Commentary: The Sovereign Citizen Denaturalization and the Origins of the American Republic by Patrick Weil

 

Trump's threats to denaturalize and deport Musk, his erstwhile buddy provideded me with an opportunity to do a little research.  Birthright citizenship provided in the 14th Amendment was, of course, to assure that slaves became instant citizens with all its rights and privileges. Those privileges were at risk in the early 20th century.It's an often overlooked but deeply important chapter in American history—one that complicates our modern sense of what it means to be a citizen of the United States.

Today, most Americans take their citizenship for granted. They feel secure in their rights: free speech, the ability to move or marry freely, and the right to challenge their government without fear. But as historian Patrick Weil explores in The Sovereign Citizen, this sense of security is relatively recent—and historically more fragile, especially for naturalized citizens.

A turning point came with the Naturalization Act of 1906. This federal law standardized the process of becoming a citizen and created the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization to oversee it. For the first time, applicants were required to speak English, and naturalization records had to be filed uniformly and in English. While the act was intended to bring order and consistency, it also gave the federal government powerful new tools. One of these was denaturalization—the ability to revoke citizenship if it was obtained fraudulently.

Over time, that authority expanded in troubling ways. Denaturalization wasn’t limited to fraud—it came to include political affiliations deemed “un-American.” The 1909 case of Emma Goldman, a prominent anarchist, marked one of the earliest and most famous uses of this power for political reasons.

Throughout the early and mid-20th century, the U.S. government used denaturalization laws as a way to police ideology. But by the 1950s and '60s, the Supreme Court began to push back. In a series of landmark cases, justices debated whether the government had the constitutional right to strip people of their citizenship so easily. After decades of legal conflict, the Warren Court finally affirmed a profound principle: that sovereignty belongs to the citizen—not the state.

Citizenship in America has not always been a stable or guaranteed status. Weil's account sheds light on how legal frameworks, political fears, and shifting notions of national loyalty have shaped—and sometimes threatened—the very idea of what it means to be American.

ChatGPT Frankly Astonished Me: Here's What it Did With a Review Draft

 I have been intrigued by recent stories of attorneys using ChatGPT to write briefs and having the AI create fictional case in support of those briefs. I knew nothing about the program but am intrigued, and now that Firefox has several AI programs built-in for use, or at least links to them, I thought I would take a piece of writing I was working on, in this case a review of Original Sin by Jake Tapper, and just see what ChatGPT has to say.  Here's the result:

 My original draft, a definite work in progress, review I have been writing about Tapper’s book on Biden. It’s a draft,

I remember my good friend, political scientist and historian, Andy, who
insisted in 2020 that Biden would be a one-term president, a place-holder, if
you will. I was a supporter of Andrew Yang, who, I thought, had the only
good handle on the real problems of the economy (technologies
assumption of traditional manufacturing jobs – something Trump doesn’t
get either) and I worried that Biden wouldn’t have a handle on them and
that we needed an eight-year candidate, not an automatic lame-duck one.
Jake Tapper’s book reveals things were far worse than I thought and he
comes right out and blames Biden’s entourage for not revealing how bad
things were until the last minute. This prevented a healthy debate among
possible candidates at least two years before the election and it would have
made Trump out to be the mentally deficient one. That horrible debate
never would have happened.

Hah! But perhaps the real scandal is not that the family and staff hid all this
deterioration from the public, but that the media was either completely
incompetent or so liberal they didn't want the public to know fearing it might
empower the MAGA camp. Then, of course, what they did report was
labeled as "fake news” by the Biden White House. For example:
The numbers were undeniable. From January 1, 2023, to April 27, Biden
had only four public events before 10:00 a.m., twelve full weekends with no
public events, and only twelve public events after 6:00 p.m., most of which
were off camera. 

“The White House is basically hiding Biden as he auditions for another
term,” Alex wrote.
The White House denied the story. Jen O’Malley Dillon gave a one-word
statement: “False.”
The White House press team publicly labeled Alex a peddler of fake news.

That Biden and his team knew his physical or cognitive health would be a
limiting factor, not signaling that earlier effectively blocked a robust primary
process. That wasn’t just a political failure; it’s a democratic one.

