The Outline

Alex Nichols

Alex Nichols
Culture Dec 24

Christmas shall not be saved

Because it never needed to be!

Culture Dec 12

The right’s attempt at pop culture is hilariously wrong

Two new ventures, POPlitics and the Patriot Awards, show the right imagining TV without the liberal bias. It’s very bad.

 
Power Nov 21

We’re in dire need of new websites, and all we get is ‘The Recount’

The Bank of America-backed political video startup, helmed by veteran hack John Heilemann, would have been out of touch even five years ago.

Power Nov 11

Donald Trump Jr.’s ‘Triggered’ is the work of a (rich) child

This book sucks!

Power Oct 14

Kurt Schlicter is the nutjob of the moment

The middling conservative commentator is Trump’s favorite new guy, but who is he?

Power Sep 16

John Bolton and the end of coherent political narratives

Trump’s national security adviser was fired before he could even start a single war. What is this world we’re living in!

Culture Sep 10

The Joker is simply a clown who loves crime

Despite what critics might say, he is not a harbinger of societal doom.

Culture Aug 13

Don’t talk to me before I put on my custom graphic T-shirt

How expressive T-shirts evolved from activism to incoherence.

Power Jul 16

The are 15 months until the election. The race is already dumb as hell.

If you thought the hacks had learned a lesson about campaign coverage from 2016 you will be disappointed.

Power Jun 26

Slender Man for Boomers

The offshoots of the QAnon conspiracy theory have gone to even darker places.

Power May 30

The worst conservative podcasts

There are no good ones, but these count as war crimes.

Power Apr 11

Please... god... anyone but Joe Biden

Biden would be an awful choice for the 2020 Democratic nominee even if he respected women’s personal space.

Power Mar 14

We live in hell so of course Jim Bakker is still here

Only a televangelist who's a convicted felon could come up with the incredibly bizarre ‘Jim Bakker Show.’

Power Jan 24

Crowdfunding for idiots

The GOP has always fleeced morons and senior citizens. Now they're just more literal about it.

Power Dec 31

‘Q’ the end credits for the internet’s lamest conspiracy theory

Unfortunately, the end times are likely not nigh, despite what far-right cranks say online.

Power Nov 27

Diamond and Silk run the most obvious con on the right

The Fox News duo stars in ‘Dummycrats,’ a new and terrible documentary.

Culture Nov 06

Gentle reminder: you are a goddamn adult

‘Gmorning, Gnight!: Little Pep Talks for Me & You,’ by Jonny Sun and Lin-Manuel Miranda, panders to its audience in the worst of ways.

Culture Oct 12

TikTok make it stop

TikTok will never replace Vine, no matter how hard it tries.

The Future Sep 17

Message to my haters: You are correct, I’m a Neanderthal

I am more Neanderthal than 96 percent of 23andme customers. What does this mean?

Power Sep 07

A brief history of batshit conservative boycotts

Mutilating socks, burning disco records, shooting a newspaper with a gun: all surprisingly ineffective forms of objection.

Power Aug 27

Everyone please ignore Michael Avenatti

Let us pray that the celebrity lawyer does not seek higher office.

Culture Aug 06

Somehow, Dinesh D’Souza is a worse filmmaker than he is an historian

‘Death of a Nation’ is a godawful movie that manages to be both racist and boring.

Power Jul 27

The Gray Lady loves these racist, white teens

Diaper-wearing conservative youth group Turning Point USA keeps tricking credulous reporters into taking them seriously.

Power Jul 09

Alan Dershowitz should not have had friends to lose

The lawyer and Harvard professor has made a business of defending the deplorable.

Power Jun 26

Fuck civility

Go ahead, heckle a Trump official.

Culture Jun 07

Dennis Miller’s new podcast is an incoherent marvel

The content of ‘The Dennis Miller Option’ exists in a strange purgatory between right-wing provocation and confused-grandpa doddering.

Power May 30

A new documentary leaves out the unflattering parts of John McCain’s life

‘John McCain: For Whom the Bell Tolls’ was made to spit-shine the senator’s image.

Power May 21

It’s fine to be mean to racists and ghouls

The smug morality of journalists rarely serves anyone but themselves.

Power May 03

Stop trusting the self-mythology of the worst people on the internet

Self-described “incels” are unreliable narrators of their own predicament.

Power Apr 24

No Labels is the most useless force in American politics

The aggressively centrist nonprofit is an exercise in bipartisan futility.

Power Apr 02

So-called ‘intellectuals’ can’t let go of “The Bell Curve”

Racism — they just love it!

Power Mar 21

The dark overlord of the deranged far-right

Infowars editor Jerome Corsi’s new book is a case study in the persistence of misinformation.

Culture Mar 05

Premium Twitter feeds are for suckers

I know, because I read them.

Culture Feb 20

Crybaby boomers

Boomers claim we’re heading toward puritanism — but if we are, it’s their fault

Culture Feb 08

Please buy our product that makes you so mad

‘Lady Doritos’ and the new, facile culture wars.

Power Jan 25

Revolutionize football with this one simple trick

If you want to hasten the demise of the NFL, root for the Patriots.

