A few items of note for Independence Day in the United States:
A Matt Yglesias’ essay about the risks of catastrophizing (even when reasonable) to young folks and to our politics. I don’t usually like his stuff, but I think I agree with this piece.
A Noah Smith essay riffing on the historical comparison from the present moment to the 1970’s and reasons to be hopeful, including the subtle changes in politics.
Man called Ishi from The Las Archive – a Room 237 treatment of Ursula LeGuin’s story, “The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas.” This makes me want to reread LeGuin’s stuff from the late-60’s.