Ryan Cooper

Ryan Cooper

I am currently the managing editor at The American Prospect. I wrote a book called How Are You Going to Pay for That?: Smart Answers to the Dumbest Question in Politics.

📍 Philadelphia

Idea: Make Bluesky a Cooperative

Mark Zuckerberg's attempted Twitter clone Threads is in sad shape. Immediately after its explosive launch, engagement tanked, and then tanked some more. Now with the userbase fading away, even brands—what Threads was seemingly designed to cater to above all else—are ditching the platform. I wouldn't say necessarily that

The Socialist Case for Supporting Ukraine

I've got a new video out, finally. You can watch it, or if you prefer reading or want to check my sources, the script is below. We’re now nearly a year and a half into Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. When the war started, many predicted a swift Russian

Geoengineering Is Going to Happen

In my last paid issue here, I discussed the virtual certainty that a heat wave megadeath disaster is going to happen at some point. Heat already kills more people than any other kind of natural disaster, and many places are already creeping up to the limit at which even young,

The Heat Wave Megadeath Is Coming

Intro note: I'm trying out a subscribers-only post here to provide some value for the folks who are paying. My fees on Ghost are now nearly $1,000 per year—frustratingly Substack is a better deal for lowbies like myself, but the hell with them. So I do need the

Dying Internet Blues

Back in November of last year I wrote about how I was scaling back my use of Twitter. Since then it's gotten much worse. Elon Musk has drastically degraded the site's functionality, he broke Tweetdeck (which was by far my favorite way to use the site, in part because you

Cornel West Made a Huge Mistake

Howdy folks. Here's my latest video project, on why it was such a disaster for Cornel West to run even for a week on the People's Party ticket: And here's a transcript with links to sources: You may have seen that famed leftist philosopher and activist Cornel West is running

Gun Control Works

Yet again we woke up to another mass shooting, yet again in Texas. I can't even muster the energy to try to describe how bleak it feels to barely even react to them now, but Luke O'Neil does a good job of that. Instead I'd like to emphasize that it's

The Matt Taibbi Story, Part II

Howdy folks, Ryan here. The last several days have produced an absolute wealth of material for a Matt Taibbi watcher like myself. Check out my previous video for the background on how he went from being a crusading Wall Street critic to a lickspittle toady for the richest person in

There and Back Again: The Glenn Greenwald Story

I recently finished a longish video about how Glenn Greenwald became a reactionary. But it occurs to me that people might like to simply read the script, so I'm posting that below. Howdy folks, Ryan here. So I’m a political journalist, and I am ashamed to admit that the

Glenn Greenwald's Trip Around the Political Spectrum

I've been chipping away at another video project for weeks and weeks, and it's finally finished: I enjoy the video stuff, but man is it a lot of work. The next one will probably be more off the cuff and less produced. On to some articles! Everyone should get a