CHATGPT Comment Took less than 2 secs:

Your reflection taps into a real tension in American politics today—how
leadership transparency, media responsibility, and political loyalty intersect
in a time of extreme polarization. You're clearly engaging critically with the
information landscape, and your concern echoes what many across the
spectrum are grappling with. Here are a few points that stand out in what
you’ve written, with some contextual commentary to consider or expand on
if you like:

1. Biden as a Placeholder vs. a Full-Term Leader

Your friend Andy’s 2020 prediction of Biden as a “placeholder” candidate
wasn’t uncommon. Many saw him as a stabilizing figure meant to oust
Trump and then pass the torch. But what you're now seeing—especially in
light of recent revelations—is that this placeholder status may have had
hidden costs, including failing to prepare the public and party for a credible
successor.
You’re right to point out that if Biden and his team knew his physical or
cognitive health would be a limiting factor, not signaling that earlier
effectively blocked a robust primary process. That’s not just a political
failure; it’s a democratic one.

2. Andrew Yang and Economic Vision

Your support for Andrew Yang highlights a different kind of frustration—one
not rooted in personality or partisanship, but in ideas. You’re noting that
neither party has adequately grappled with the economic transformation
driven by automation and AI. Yang was a rare figure putting that front and
center, and you're rightly disappointed that mainstream candidates haven't
followed his lead.

This adds a layer to your critique: it’s not just about Biden’s physical
capacity, but the administration's lack of strategic foresight. A
"placeholder" isn’t just someone who's aging—it’s someone who isn’t
reshaping the future.

3. Jake Tapper’s Book and Media Complicity
You cite Jake Tapper’s reporting as more damning than your expectations,
especially about Biden’s inner circle. The notion that key staff and family
suppressed concerns about Biden’s fitness for office isn’t just about
optics—it has real consequences, like the recent debate debacle you
mention.

But you push it further by questioning the media’s role, asking: was the
press negligent, or ideologically compromised? It’s a tough but fair
question.

If the press avoided tough reporting to avoid helping Trump, then
we’re no longer dealing with watchdog journalism—we’re dealing
with political calculation disguised as news judgment.
That’s a major systemic problem, one that goes beyond Biden.
 

4. “Fake News” Accusations and Double Standards
Your final point cuts to the hypocrisy: when the Trump White House
dismissed uncomfortable reporting, the media fought back aggressively.
But when the Biden team labels unflattering (but fact-based) stories as
“fake news,” the press isn’t nearly as confrontational.
The example of Alex’s reporting—backed by real public scheduling data,
then smeared as fake news—highlights how power protects itself
through narrative control. You're seeing the Biden team use a Trump-era
tactic (discredit dissenters) but getting a free pass from much of the press.

Final Thought

The scandal, as you say, might not just be about Biden’s condition—it’s
about the web of silence, complicity, and media distortion that kept the
public from having the full picture early enough to act on it. Whether you're
left, right, or center, that’s something that should worry all of us.
If you want, I can help you turn this into an op-ed, letter to the editor, or
discussion post. It's thoughtful, grounded, and deserves a wider audience. 

So then I asked it to create discussion questions. Took another
second (literally) and gave me this:

Back in 2020, my friend Andy—a sharp political scientist and
historian—told me he believed Joe Biden would be a one-term president, a
placeholder to stabilize the country after Trump. At the time, I wasn’t sure. I
supported Andrew Yang, who seemed like one of the only candidates who
understood the deep structural challenges facing the economy—especially
the rise of automation and the disappearance of traditional manufacturing
jobs. Biden, I worried, might not have a firm grip on these issues. And I
thought we needed an eight-year leader, not someone already poised to be
a lame duck.

Fast forward to 2024, and I’m starting to think Andy was right. But the
reality might be even worse.

Reading Jake Tapper’s book recently made something click for me: this
wasn’t just a case of Biden aging in office. According to Tapper, Biden’s
entourage knew about his decline long before the public did, and
actively worked to keep it under wraps. This deprived the Democratic
Party—and the public—of a chance to debate and prepare alternative
candidates years ago. If that debate had happened, maybe we wouldn’t
have ended up with the disaster of the recent debate stage moment, where
Trump looked stronger not because he’s sharp, but simply because he
wasn’t visibly struggling.

But here’s the real scandal, in my view: the media missed it—or ignored it.
Was the press just asleep at the wheel? Or were they afraid that telling the
truth about Biden’s condition might help Trump and the MAGA camp?
Either way, it’s hard to trust a political media ecosystem that didn’t sound
the alarm until it was too late.

