Elizabeth Bruenig

6 days ago | theatlantic.com | Elizabeth Bruenig

Fatherhood looms large in the MAGA imagination: Warming up crowds at a rally last year for Donald Trump, Tucker Carlson characterized the president as a disciplinarian dad incensed at the country’s decline—“When Dad gets home, you know what he says?” Carlson asked. “‘You’ve been a bad girl, you’ve been a bad little girl, and you’re getting a vigorous spanking right now.” Likewise, one popular brand of Trump-themed merchandise features the slogan Daddy’s Home.

1 week ago | theatlantic.com | Elizabeth Bruenig

Perpetuating humanity should be a cross-politics consensus, but the left was mostly absent at a recent pro-natalism conference. Children were everywhere at the second annual Natal Conference in Austin, Texas, last month, where people devoted to the cause of population growth gathered to swap ideas.

4 weeks ago | theatlantic.com | Elizabeth Bruenig

Silicon Valley, it seems, is coming to Jesus. There are no bad conversions, in my book; I was born and raised a Christian and remain one, and it’s good, from that standpoint, to see erstwhile nonbelievers take an interest in the faith, whatever the reason. Thus, I was cautiously optimistic as I read a recent Vanity Fair feature, by the writer Zoë Bernard, on emerging tech-world Christianity.

1 month ago | internazionale.it | Elizabeth Bruenig

Negli Stati Uniti esiste una contraddizione profonda sulla pena di morte, radicata nell’ottavo emendamento: il governo può legalmente uccidere una persona (la tortura di tutte le torture) ma non può sottoporla a sofferenze superflue. Il paradosso è evidente: il detenuto viene protetto da una violenza minore mentre subisce una violenza suprema. Da questa confusione nasce la necessità di esecuzioni relativamente indolori.

1 month ago | theatlantic.com | Elizabeth Bruenig

There is a contradiction deep within American capital punishment, driven by the stubborn fact of the Eighth Amendment: It’s licit for the government to kill people—the torture of all tortures—but not to subject them to additional pain, a protection from lesser suffering in service of greater suffering. From this confusion arises the necessity of relatively painless executions.