Orbán And Nations

The Post-Populist Dilemma

Yascha Mounk | 13th April 2026

Sober, sanguine reflections in the wake of Orbán’s crushing defeat at the polls in Hungary. “Most countries are neither perfect democracies nor outright dictatorships; they fall on some point along the messy continuum between the two.” The real risk is that “those in power are able to rewrite the rules of the game in their own favour without ever quite rendering democratic elections meaningless” (2,100 words)

Puzzle: Play Nomido, the Browser’s daily word game.

You Too Could Found A Nation

Brad Skow | Mostly Aesthetics | 10th April 2026

John Adams had poor social skills. Jefferson lived with his mother for much of his life and was awful at public speaking. Washington, in command of the Virginia Regiment in 1754, “fumbled an encounter with French troops”, inadvertently starting a war. He was “acquisitive” about land and used unscrupulous means to get it. Then in 1773, they dumped 340 chests of tea into the Boston harbour, making history (1,100 words)