Freddie deBoer

privilege, celebrity, and the end of up from below fine Americans I never met my paternal grandfather, John James deBoer. He died twelve years before I was born. Drank himself to death, or so I understand. I’m afraid there’s no one left to ask for the details. I concede that these things are complicated, and alcohol has been a family curse, on both sides, going back generations. But there’s no question, really, that his later-life dissolution stemmed from having been a victim of the Red Scare.

AUDIO FIXED: Optimistic-Ish Thoughts About the Future this video has more goddamn versions than Blade Runner Please forgive my incompetence in trying to get this video uploaded in working form! Fixed now. Sorry to fill your inbox. Just a too-long discussion of where this newsletter is going, where I’m going, and what I hope to secure in the years ahead. Bottom line: please don’t worry about my mental health or happiness. I’ve never been better in those regards.

Optimistic-Ish Thoughts About the Future! Just a too-long discussion of where this newsletter is going, where I’m going, and what I hope to secure in the years ahead. Bottom line: please don’t worry about my mental health or happiness. I’ve never been better in those regards. Please, though, do preorder All In Your Head and post about it and tell your friends and (if you’re brave) fight against the review-bombing hordes at Goodreads.

Hello folks! Here’s the latest bimonthly roundup of writing written by subscribers, for the month of July 2026. Readers, please take a little time and see if any of these descriptions appeals to you. This post will exceed the allowed size of most email clients so please click through! I’ve discovered so much great writing through these roundups, and many who submit things report that they’ve meaningfully grown their audience this way.

Forgive me for the inexcusable delay this week…. We’ve now seen three extraterrestrial human settlements, and I think it continues to be the case that their conditions are the most direct that Gibson gets when it comes to social or moral commentary in Neuromancer. Zion was built by workers who walked off a job and then turned the master’s tools into thei…

imperfect reality can’t win in a culture of fantasy and they all lived in a state of uncomplicated bliss forever after Catherine Liu has a new piece out looking at the unconditional victory that “the personal is political” has scored in progressive spaces.

For the first time in 15 years, I’m back in the pages of Playboy, parsing survey data about Gen Z’s attitudes towards sex and romance. I also have a piece up in a wonderful new collection from The Lamp about the seven deadly sins; I tackle pride. And you can find me on C. Derrick Varn’s podcast talking education from last month here. It’s a really good big-picture look at my broader thoughts on education. With promo season here, there’s a lot more where this came from coming up.

Why does it feel like everything is breaking down, like something is fundamentally wrong with the American economy? Unemployment rates stay stubbornly low despite constant predictions, inflation is worse than recent history but not that bad compared to living memory, stocks are at all-time highs, manufactured goods remain remarkably affordable. So why is confidence in the economy so low?

It’s that time again! This is a call for submissions for my bimonthly roundup of subscriber writing, where I publish links to the written work my subscribers want to share. All submissions should be made via the Google Form. Don’t worry about formatting in terms of bolding and linking; just enter the information as requested in the form. Deadline for this month is Sunday, September 27th, at 10 PM EST.

Well, things are not looking good for our intrepid crew, which is not much of a crew anymore. Armitage is dead, the construct that was his personality given up the ghost, and then Corto is too, blown out of an airlock, which feels like a very classic sci-fi way to go. Riviera, to the shock of no one, has switche…