Slate Plus members,
We need your help! For Slate’s 20th anniversary, we want you to tell us the most memorable stories we’ve ever published. Our esteemed editor has all the details, but the short version is: Email us at 20@slate.com and tell us the Slate stories that have stuck in your mind over the past two decades. We’re excited for two more, by the end of which Slate will likely be published on thin wafers that effervesce into provocative arguments on your tongue.
From Slate
It’s been a busy morning as we raced to come to terms with the U.K.’s vote to leave the European Union.
- “David Cameron has secured his place as one of the worst prime ministers ever,” observes Jordan Weissmann, and who could disagree?
- Joshua Keating tells an amazing story from the Abkhazia-Georgia border that reveals what the EU really means
- Even “Leave” voters realize they’ve made a huge mistake. But will Brexit even happen? (Yeah, probably.)
- June Thomas explains how a rude, bigoted idiot outsmarted the political elite. Whereas I think the political elite outsmarted themselves.
- Yascha Mounk worries about what this means for democratic institutions worldwide.
- Reihan Salam explains what immigration really means to Britons (it’s not only about race).
- And Daniel Gross points out that the things Britain just rejected—movement of goods, services, and people—are the very things it pioneered.
Not From Slate, Not About Brexit
- This is the smartest thing I read about Microsoft’s acquisition of LinkedIn. (If you’re interested in MSFT/LNKD, don’t miss the funniest episode of Slate Money ever.)
- This paean to the National Park Service’s maps is fascinating even if you don’t care about maps.
- “Every era gets the domestic goddesses it deserves, and in 2016, we have Gwyneth Paltrow and Chrissy Teigen.”
- Gawker called out the New York Times and was right.
- I found this post, nominally about working at a suicide crisis hotline, to be profound and useful.
- OK, here’s a Trump thing. (It’s funny and weirdly convincing.)
Very Short Q-and-A
This week’s personal question is addressed to Slate culture critic and Outward editor June Thomas.
As a transplanted Briton, how do you feel about the Brexit vote?
I left Britain in the 1980s, and when I go back now, it seems like a different country—far more cosmopolitan, progressive, and prosperous. That last adjective will seem unthinkable to some people—of course, years of austerity have immiserated millions—but if your point of comparison is Manchester circa 1982, 2016 doesn’t seem so bad. That’s why the Brexit vote is so utterly depressing. It’s a turn toward the past, a past that doesn’t seem half as glorious to me as it apparently does to the people I grew up with who voted “Leave” yesterday.
When I go home now, I’m shocked by how huggy and kissy Brits have become, so I know their emotional register is different these days. Still, I can’t help thinking that my countrymen are never happier than when they’re miserable (and muttering “mustn’t grumble!”). Maybe they love suffering so much, they brought more on themselves.
Or perhaps I know nothing about Britons. Just the other night, I told an expat that I was sure my mother hand voted “Leave.” When I asked her, she told me she’d voted “Remain.” So, really, I’m not sure who to blame.
Thanks, June.
And thank you for your Slate Plus membership, which makes our journalism possible. See you next week!
Gabriel Roth
Editorial director, Slate Plus
