On the last Angry Planet of 2025, novelist and Marine Corps veteran Phil Klay returns to reflect on a year of spectacle and cruelty.
Between the Pentagon’s boat strikes and the administration’s constant barrage of grotesque memes, it feels like America is a crueler and cruder place. For better and worse, the Presidency sets a moral standard for the country and Trump has lowered that standard. Klay wrote about all this in a piece at The New York Times and he’s here with us today to talk through it.
- “It’s too easy to condemn.”
- The project is spectacles of cruelty
- “You’re not supposed to be joining a gang of thugs.”
- What is this doing to us as a nation?
- The lust for cruelty and domination
- Klay’s review of Hegseth’s first year
- War vs. Defense
- “Read long things.”
- Living in the Hell of opinions
- Ending on a high note
What Trump Is Really Doing With His Boat Strikes
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Trump has accused boat crews of being narco-terrorists. The truth, AP found, is more nuanced
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