Conor Friedersdorf

Conor Friedersdorf is a staff writer at The Atlantic, where he focuses on politics and national affairs. He lives in Venice, California, and is the founding editor of The Best of Journalism, a newsletter devoted to exceptional nonfiction.

The Horrifying Effects of NYPD Ethnic Profiling on Innocent Muslim Americans

The Horrifying Effects of NYPD Ethnic Profiling on Innocent Muslim Americans

A new report describes the concrete ways a clandestine spying program has caused individuals and communities to suffer. More »

Let's Make Drone Strikes Safe, Legal, and Rare

Let's Make Drone Strikes Safe, Legal, and Rare

It would be easy to replace our current killing program with a slightly altered one with sufficient protections for innocent civilians, American citizens, and rule of law. More »

Here's What Frank Bruni Gets Wrong About Rand Paul's Senate Record

Here's What Frank Bruni Gets Wrong About Rand Paul's Senate Record

Like many in the media, the New York Times columnist emphasizes minor positions while minimizing the Kentucky senator's more important stands. More »

Defending Fox News Is a Fool's Errand for Conservatives

Defending Fox News Is a Fool's Errand for Conservatives

Watch Jonathan Tobin try and fail so that you're never tempted to downplay the awfulness of cable news. More »

Why Everything Is Politicized Even Though Most Americans Hate It

Why Everything Is Politicized Even Though Most Americans Hate It

Perverse incentives reward people who treat politics as war and discourage everyone else from opposing them. More »

Iraq Hawks Don't Realize: They're to Blame for America's War Weariness

Iraq Hawks Don't Realize: They're to Blame for America's War Weariness

They urged a war of choice that required more sacrifices for fewer benefits than any democracy would long permit. More »

The Xenophobic Panic of the Aughts: The Lessons Learned

The Xenophobic Panic of the Aughts: The Lessons Learned

Exposing the most egregious examples isn't "gotcha" -- it's an attempt to prevent errors in judgment like the ones that I once made. More »

What Needless, Xenophobic Panic Looks Like

What Needless, Xenophobic Panic Looks Like

Revisiting a particularly irresponsible column published prior to the Iraq invasion now that its wrongheadedness has been proven More »

American News Consumers Have Gained the World but Lost Their Backyards

American News Consumers Have Gained the World but Lost Their Backyards

The Internet affords cheap, easy access to priceless information. But local news coverage is a casualty of its rise. More »

Behold the Hatred, Resentment, and Mockery Aimed at Anti-Iraq War Protesters

Behold the Hatred, Resentment, and Mockery Aimed at Anti-Iraq War Protesters

Few hawks who treated them shabbily have reflected on their behavior in reminiscences about the conflict. More »

Marvel at John Yoo Justifying the Iraq War as Only He Could

Marvel at John Yoo Justifying the Iraq War as Only He Could

The former Bush lawyer suggests that if you think the war was a mistake, you must also support returning Saddam Hussein's family to power as a remedy. More »

With Leaders Like This, Libertarians Can't Trust the Tea Party

With Leaders Like This, Libertarians Can't Trust the Tea Party

Amy Kremer says Americans have no choice but to trust the president in matters of foreign policy. This is what she thinks limited government is? More »

Why So Many Early Bloggers Got the Iraq War Wrong

Why So Many Early Bloggers Got the Iraq War Wrong

A subculture that prided itself on media criticism missed the MSM's errors -- and sometimes exacerbated them. More »

The Ahistorical Way a Neoconservative Remembers the 1990s

The Ahistorical Way a Neoconservative Remembers the 1990s

Bill Kristol suggests in his most recent column that America spent the decade "not policing the world." Not so, says the historical record. More »

The GOP Can't Reach Beyond Its Base Without Confronting Its Hucksters

The GOP Can't Reach Beyond Its Base Without Confronting Its Hucksters

A new RNC report frets about its inability to reach people who don't already identify as partisan Republicans. More »

Can an Honest Conversation About Race Be Inoffensive?

Can an Honest Conversation About Race Be Inoffensive?

A controversial Philadelphia Magazine story raises that question by anonymously airing the racial views of white people. More »

Beware the View from Nowhere: Wonkery Can Only Take a Blogger So Far

Beware the View from Nowhere: Wonkery Can Only Take a Blogger So Far

Ezra Klein rose to prominence as a progressive. Now he says he's just data-driven. But there's more to policy than that. More »

Consider the Lobster Claw: Why a Twist on an Arcade Classic Delights and Disturbs Us

Consider the Lobster Claw: Why a Twist on an Arcade Classic Delights and Disturbs Us

The joystick is seized. The claw is positioned within the lobster tank. It descends on your command. Are you sure you want to claim your prize? More »

Another Prohibitionist Is Blind to the Drug War's Costs

Another Prohibitionist Is Blind to the Drug War's Costs

The black market in marijuana causes staggering amounts of death, corruption, and incarceration. Failing to confront that is deeply irresponsible. More »

Rush Limbaugh Stands With Rand Paul: 'The Neocons Are Paranoid'

Rush Limbaugh Stands With Rand Paul: 'The Neocons Are Paranoid'

The most popular conservative demagogue in America signals that hawkish foreign policy dogma may be losing its hold on the GOP. More »

The Biggest Story in Photos

Photos of Tornado Damage in Moore, Oklahoma

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