Sometimes it takes a spade to call a spade. For me, a “bright boy” raised in a household with a subscription, I was seduced by the seeming certainty of its lang

Sometimes it takes a spade to call a spade. For me, a “bright boy” raised in a household with a subscription, I was seduced by the seeming certainty of its language and the comprehensiveness of coverage. “The world’s news at my fingertips, and with a suave guide!” is probably what young me thought, grasping for intellectual superiority and moral certainty. I probably imported many of its attitudes uncritically. The survey of the magazine’s history and the insight into its editorial missteps and outright treachery was enlightening and probably necessary. I don’t mind admitting my own ignorance when it comes to this stuff, I needed this history to properly contextualize it. Also, the quip about being a “handbook for arrogant, dull, outdated men,” was genuinely hilarious. I wouldn’t take it too personally. For you and me, it’s really just a magazine and perhaps the point is that we ought to treat it as such.