Rick Perlstein
American historian of the American conservative movement; author of Before the Storm (2001), Nixonland (2008), The Invisible Bridge (2014) and Reaganland (2020). Writes Rickipedia, a newsletter on politics, history, culture and jazz.
Rick Perlstein did not write this page. ppll compiled it from their own words, each linked to the source. Is this you? · Report a mistake
What they believe
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PayPal treats Palestinians as if they are all money launderers for ISIS.
The reason for this Rube Goldberg arrangement is that PayPal, basically, acts like all Palestinians must be ISIS money launderers or something; his own accounts get randomly canceled all the time.
rickperlstein.substack.comSaid 12 Oct 2026This on korrents
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Incumbent firms in times of industrial ferment tend to ask for regulation to crowd out challengers and shape the marketplace to their liking.
There's a whole intellectual tradition in the Marxist historiography from the 1970s and '80s analyzing incumbent firms' tendency to ask to be regulaled in times of industrial ferment, because, when regulators are captured, it is a way to crowd out challengers, and to shape the marketplace to your liking; also, to deflect, denude, and defenestrate popular political energy to actually regulate them in the public interest.
rickperlstein.substack.comSaid 13 Sept 2026This on korrents
The bold line is korrents’ wording; the quote is theirs. These 2: what they wrote before what they said aloud, one per source, newest first.
Beliefs
Korrents What they believe 9 beliefs — each backed by an exact quote.
Each is a — compiled by korrents.com, not by them: the one-line wordings are korrents', the quotes are theirs.
Recent
PayPal treats Palestinians as if they are all money launderers for ISIS.
The reason for this Rube Goldberg arrangement is that PayPal, basically, acts like all Palestinians must be ISIS money launderers or something; his own accounts get randomly canceled all the time.
Make a Moral Wilderness Bloom Said 12 Oct 2026
Forests planted by the Jewish National Fund were often specifically planted to obscure the sites of depopulated Palestinian villages.
I later learned from a Palestinian friend that these forests were often specifically planted to obscure the sites of depopulated Palestinian villages, whose remains can be made out.
Make a Moral Wilderness Bloom Said 12 Oct 2026
Incumbent firms in times of industrial ferment tend to ask for regulation to crowd out challengers and shape the marketplace to their liking.
There's a whole intellectual tradition in the Marxist historiography from the 1970s and '80s analyzing incumbent firms' tendency to ask to be regulaled in times of industrial ferment, because, when regulators are captured, it is a way to crowd out challengers, and to shape the marketplace to your liking; also, to deflect, denude, and defenestrate popular political energy to actually regulate them in the public interest.
Why AI Execs Say AI Will Eat You Said 13 Sept 2026
Show 6 more
AI executives back claims that their machines are so powerful they will replace every job in order to supercharge their price-to-earning ratios.
And, in the case of AI, to supercharge their price-to-earning ratios by backing their made-up claims that their machines are so powerful they will replace every job.
Why AI Execs Say AI Will Eat You Said 13 Sept 2026
If 'whiteness' has any affirmative cultural content, it lies in the jazz style rural white Americans invented in the 1970s and 1980s.
Because, if there ever was an actual affirmative cultural content to "whiteness"that didn't actually signify "not a member of a degraded caste", a concept of "white genius" that didn't make you sound like one of Stephen Miller's favorite accounts on X, it inheres in the style of jazz invented by "white" Americans from rural backgrounds in the 1970s and into the '80s.
...in which the Rickipedian breaks deeply felt personal principle. Said 7 Sept 2026
Most music writing in the internet age should consist only of a link and a brief recommendation.
Seriously, I believe 98% of music writing, in this here age of teh Internet, should consist of a link and three words: listen to this.
...in which the Rickipedian breaks deeply felt personal principle. Said 7 Sept 2026
The obsession with polling is politically, morally, and civically damaging.
the obsession with polling itself--a novel development of the last several decades--is, itself, politically, morally, and civically damaging?
Polling Sucks Said 21 Aug 2026
Polling persists because it is therapeutic, profitable, and a source of material for manipulating public perception.
In my judgement, it is (1) therapeutic, stanching existentailly paintful doubt about the future that is central to the human condition; (2) profitable (I need not say much), and (3) a useful source of grist for those seeking to manipulate public perception more generally
Polling Sucks Said 21 Aug 2026
African American Vernacular English (AAVE) integrated a more African connection of mind to body and body to nature into English.
AAVE was how the enslaved forever integrated into English a more African than "Western" (a word I despise) connection of mind to body, and body to nature nature (as expressed by James' point about his body register changes in the atmopshere, except in his donnish argot); and a more African conception of musicality, especially rhythmic but also tonal ("melisma," the musicologists call it); not to mention an African conception of parody and play as a mode of human interconnectedness.
Sin without Soul? Said 1 Aug 2026
What is a korrent?
A korrent is a belief a person has stated in their own words: one sentence stating the claim, backed by a quote and a source, kept at korrents.com.
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Where they publish
Newsletter Rickipedia Essays on American politics, history and jazz; some are for paid subscribers.
Open rickperlstein.substack.com
Link verified 24 Oct 2026.
x.com @rickperlstein His X account.
Link verified 24 Oct 2026.
About the English under a post
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