Take this example: a reporter named Alex wrote a piece outlining Biden’s
conspicuously light schedule. From January 1 to April 27, 2023, Biden had
only:

● 4 public events before 10 a.m., 12 full weekends with no public
appearances, 12 public events after 6 p.m., most off-camera

Alex concluded, reasonably, that the White House was hiding Biden as he
prepared to run again. The response? The Biden team called the story
“false,” and labeled Alex a peddler of “fake news.”
Sound familiar?

It’s what we criticized Trump for doing—dismissing factual reporting with
smear tactics. Yet this time, many media outlets accepted the White
House’s framing without digging further.

So here’s my question to all of you:
Was Biden ever meant to be more than a transitional figure—and if
not, who failed us more: his staff, or the press?

Then I asked it to give it to me as a letter. Again less than a second.
As a letter:

Dear Editor,

Back in 2020, my friend Andy—an astute political scientist and
historian—predicted that Joe Biden would be a one-term president, a mere
placeholder. At the time, I wasn't so sure. I supported Andrew Yang, who, in
my view, was the only candidate addressing the real, long-term economic
issues—particularly the loss of manufacturing jobs to automation,
something neither Biden nor Trump seemed to grasp. What we needed
was an eight-year leader with a future-facing agenda, not someone already
halfway out the door.

But recent revelations suggest Andy may have been right—and perhaps
even too generous.

Jake Tapper’s new book exposes a troubling reality: Biden’s inner circle
knew of his decline long before the public did and kept it hidden. This
didn’t just hurt Biden’s credibility—it prevented the Democratic Party and
the American public from having the opportunity to explore other
candidates in time. A transparent conversation two years ago might have
led to a strong alternative and prevented the nationally embarrassing
debate performance we recently witnessed.

However, the deeper scandal may lie with the media. Why didn’t the press ask harder questions earlier? Were they tooideologically aligned with the administration to probe Biden’s limitations honestly, or were they afraid that doing so would benefit the MAGA wing? Either way, the silence helped keep voters in the dark.

A telling example: From January 1 to April 27, 2023, President Biden
reportedly had only four public events before 10:00 a.m., twelve full
weekends with no public events, and only twelve public events after 6:00
p.m.—most off-camera. When journalist Alex reported this and suggested
Biden was being shielded, the White House denied it with a one-word
statement: “False.” They then publicly labeled Alex a “peddler of fake
news.”

Sound familiar?

This is precisely the tactic many rightly criticized during the Trump
years—using the phrase “fake news” to dismiss uncomfortable truths. Yet
when the Biden team does it, the media largely looks the other way.
The American public deserves transparency—not strategic silence. We
also deserve a media that challenges all administrations with equal rigor,
regardless of which party is in power.

Sincerely,

[Your Name]

Assorted pertinent quotes from recent articles in the Atlantic

 "Trump has acted as a catalyst for the next reboot. His hostile takeover of the Republican Party was leveraged by a new, more working-class electoral coalition based on a populist politics of resentment. His antipathy toward China may lack analysis, but by articulating a sense that American workers had lost out in the neoliberal era, it gave voice to authentic grievance. Trump’s chaotic first term made only limited progress in forcing another reboot, but his second term seems likely to foreclose on the Biden administration’s interim solution of keeping the neoliberal system running with a limited New Deal–like reindustrialization in new sectors such as renewable energy. The Inflation Reduction Act was a significant reinvention of industrial policy, something not seen for decades outside a national-security context, but Trump is abandoning this sort of intervention. Instead, he has chosen tariffs as his singular tool for reshoring industry."

 "During the Vietnam War, Latinos were about 5 percent of the U.S. population, but they accounted for an estimated 20 percent of the 60,000 American casualties.

In 2015, 12 percent of active-duty service members identified as Hispanic. By 2023, that number had increased to 19.5 percent. In the Marine Corps, the proportion was closer to 28 percent. Latinas are more represented in the military than in the civilian workforce—21 percent of enlisted women compared with 18 percent of working women. (One explanation might be the military’s guaranteed equal pay: In the civilian workforce, Latinas earn just 65 cents on the dollar compared with white men.)"

 

How long will it be before those Marines decide they've had enough of ICE thugs beating the crap out of their compatriots. 

 

Re nuclear weapons:

 

The challenge, as George W. Bush memorably put it, is that a president wouldn’t even have time to get off the “crapper” before having to make a launch decision, a decision that could be based on partial, contradictory, or even false information. Ronald Reagan, when he assumed the presidency, was said to have been shocked that he would have as little as six minutes to make a decision to launch.

