Back in the USA mailbag

Winning the lottery, the myth of political capital, and the work of art in the age of digital reproduction

Vacation was lovely but it is nice to be back home enjoying all that America has to offer — primarily ice water, vented driers, and spicy food. And of course some spicy takes to complement it all.

dysphemistic treadmil: Does it make it harder for you to recruit guest essayists when your commenters are so ill-mannered and horrible to them?

Sadly, I don’t have access to the counterfactual universe where y’all are nicer, so I can’t say for sure.

Rustbeltjacobin: Let’s say you hit the lottery. Not the “start a blog in 1999” lottery that you did hit, but some unspecified windfall made it so you no longer had to concern yourself with making a living from your endeavors. What project would you do then?

Probably something very similar to what I’m doing now, just without the subscriptions.

If the jackpot was really enormous and I had enough money to start giving out grants, I’d probably try to do more stuff in the YIMBY space.

Jake Mulcahy: What do you think of the macro debate behind the race be…