What Made a British Politician ‘Thoroughly Ashamed’?
Reading Time: 2 minutes In Britain, a thoroughly decent public figure makes an honest mistake, then bends over backwards to make amends. Imagine an American politician behaving this way.
Great Quotations on Power and Corruption
Reading Time: 5 minutes Droll, cynical, deliciously nasty comments on the forces that make the world go around, by wickedly witty thinkers from the past and the present.
Images of Racism in America Over the Years
Reading Time: 9 minutes In honor of Martin Luther King Day, WhoWhatWhy presents — through a fascinating collection of pictures — a brief history of American racism, a look at the kind of hatred, atrocities, and soul-searing humiliation that spurred King into action.
Legalized Pot: What States Hoping for Extra Revenue Get Wrong
Reading Time: 5 minutes Even with pot, the rules of supply and demand apply. There’s no doubt about the level of demand. It’s the supply that’s going to decide the winners and losers.
Great Quotations on the Mysteries of Time
Reading Time: 3 minutes A glittering collection of quotes on the elusive nature of time by a wide variety of thinkers, from William Shakespeare to Lenny Bruce.
A Look Back at Our Front Page Artwork
Reading Time: 6 minutes One of the things that sets WhoWhatWhy apart from other news sites is that nearly all of our articles come with their own artwork. These “panoramas” offer a visual representation of what the stories are about. Here are some of our favorites from 2017.
A Trump Treasury of Tweets, Part 4
Reading Time: 2 minutes Decades from now, students and college professors will be studying President Donald Trump’s tweets as part of their political science curriculum. Let that sink in.
A Visit from St. Donald
Reading Time: 2 minutes We wrote a special Christmas poem to celebrate the passage of the GOP’s tax reform legislation. Finally things are looking up for billionaires.
Happy Thanksgiving — Now Let’s Talk Politics
Reading Time: 2 minutes WhoWhatWhy wishes you a very happy Thanksgiving. And despite what the media and conventional wisdom say, we think it’s good to talk politics with family and friends.
What Could Have Been — JFK in His Own Words
Reading Time: 14 minutes On the anniversary of President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, let’s not forget the man who was lost that day and think about how much he could have changed the world.
Peter Dale Scott on Enlightenment Values in the Age of Trump
Reading Time: 13 minutes Famed author and thinker Peter Dale Scott offers hope — and enlightenment — to those despairing in the age of Trump.
How to Make a Political Statement on Halloween (While That’s Still Legal)
Reading Time: 4 minutes If you still haven’t picked out your Halloween costume, here is some inspiration for those who take politics and political leaders seriously but not too seriously.
Classic Who: Texas Concealed Carry Law and the UT Tower Massacre
Reading Time: 3 minutes WhoWhatWhy reaches into its archives to remember a massacre with echoes of the Las Vegas attack.
The South’s Monumental History Lesson
Reading Time: 2 minutes A popular argument against removing Confederate statues is that it would be “erasing history.” If preserving history were the real concern, where are the monuments to great civil rights figures in the South?
A Trump Treasury of Tweets, Part 3
Reading Time: < 1 minute WhoWhatWhy once again opens the treasury to bring out the golden nuggets of presidential twittery.
Labor Day: Art From the Great Depression
Reading Time: 5 minutes Paintings, drawings, and prints from a dynamic time when President Roosevelt saved America by putting people — including artists — back to work.
Evangelicals and the GOP — An Unholy Alliance
Reading Time: 3 minutes What do Donald Trump and evangelicals have in common? Everything and nothing. Evangelicals are some of his most loyal supporters. But to those with only a passing familiarity with the New Testament, that’s a religious mystery.
The Danger of Exceptionalism
Reading Time: 3 minutes American exceptionalism, believing that the US is the greatest, #1, God’s country, increases the likelihood that some exceptionally awful things about America are ignored.
Political Violence Is Never the Answer
Reading Time: 2 minutes A senseless act of violence has left a US Congressman in critical condition and others injured. We pause to remember the admonition of Martin Luther King, Jr. that non-violence is both morally superior and the most powerful means for making change happen.
Is Criticizing Israel Anti-Semitic?
Reading Time: 6 minutes The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is trying to raise awareness of and counter anti-Semitism. But its very definition of anti-Semitism has stretched the term to include any criticism of the nation of Israel, including its actions toward neighbors.