Power Jan 16

The no-good, totally awful people running for Senate in Arizona

A parade of clowns is lining up for the vacant seat.

Power Jan 08

The dumbest president

Michael Wolff’s new book solidifies Trump’s legacy as a petulant man-child with a rodent’s attention span.

Power Dec 29

The finest meltdowns of 2017

It was a banner year for tantrums, online and off.

Power Dec 20

The absurd conservative obsession with “stolen valor”

Nothing gets them feeling righteously angry like someone pretending to have served in the military.

Culture Dec 14

The meek shall crowdfund the earth

Why do we give money to viral sob stories?

Power Nov 29

Why are Newsweek and The New York Times using troll tactics for clicks?

There’s a new form of clickbait in town, and it doesn’t work.

Power Nov 21

Why are these people defending Al Franken?

The left has conspiracy theorists, too.

Power Nov 17

Congress’s forgotten pedophile

Former Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert was a celebrated politician — and a serial child molester.

Power Nov 10

The blog nobody needs

It’s Wonkette.

Power Nov 02

Searching too hard for ‘Real America’

Much-publicized forays into the heartland are largely self-serving.

Power Oct 20

The lame nonprofit that’s trying to make young conservatives cool

Turning Point USA’s overtures to the youth are embarrassing.

Power Oct 13

Where are the #Resistance phonies now?

Catching up on the sentient Twitter bots who used liberal delusion over Trump for retweets.

Power Oct 03

Dinesh D’Souza is the perfect propagandist for Trump’s America

The conservative commentator is a liar and openly racist. No wonder Republicans love him.

Power Sep 21

Megan McArdle has a lot of bad ideas

And, unfortunately, the Bloomberg columnist publishes five times a week.

Power Sep 13

The Democrats who can’t quit Hillary Clinton

Who remains devoted to Hillary in late 2017, and why?

Power Sep 06

The strange life of Peter Daou

Why do powerful people pay him to do things?

Power Sep 03

Who’s afraid of BDS?

The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement is flawed, but has good intentions.

Culture Aug 24

The infinite awfulness of conservative rap

Is there nothing the right can’t destroy?

Power Aug 14

Political correctness doesn’t kill people

Handwringing over campus activists who “censored” alt-right speakers looks misplaced after the violence in Charlottesville.

Power Aug 10

Things are bad, and David Frum makes them worse

The ubiquitous commentator has been beating the war drum for nearly two decades.

Culture Aug 09

‘Ready Player One’ is a terrible book and it will be a terrible movie

It’s nerd culture gone awry.

Power Jul 14

Stop patronizing the working class

Why are pundits obsessed with Applebee’s and farm workers?

Culture Jul 10

The unceremonious demise of Heat Street

The website aimed at young conservatives never really made much sense.

Power Jul 03

The utter inanity of the conservative health care debate

The Republican party is grasping at straws to make a lucid argument for their Affordable Care Act replacement.

Power Jun 26

Jim Messina: A case study in political failure

How did a much-hyped, highly paid political consultant amount to nothing?

Power Jun 14

Ben Sasse is a Millennial-bashing baby

The Nebraska senator’s new book blames the young for society’s ills.

Culture May 30

No more commencement speakers

Let graduates go in peace.

Power May 24

A guide to conservative publications

Which ones are trolling you, and which ones are simply bad?

Power May 15

Who cares what college students think?

A lot of journalists, and it’s weird.

Power Apr 27

America, the pitiful: Trump’s first 100 days

It’s been painful, but also funny.

Power Apr 21

Ass-chewing and schadenfreude: Inside Hillary’s failed campaign

A new tell-all details Clinton's bid for the presidency.

Power Apr 11

Everybody loves War Trump

All it took were some bombs to turn Trump into Churchill.

Culture Apr 07

The relentless consumerism of “unboxing videos”

Why do we like to watch people buy and unwrap things?

Power Mar 31

Why are we still talking about poor whites?

Liberals' post-election obsession with the white working class is unproductive and hardly accurate.

Power Mar 15

Protesting racists is as American as free speech

Stop protesting the protesters. Give it a rest

The Future Mar 08

It’s time for Twitter to bring out the nukes

The only way to get rid of trolls is to kick them out — for good.

Culture Mar 02

Your political Harry Potter references are Riddikulus

A cursory knowledge of pop culture will never be useful as a political tool.

Power Feb 14

Dilbert creator Scott Adams is the worst blogger

The low culture representative has taken to right-wing buffoonery.

Power Feb 03

Meet the cucks of the #NeverTrump movement

They’re here, they’re opportunistic, and they're not going away.

Power Jan 19

Jonathan Chait’s Audacity celebrates a centrist mirage of success

A paean to Obama falls flat.

Power Jan 04

The agony and the ecstasy of Kurt Eichenwald

If Eichenwald is the voice of anything, it is of the sickness that plagues the left.

Culture Dec 30

Tim Allen’s career is a metaphor for America

From bad to worse.

Culture Dec 07

Memes do not matter

Pepe didn't swing the election.