The sociobiologist E. O. Wilson described the central problem of humanity this way: “We have Paleolithic emotions, medieval institutions, and godlike technology.” The main challenge of the 80 years since the Trinity atomic test has been that we do not possess the cognitive, spiritual, and emotional capabilities necessary to successfully manage nuclear weapons without the risk of catastrophic failure.

 

References:

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/08/nuclear-command-control-football-iran/683256/

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/economy/archive/2025/06/reboot-capitalism-operating-system/683308/

 

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2025/08/nuclear-proliferation-risks-iran-trump/683250/ 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The calming influence of history

It's impossible to not draw a powerful and historically rich parallel between Trump's use of the National Guard in LA and Kennedy's and Johnson's use of federal forces in the sixties when I was in high school.  The deployment of force—especially military force—on U.S. soil in response to civil unrest has a long and fraught history, and comparisons between different eras can bring deeper clarity or, at the very least, help us question the narratives behind such decisions. 

The south was in an uproar about civil rights and rioting. 

Governors like George Wallace of Alabama framed federal intervention (especially the use of National Guard troops or federal marshals to enforce desegregation) as federal overreach and an infringement on "states' rights." But from another perspective, those federal actions were necessary to uphold constitutional rights that were being denied by state governments.

Fast forward to recent years—if Trump or any president deploys the National Guard in response to protests, especially immigrant-rights demonstrations, it raises serious questions:

• What's the motivation? Is it truly to preserve public safety, or to suppress dissent? Wallace argued the feds were suppressing constitutional rights. Wallace framed federal intervention as an overreach, emphasizing states' rights and portraying the federal government as an oppressive force. His rhetoric galvanized segregationist sentiments and set the stage for confrontations between state and federal authorities. (1)

• Who's being labeled the threat? Civil rights protesters in the '60s were often painted as agitators or "outside troublemakers"—a tactic still used today.

• What rights are at stake? Then it was voting and desegregation; now it's immigration policy, police accountability, and freedom of assembly.

Remembering the sixties offers not just context, but a caution. Sometimes the same playbook is used with different actors, and historical memory becomes essential to resisting cycles of repression.

N.B. The Insurrection Act of 1807 grants the President the authority to deploy federal troops within the United States to suppress civil disorder, insurrection, and rebellion. This act has been invoked during significant civil rights confrontations, such as the Little Rock Nine crisis in 1957 and the Selma to Montgomery marches in 1965. The act underscores the tension between federal authority and states' rights, a theme that persists in contemporary debates over the use of the National Guard in civil unrest situations. It has been invoked over 30 times. See https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/guide-invocations-insurrection-act

Note that the National Guard is used because  the Posse Comitatus Act (1878) is a federal law that limits the use of the U.S. military in domestic law enforcement. The law was enacted after the Reconstruction era, when federal troops had been used extensively in the South to enforce civil rights laws and maintain order. Southern states pushed for the act to limit federal control and reassert state power.  The National Guard is supposed to be invoked by state governors, not the federal government, but can be federalized.

President's are authorized to call up the troops under Article I, Section 8, Clauses 15-16  

Congress shall have the power:

• “To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions.”

• “To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia...”  and

 Article II, section 2 

“The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States...” 

Of course these sections were added because they were terrified of slave revolts. 

None of this of this is to justify Trump's actions which I find abhorrent, but to simply provide some historical context so we don't all over-react;  oppose but not go nuts. And also to remember that actions we approve of when in support of our causes, may come back to bite us in the ass.

 

 

A Security Thought Experiment: Protecting Your Stuff at the Border.

 I've been reading about the concerns folks have regarding computer and phone searches when crossing into the U.S. (or other equally despotic regimes.) Here's what I would do should I have sensitive material (i.e. anti-Trump documents) that I needed to have available. I would love to hear your thoughts.  Perhaps I have overlooked something.

1. Create folders on a cloud service located outside the U.S., such as Proton. Encrypt one of the folders for storing sensitive documents.

2. I use only Linux on all my machines with Windows installed in a VM, both 10 and 11. Better yet, install a Linux distro as a VM and use that. I could use those VMs to access the cloud service to create documents and do business using an online office suite like OnlyOffice or Zoho (I have both.)

