Common Sense with Bari Weiss

Social media is mostly garbage. My own feed is crammed with doomsday predictions and ads for scammy diets. But every once in a while, between the hashtags and the hysteria, a jewel presents itself. Like Cole Summers. I never met Cole Summers in real life. But I was completely floored by what I learned about him—and from him—online. At first, to be honest, I worried this kid was just too good to be true.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis earned uncommon rebuke from conservative pundits last week, when he indicated he might sic Child Protective Services on parents who take their children to drag shows. “I’m a very big fan of DeSantis and very not a fan of kids at drag shows,” writer Bethany Mandel wrote on Twitter. “But conservatives have to recognize the Pandora’s box we’re opening by involving CPS in judgment call parenting decisions.

Drag queen "Pickle" reads from a book during Drag Queen Story Hour at the West Valley Regional Branch Library in Los Angeles. (David McNew via Getty Images) If you read Common Sense, you know that the best day of the week is Friday, when Nellie Bowles delivers us all the news from the week that was.

→ Inflation is the only story: Until Biden can get this under control, there’s nothing to talk about but inflation, which is wreaking havoc on every American. This week inflation hit 8.6%, the fastest annual pace in 40 years. Consumer sentiment fell to an all-time low. Grocery prices rose nearly 12% in a year. Rents are soaring—up 15% and the average cost of a rental across the U.S. hit $2,000 a month. The stock market is down 21% from its highs, and we’ve officially entered a bear market.

We live in a culture that is driven by naysaying. In one corner, people insist that the individual stands no chance against structural and systemic maladies. In the other, people say that we are in inexorable decline as a civilization and that decadence is everywhere we turn. Both wind up arguing against risk-taking, against the possibility of creating new things and new worlds.

Tulsa. Buffalo. Uvalde. Philadelphia. Chicago. And that’s just the past few weeks. If you’re like me, you’ve had too many despairing conversations about the epidemic of gun violence in this country to count. This isn’t that. This is a conversation about what can actually, practically be done. David French is a senior editor of The Dispatch and the author of “Divided We Fall,” among other books. David is a veteran. He is also, as you’ll hear, a gun owner.

On May 31, 2018, Desiree Andrade was scrolling through Facebook when she saw a local news report about the body of an unidentified man found at the base of a canyon in the forest north of Los Angeles. Andrade’s son, Julian, who was 20, had disappeared two days earlier. So she called the police. “I was giving facial features,” she told me, “and the lady on the other end said, ‘You know, ma’am, facial features aren’t going to work.

There’s an old Onion headline that came out right after Sandy Hook. Here was the headline: ‘No Way To Prevent This,’ Says Only Nation Where This Regularly Happens. It’s a smart, dark joke. It also has the rare distinction of never getting old. That Onion headline resurfaces every few weeks—lately, every few days. Tulsa. Buffalo. Uvalde. Philadelphia. Chicago. And on and on and on. If you’re like me, you’ve had too many despairing conversations about the epidemic of gun violence in this country to count.

Hi from Nellie — I hope you’re having a wonderful weekend. Common Sense is my home, but sometimes I moonlight (which hopefully brings in new subscribers!). This past week, I wrote a big story in the Atlantic about a topic we’ve covered here before and that Common Sense readers know well: The state of San Francisco. It’s a hopeful story, in the end. Because this was the week Chesa Boudin was handily recalled from office. Thank you for reading. And see you, as always, on Friday.

Another week of headlines that catch our collective eye. Plus the roundup of what you might have missed on Common Sense. TGIF to one and all. See you in the comments. → January 6: Last night, the House select committee on January 6 held its first hearing on the infamous riot at the U.S. Capitol. The committee is chaired by Rep. Bennie Thompson, Democrat from Mississippi, and vice chaired by Rep. Liz Cheney, Republican of Wyoming. No American in good conscience can abide the chaos of that day.