archer. For "too long, we have treated transportation as if it exists outside of politics and justice." Our "highways, roads, and transit routes are more than lines on a map — they are tools of opportunity and weapons of exclusion." They "reflect our values, and for decades, they've sent a painful message to Black communities: You are disposable."

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'Romania's postponed reckoning'

Veronica Anghel at Foreign Affairs

Romania has "narrowly avoided electing a president who openly opposes the country's democratic foundations," says Veronica Anghel. The "breadth of support for him also raises larger questions about whether institutional guardrails in Romania, and in Europe overall, can be effective in countering a far right that seeks to undermine those democratic institutions." Allegiances have "obscured widespread disaffection among ordinary Romanians with their own Western-leaning political class," and many "Romanians have been disillusioned by a political establishment that has resisted reform."

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