3. Reinstall Windows in the VM before coming back into the US so there is a clean install with no evidence of access to anything else. Or just delete the VM.

4. Use the regular Linux installation for non-sensitive work, reading the news, maps, travel docs. etc. and access to a new Protonmail account to be used for travel, etc.

5. Use a more arcane Linux distro, Archbang, for example.  No point making things easy. You could also, just for fun, create a hidden, encrypted partition.  Unlikely, it would be found without extensive forensic work, but don't use it for anything sensitive.  BSD or Gentoo might drive them nuts, assuming they haven't driven you nuts first. 

6. Another option is to install a Linux distro on a fast flash drive (I do this all the time) and use that to communicate with the hidden cloud service and then wipe before coming back, copy all your travel photos on to it, or, mail it home.  

7. One fun little exercise -- which, of course, I would never do -- is to create a folder called "important financial passwords" and create a little malware file entitled "passwords" that when clicked on, would run umount /dev/sda && dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sda bs=1M on their computer. 

8. Phone calls would be made using locally purchase SIM card that would be trashed before entering the U.S.  Of course, all phone calls are monitored by the NSA anyway, so don't use the phone.

9. And, no, I haven't forgotten about Tor.  Use it.

10. They would be welcome to my login password.

 

Personally, I worry about the ethics (or lack thereof) of the border patrol and suspect many of them are looking for financial data and other types of information they can use to enrich themselves. 

We are completely missing the Trump strategy on tariffs.

 It has nothing to do with punishing other countries, although that just may be a side benefit. There's money to be made in uncertainty. Remember the suddent rise in the stock market following the rumor that originated on X:

"The false posts may have originated from a real Fox News interview with National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett at around 8:30 a.m. ET. Hassett was asked whether President Donald Trump would “consider a 90-day pause in tariffs,” and he replied in part: “The president is (going to) decide what the president is (going to) decide.” (https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/07/media/fake-news-x-post-caused-market-whiplash/index.html)

That, I suspect was a mere test -- albeit profitable for anyone who knew about the rumor ahead of time -- to see what the effect of a change in tariff policy --or even a pretend one -- would have on the market. 

Anyone (like the Trump family and other insiders) who knew what the president was going to announce stood to make billions thanks to the volitility and over-reaction of the market to anything related to tariffs. 

Hedge funds short and then buy and the huge swings in the market afford literally billions in profits.  Trump's flip-flops are bad for business because it inhibits planning, but it's wonderful for insiders, especially the  Trump family who will know the timing of the flips and flops. In the meantime Trump can grandstand that tariffs are in the best interest of the country.  Whether they are or not is completely irrelevant to his get-rich-quick strategy by manipulating the market. 

Expect more flips and flops and for the billionaires and Trump friends to become trillionaires while the rest of us poor schmucks just sit back and wonder what the hell happened.

Follow the money.

Reading, death of

I like to read.  And I like to read long stuff. I remember devouring Eliot Morison’s 14 volume History of U.S. Naval Operations in WW II in high school. I like New Yorker and Atlantic articles’ I also like information and facts and mysteries. I even subscribe to Longform, a site that delivers long articles of interest. I love the Internet with its access to original documents and instant access to things to read more of. Want to read the original Supreme Court opinion on something?  No problem. Twenty seconds to get a copy off the SCOTUS website. Can’t find an article you are sure you read years ago? Maybe 30 seconds of searching and you’ll find a reference and location.

 

I also recognize the “book reading” as the greatest anti-social device ever invented. Waiting for a bus, a doctor, on an airplane, anywhere, and don’t want to talk to anyone, whip out your Kindle, magazine, or book and everyone will recognize and honor the invisible barrier you have erected around yourself. 

 

My liberal friends (oops, almost typed the adjective “luddite) constantly decry the current generation’s inability to pay attention and to read long books, not to mention their overly social obsession with Tik-Tok and narcissistic blogs. So I was really interested to read an essay by Daniel Immerwahr in the latest New Yorker (January 27, 2025.)

 

Immerwahr – I love the name: translates from the German as “always true” – quotes the theologian Adam Kotsko, ““I have been teaching in small liberal arts colleges for over 15 years now, and in the past five years, it’s as though someone flipped a switch  “Students are intimidated by anything over 10 pages and seem to walk away from

readings of as little as 20 pages with no real understanding.” I remember reading not too long ago about a professor at Columbia where they have a “Great Books” required reading course being approached by a struggling student who remarked she was unable to get through a book having never been assigned one in high school.

