Fascism doesn’t start by kicking down the door. Sometimes it demands a settlement, manipulates a corporate merger, cancels a comedian, or silences the press. Some thought it couldn’t happen here. But the evidence is all around us. Yesterday news broke that CBS is reportedly appointing Bari Weiss as editor-in-chief of its news division — part […]
Category: Opinion
Posted inFood
Texan Visits Maine, Immediately Becomes Insufferable About Lobster
If you live in or have just heard of Texas, you know about our barbecue — particularly brisket. It’s one of the foods most strongly associated with the state. Heck, it may as well be on our flag. And of all the other states with a strong identification with a particular food (Wisconsin and cheese […]
Posted inOpinion
The Free Speech Crisis for Black Americans Is Worse Than You Think
America, we have a problem. In the weeks since the assassination of conservative political activist Charlie Kirk, historically Black colleges and universities have experienced terroristic threats, Black students have been expelled or withdrawn for expressing their first amendment rights, and prominent Black journalists have been fired for social media posts. That’s a big news story, […]
Posted inOpinion
After a Year of Covering Texas, It Still Makes No Damn Sense
In this tumultuous American moment, Texas is still unique in its mind-boggling extremes. Texas loves to pick on queer kids. At least, the Texas Legislature does. We just wrapped up the 2025 legislative session(s) and, as has become a cruel habit of Texas politicians, lawmakers have once again made the lives of LGBTQ+ Texans harder. […]
Posted inOpinion
I Almost Died After Giving Birth. Texas Just Made That More Likely for Everyone.
I remember the moment my world went sideways: My daughter had just been born, warm against my chest, when the room shifted from joy to panic. I was hemorrhaging. My placenta was not delivering as it should. I kept asking, “Are we going to the OR?” Minutes stretched into an hour. Cabinets slammed. People rushed. […]
Posted inSports
I Can’t Believe I’m Saying This, But the Cowboys Documentary Made Me Like Jerry Jones
I grew up hating the Dallas Cowboys. Actually, “hate” is not a strong enough word. Detested? Loathed with the heat of a thousand suns? If you were around in the ’90s, you had no choice but to have a strong opinion about them. They were cocky, they were very good at football, and worst of […]
Posted inOpinion
They’re Making Texas Poorer, Meaner, and Less Free. You Don’t Have to Take It.
What a difference a year makes. Twelve months ago, when we launched The Barbed Wire, it felt like we were finally crawling out of the wreckage of Trump’s first term, maybe even headed toward a slightly less-shitty future. Sure, Texas was still Texas — stubborn, messy, allergic to progress — but wasn’t the arc of […]
Posted inTV & Film
Nicolandria’s Love Is a Balm for Black Women from the South
When I first read 27-year-old Olandria Carthen’s post-“Love Island USA” interview in Vulture, I knew exactly what she was trying to communicate to the American public about being in a highly visible, interracial relationship with Nicolas Vansteenberghe, 24. The couple, deemed “Nicolandria” by throngs of obsessed fans, went viral on the seventh season of the […]
Posted inCulture
Journalists Are Just as Fucked Up as Everyone Else. Admitting It Might Help Us Save Democracy.
I was sitting in the florescent haze of a conference room in New Orleans this June when something snapped in my chaotic brain. Thousands of journalists had descended like locusts on a Canal Street Marriott for the annual Investigative Reporters & Editors conference which, in my opinion, is the best (if most pretentious) gathering in […]
Posted inPolitics
Reenact ‘The Fugitive,’ Dodge Warrants & Catch the Cubs: 10 Things Texas Dems Can Do While on the Lam
As you probably know, more than 50 Texas House Democrats have skipped town to stop Gov. Greg Abbott and the Legislature from turning Texas’ congressional map into a racist GOP fever dream where every district somehow ends in Ted Cruz’s driveway. Most of our blue-shirted fugitives have landed in Illinois, land of deep-dish pizza, wind, […]