American Dream, Intolerance, Thirst Traps

You are invited to attend my live event with Freya India, one of my favorite writers. May 13 at 6:30pm. Details and registration here. I have a new piece out in the Wall Street Journal about the psychology of people who believe “words can harm.” Many people now believe that words can cause lasting harm. This belief has grown strong enough for some to justify violence. A recent survey by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression found that more than 40% of Gen Z respondents said it can be acceptable to use physical violence to prevent someone from giving a speech. A newly published paper led by Samuel Pratt at UCLA seeks to measure this belief directly. The researchers built what they call the “Words Can Harm Scale,” a survey asking people how much they agree with statements like, “I could be left emotionally scarred by something I read.” Read the whole thing here. I also have a new piece for The Times of London reflecting on the American Dream for America’s upcoming 250th birthday. The semiquincentennial (say that 5 times fast). By most broad measures, Americans today are better educated, live longer and have more disposable income than previous generations. So why, as this country prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday, do so few Americans believe the dream is available to everyone? The data suggests that we are, as a country, losing faith in ourselves. And when you look at which Americans express scepticism about the future, the pattern becomes even more alarming. A 2025 study by the Archbridge Institute found that 60 per cent of Americans with only a high school diploma believed their children would do as well or better than themselves. Among college graduates, that number falls to 52 per cent. Additionally, Americans who earned more than $100,000 a year were more likely to say their kids would have fewer opportunities when they grew up, compared with Americans who earned less than $60,000 a year. […] But it’s not just our wealthiest citizens who are eroding our belief in the American Dream. Social media is adding another layer to this pessimism, especially among the young. Read the whole thing here. I’ve been using Readwise since April of 2021. If you follow me on Instagram or Twitter/X, you’ll know I regularly share screenshots like this from books or articles I’ve read: These screenshots come from my Readwise app. Readwise aggregates your reading highlights from various sources like Kindle, Apple Books, Substack, Twitter, and so on. It stores your highlights in one place, making it easier to stay on top of your reading. Each morning, it emails me 8 random excerpts from different books I’ve read. Since 2021, that daily message has been a quiet ritual for me: fragments from books I half‑forgot are resurfaced, like my own past self giving me a tap on the shoulder. Moreover, when I’m thinking about a particular topic, a quick search pulls up not just my notes but every highlighted Kindle passage I’ve ever saved on the topic. Exclusive Offer for My Readers Use this link → https://readwise.io/robkhenderson/ to try Readwise free for 60 days (double the length of the standard free trial). I suspect, like me, you’ll wonder how you ever read without it. The Mystery of the Female Sex Drive by Roy Baumeister Why We Should Be Skeptical About High Graduation Rates by Neetu Arnold How Communism conquered China by Clark Aoqi Wu Thirst Traps Over Think Tanks: Dems Want Hotter Candidates on the Ballot by Follow me on Instagram here. The platform is less volatile and more chill than Twitter/X, so I post some spicier excerpts from my readings on my IG stories You can follow me on TikTok here 1. Relative to conservatives (6%), liberals are 3 times more likely (18%) to say Israel is “an enemy” of the United States. (source). 2. Privileged women are the most pessimistic of all. Women in middle-class professions are less likely to say they feel valued by society, and are less likely to believe that if they work hard they will succeed in life when compared with working-class women. (source). 3. More than one-third of people have fallen in love with someone that they didn’t initially think they could. And over 70% of people have become deeply attracted to someone that they initially weren’t attracted to. (source). The paperback version of Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class is now available. If you have gained any value from this newsletter and want to support my work, please buy a copy today. For yourself. For a friend or a loved one. If you can’t afford it, please support your local library. Order your copy now: Audible (I narrated the audiobook myself)