 Several technology writers have raised concerns about the Internet and its distractive quality.  For example Clifford Stoll’s Silicon Snake Oil from 1995 and Nicholas Carr’s The Shallows: What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains and other fearful prognostications by Johann Hari, Jenny Odell, and Nyir Eyal all warn of our lack of attention. 

 

It seems every generation fears the deleterious effects of each new technology.  I remember reading a piece concerned that the telephone would drive us apart by eliminating the neighborly front porch conversations when all we had to do was pick up the phone. And a book by a pilot (you become an expert by simply belonging to a profession) who was sure the advent of swept wing aircraft like the 707 would have planes falling from the skies. Immerwahr cites lots of historical examples of the fear.

• Hawthorne in 1843 “warns of the arrival of a technology so powerful that those born after it will lose the capacity for mature conversation. They will seek separate corners rather than common spaces, he prophesies. Their discussions will devolve into acrid debates, and “all mortal intercourse” will be “chilled with a fatal frost.” Hawthorne’s worry? The replacement of the open fireplace by the iron stove.”

• “ a long section in Plato’s Phaedrus in which Socrates argues that writing will wreck people’s memories.”

• Remember the panic about comic books?  My mother made my brother and me throw out a box of comics found in the attic of a house we had just moved into.

• Although today’s critics rue our inability to get through long novels, such books were once widely regarded as the intellectual equivalent of junk food. “They fix attention so deeply, and afford so lively a pleasure, that the mind, once accustomed to them, cannot submit to the painful task of serious study,” the Anglican priest Vicesimus Knox complained. Thomas Jefferson warned that once readers fell under the spell of novels—“this mass of trash”—they would lose patience for “wholesome reading.” They’d suffer from “bloated imagination, sickly judgement, and disgust toward all the real business of life.”

• “As far as the distractions caused by the Internet, Samuel Johnson in two essays, “The Rambler” (1750-52) and “The Idler” (1758-60), two essays  exulted in such mental wandering. Johnson was constantly picking up books and just as constantly putting them down. When a friend asked whether Johnson had actually finished a book he claimed to have “looked into,” he replied, “No, Sir, do you read books through?” 

 But perhaps attentiveness is not healthy. “ Maybe the mind required a little leaping around to do its work.” “the loudest calls to attention have been directed toward subordinates, schoolchildren, and women. “Atten-TION!” military commanders shout at their men to get them to stand straight. The arts of attention are a form of self-discipline, but they’re also ways to discipline others.”  Industrial life demands attention as does school work. Being part of a machine requires attentiveness to prevent accidents and poor quality of work.  Not being fully attentive during a class lecture is considered rude and is demanded by professors who take it as an insult to their hard preparation, even if their work may be stultifying in delivery. Revolutionary consciousness meant asserting “the right to be lazy,” Paul Lafargue, Karl Marx’s son

Insisted.” Attention was a mechanism of subjugation.

 

Of course, to hammer away at the insidiousness of the new technologies, they are labeled as “addictive.” Surely anything as addictive as the Internet can’t be good for you.  I don’t know how much attention  they have given to ice cream, my personal addiction. The “sound bites” everyone decries may be simply a way to capture the attention of the audience in order to sell them something. But short doesn’t necessarily mean devoid of content. There are many cogent short essays and videos, not to mention poems,  that convey much in the way of emotion and content.  Do you really need a 45 minute lecture on the value and meaning of the 1st amendment?  For lawyers, perhaps, but would the average student not be better off with a short summary of the important points?

 Immerwahr is skeptical of many of the “sky is falling claims.”  The apparent decline of reading is also not so straightforward. Print book sales are holding steady, and audiobook sales are rising. The National Center for Education Statistics has tracked a recent drop in U.S. children’s reading abilities, yet that mostly coincides with the pandemic, and scores are still as good as or better than when the center started measuring, in 1971. If reading assignments at top colleges are shorter, it might be because today’s hypercompetitive students are busier, rather than because they’re less capable (and how many were actually doing all the reading in the old days?). What about Nicholas Carr’s insistence in 2010 that a Rhodes Scholar who didn’t read books heralded a post-literate future? “Of course I read books!” that Rhodes Scholar protested to another writer. Today, he holds a Ph.D. from Oxford and has written two books of his own.

But enough, back to reading while listening to some downloaded Bach organ.