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[Essay] The Antitrust Revolution

Liberal democracy’s last stand against Big Tech

by Barry C. Lynn,

Current Issue October 2024

[Miscellany] The Fever Called Living

On the plight of environmental-illness refugees

by Evan Malmgren,

[Letter from Washington] The Hindutva Lobby

How Hindu nationalism spreads in America

by Andrew Cockburn,

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage change since 2011 in the amount of time U.S. 15–24-year-olds spend doing homework : +35

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage change since 2002 in the portion of U.S. high school seniors taking the ACT who received perfect scores : +1,700

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage change since 2022 in the portion of U.S. middle school students who use tobacco products : +47

[Harper’s Index]

In the portion of U.S. high school students who use nicotine vapes : −29

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage of U.S. marijuana users who say they use the drug at least once per day : 35

[Harper’s Index]

Portion of U.S. adults who say that regular alcohol use is more harmful than regular marijuana use : 2/3

[Harper’s Index]

Number of U.S. weather disasters in the 1980s whose inflation-adjusted damages exceeded $1 billion : 33

[Harper’s Index]

Minimum number of such disasters that have occurred since January 2023 : 47

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage of U.S. adults who say that the country is the best in the world at scientific research : 16

[Harper’s Index]

Who say that American democracy sets a good example for other countries : 19

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage of Israeli Jews who say that Gazans should have the right to self-governance : 8

[Harper’s Index]

Who say that Israel’s use of military force in Gaza has gone too far : 4

[Harper’s Index]

Who say that it has not gone far enough : 42

[Harper’s Index]

Portion of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank who say that Hamas’s decision to attack Israel on October 7 was “correct” : 2/3

[Harper’s Index]

Minimum percentage of Gazans who have lost a family member in the Israel–Hamas war : 60

[Harper’s Index]

Chance that a U.S. adult is estranged from a family member : 1 in 5

[Harper’s Index]

Portion of U.S. adults over 40 who say their best friend is one of their parents : 1/2

[Harper’s Index]

Portion of U.S. adults who have gotten married since 2021 who say they “almost called off their wedding” beforehand : 1/5

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage of U.S. Catholic priests ordained in the 1970s who say that masturbation is always a sin : 18

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage of those ordained since 2010 who say so : 75

[Harper’s Index]

Portion of approved U.S. candidates for ordination this year who were once Boy Scouts : 3/10

[Harper’s Index]

Estimated portion of U.S. women aged 15–49 who in 2021 had attempted an abortion without medical supervision : 1/20

[Harper’s Index]

Estimated portion who have done so now : 1/14

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage of unsupervised abortions in the United States that involve consuming alcohol or another substance : 19

[Harper’s Index]

That involve a hit to the stomach : 22

[Harper’s Index]

Minimum number of popular tampon brands sold in the United States that contain lead or arsenic : 14

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage increase since 2018 in the portion of U.S. women who have a prescription for oral birth control : 40

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage decrease since 2020 in the population of children under 5 in New York City : 18

[Harper’s Index]

Portion of U.S. counties in which the population of children under 5 has decreased in that time : 2/3

[Harper’s Index]

Estimated number of U.S. counties without any foreign-born residents : 15

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage by which male immigrants to the United States are less likely to be incarcerated than American-born men : 60

[Harper’s Index]

By which immigrants to the United States are more likely than American-born citizens to start businesses : 80

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage of U.S. adults who said they were worried about keeping money in banks after Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008 : 45

[Harper’s Index]

Who say they are worried about doing so now : 48

[Harper’s Index]

Percentage by which U.S. adults are more likely to rank the 2020s as the worst economic era in the past century than the 1930s : 39

[Harper’s Index]

Factor by which the increase in the average price of a meal at McDonald’s since 2014 has outpaced inflation : 3

[Harper’s Index]

Portion of U.S. adults who are very confident in their ability to identify scams before falling for them : 1/5

[Harper’s Index]

Rachel Cusk and Ben Lerner: Live in Conversation

Presented by Harper’s Magazine and the John Templeton Foundation.

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Monday Gallery

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“Untitled,” 1996, by Mikiko Hara, whose work is included in the book I’m So Happy You are Here: Japanese Women Photographers from 1950 to Now, which was published by Aperture in last month.

Courtesy Osiris Co., Ltd., Tokyo, and Aperture

P156, 2020–2023, a mixed-media artwork by Jeff Cowen, whose work is on view through October 13 at Huis Marseille, Amsterdam.

Courtesy the artist and Huis Marseille, Amsterdam

“South Beach Reflection,” a photograph by Anastasia Samoylova, whose book Adaptation was published this month by Thames & Hudson.

Ascending Subway (Stairs), a painting by Aubrey Levinthal, whose work is on view through October 12 at Monya Rowe Gallery, New York City.

Courtesy the artist and Monya Rowe Gallery, New York City

A photograph of Marcel Duchamp and Hans Richter playing a game of chess using live pieces during the filming of Richter’s 8 x 8: A Chess Sonata in 8 Movements (1956) from the book Chess Players: From Charlie Chaplin to Wu-Tang Clan, which was published in September by FUEL.

