Matt Johnson

“Not a day goes by that I don’t ask myself, ‘What would Christopher say about this?’ Matthew Johnson’s brilliant reappraisal of the Hitchens corpus illuminates how Hitchens can save not just the left, but our entire, impoverished political discourse.”

James Kirchick, New York Times bestselling author of Secret City: The Hidden History of Gay Washington
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“It’s like reuniting with a long-parted friend to open this book and reenter the mind and world of Christopher Hitchens.”

David Frum, Atlantic columnist and author of Trumpocalypse: Restoring American Democracy
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“Excellent … Johnson offers more than an examination of Christopher Hitchens’s life and thought. His research takes him from the controversies about the Russian Revolution to today’s culture wars. No one reading it can deny that there has been a jolting cultural change in the US left over the past 10-15 years.”

Nick Cohen, author of What’s Left? How the Left Lost Its Way


Recent work

MSNBC, Tulsi Gabbard can’t be trusted to run American intelligence
The Bulwark, Gabbard and RFK Jr. were nominated to destroy, not to lead
Quillette, The open society and its new enemies
Persuasion, The deep and dangerous roots of Trump’s foreign policy
MSNBC, How Trump’s new ‘AI czar’ David Sacks went from MAGA critic to true believer
Quillette, ‘There’s nothing mystical about the idea that ideas change history’: An interview with Steven Pinker
The Bulwark, ‘Identity politics’ isn’t why Harris lost
The Daily Beast, Is Bari Weiss embarrassed by the Intellectual Dark Web?
The UnPopulist, Joe Rogan: A conspiracist for the Trump era
MSNBC, Trump’s ‘unity’ allies aren’t renegade liberals — they’re fringe, opportunistic right-wingers
Quillette, Towards a new liberal international order
Persuasion, A new paradigm for assisted dying
The Daily Beast, Jordan Peterson’s astounding ignorance on Russia and Ukraine
The UnPopulist, Niall Ferguson: The intellectual underwriter of Trump’s ‘American carnage’ idea
Quillette, Nationalist self-hatred
Haaretz, Why Tucker Carlson hates Ukraine so much
The Bulwark, Now is the worst time to abandon NATO
Quillette, Liberalism and the West’s ‘crisis of meaning’
Persuasion, We keep failing the blasphemy test
The Daily Beast, Left-wing defenses of Hamas are an insult to Palestinians
The Bulwark, When Hamas tells you who they are, believe them
Persuasion, The God divide within the heterodox community
Quillette, How Effective Altruism lost its way
The Daily Beast, Jordan Peterson’s constant state of delusional panic



Media appearances

Category: Uncategorized

  • From America with love

    *Originally published in Political Fiber, July 2, 2012 As Syria sinks into chaos and the world continues to cringe, it looks like Russia is at it again with a boatload of weapons and helicopters bound for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his henchmen. But Russia is on notice: Being a principle…

  • The doctor and the Gipper

    *Originally published in Political Fiber, May 4, 2012 I just paid a visit to Ron Paul’s official campaign website. Under the “ISSUES” heading, “NATIONAL DEFENSE” is listed right before “END THE FED.” Curious as I am about Ron Paul’s rabid aversion to effective monetary policy, I clicked on the former. Under…

  • Iran isn’t Iraq

    *Originally published in Political Fiber, April 20, 2012 Last November, the International Atomic Energy Agency issued its most alarming report to date on Iran’s veiled nuclear enrichment program. At the bottom of page 7, the report contains an ominous section titled, “Possible Military Dimensions.” Item 38 of this section details concerns…