In the News

Percentage change since 2011 in the amount of time U.S. 15–24-year-olds spend doing homework : +35

Percentage change since 2002 in the portion of U.S. high school seniors taking the ACT who received perfect scores : +1,700

Percentage change since 2022 in the portion of U.S. middle school students who use tobacco products : +47

In the portion of U.S. high school students who use nicotine vapes : −29

Percentage of U.S. marijuana users who say they use the drug at least once per day : 35

Portion of U.S. adults who say that regular alcohol use is more harmful than regular marijuana use : 2/3

Number of U.S. weather disasters in the 1980s whose inflation-adjusted damages exceeded $1 billion : 33

Minimum number of such disasters that have occurred since January 2023 : 47

Percentage of U.S. adults who say that the country is the best in the world at scientific research : 16

Who say that American democracy sets a good example for other countries : 19

Percentage of Israeli Jews who say that Gazans should have the right to self-governance : 8

Who say that Israel’s use of military force in Gaza has gone too far : 4

Who say that it has not gone far enough : 42

Portion of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank who say that Hamas’s decision to attack Israel on October 7 was “correct” : 2/3

Minimum percentage of Gazans who have lost a family member in the Israel–Hamas war : 60

Chance that a U.S. adult is estranged from a family member : 1 in 5

Portion of U.S. adults over 40 who say their best friend is one of their parents : 1/2

Portion of U.S. adults who have gotten married since 2021 who say they “almost called off their wedding” beforehand : 1/5

Percentage of U.S. Catholic priests ordained in the 1970s who say that masturbation is always a sin : 18

Percentage of those ordained since 2010 who say so : 75

Portion of approved U.S. candidates for ordination this year who were once Boy Scouts : 3/10

Estimated portion of U.S. women aged 15–49 who in 2021 had attempted an abortion without medical supervision : 1/20

Estimated portion who have done so now : 1/14

Percentage of unsupervised abortions in the United States that involve consuming alcohol or another substance : 19

That involve a hit to the stomach : 22

Minimum number of popular tampon brands sold in the United States that contain lead or arsenic : 14

Percentage increase since 2018 in the portion of U.S. women who have a prescription for oral birth control : 40

Percentage decrease since 2020 in the population of children under 5 in New York City : 18

Portion of U.S. counties in which the population of children under 5 has decreased in that time : 2/3

Estimated number of U.S. counties without any foreign-born residents : 15

Percentage by which male immigrants to the United States are less likely to be incarcerated than American-born men : 60

By which immigrants to the United States are more likely than American-born citizens to start businesses : 80

Percentage of U.S. adults who said they were worried about keeping money in banks after Lehman Brothers collapsed in 2008 : 45

Who say they are worried about doing so now : 48

Percentage by which U.S. adults are more likely to rank the 2020s as the worst economic era in the past century than the 1930s : 39

Factor by which the increase in the average price of a meal at McDonald’s since 2014 has outpaced inflation : 3

Portion of U.S. adults who are very confident in their ability to identify scams before falling for them : 1/5

Percentage of U.S. adults who don’t know what a 401(k) is : 43

Who have an idea they think could one day make them rich : 33

Who “have a feeling in their bones” that they will one day win the lottery : 19

October 8, 2024

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Rachel Cusk and Ben Lerner: Live in Conversation

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Permanent Spots

Demographics vs. Destiny

Day 121

Past Issues

Harper’s Finest

From the Archive

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Microplastics were found in sixty-two of sixty-two human placentas from a biobank in Texas.

Toxicity has remained a consistent feature of online interactions since 1989.

Humans are losing their ability to digest cellulose.

A metal scar on the surface of the white dwarf WD 0816-310 indicated that it has cannibalized other bodies in its orbit.

An orca acting alone killed a great white shark and ate its liver.

Genomic analysis indicated that psychedelic mushrooms emerged around the time of the Mesozoic–Cenozoic mass extinction.

The playing speed of a metal guitarist directly correlates with his intrasexual competitiveness but not his mating success.

Depression in humans is correlated with higher body temperature, and cold-water swimming mitigates menopause symptoms.

Researchers warned that, as temperatures rise, humans should prepare for more diarrhea.

Off the Five Finger Islands, a team of cetologists aboard the Glacier Seal conducted an extended conversation with a female humpback named Twain.

Astrophysicists argued that the development of advanced alien technology requires an atmosphere composed of at least 18 percent oxygen.

Onshore wind turbines severely deter German bats from foraging.

An AI that was fed the employment and health data of six million Danes turned out to be more accurate than existing sociological methods at predicting if a given person was about to die.

A mother is 4.6 percent more likely to give birth in the same month she was born, and adjacent siblings are 12.1 percent more likely to be born in the same month as one another.

Electric eel discharge transforms the DNA of zebrafish larvae.

True crabs independently evolved to live out of the ocean up to seventeen times.

The average American girl born in 2019 will take prescription drugs for more than half her life.

Scientists were not certain whether the globally synchronized waves observed in the brains of wakeful rats on ketamine or LSD were a cause or a symptom of hallucinations.

Geoscientists were confident that, given access to the oldest barnacles on the flaperon of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, they could help pinpoint its crash site.

Debug

Demographics
vs. Destiny