Pessimists Archive Newsletter | Substack

New Year's Resolutions of the Past: Vices That Became Virtues

Virtues we now aspire to were once habits people vowed to quit

Jan 1 • Louis Anslow

Most Americans Opposed the Moon Landing

July 20th, 2025 marks the 56th anniversary of the moon landing.

Jul 20, 2025 • Louis Anslow

The War on Artificial Ice

Before artificial meat was attacked as ‘unnatural’ by incumbents, artificial ice was also.

Jun 13, 2025 • Louis Anslow

The War on Internet Phone Calls

When long distance telephone companies tried to thwart online telephony

Apr 1, 2025 • Louis Anslow

The 1800s Had 'Brainrot' Too!

The Oxford Dictionary just added "brainrot" as its newest official word—a tongue in cheek term for consuming too much short-form social media content.

Dec 2, 2024 • Louis Anslow

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Recent posts

The 1774 Novel Blamed for Youth Suicide

The Sorrows of Young Werther was blamed for a supposed youth suicide epidemic

Nov 18, 2024 • Louis Anslow

The 'War of the Worlds' Panic was Anti-Radio Propaganda

Radio was a new competing medium, so newspapers invented a panic to blame it for

Nov 1, 2024 • Louis Anslow

Einstein Blamed Automation for the Great Depression

Not even Einstein was immune from the lump of labor fallacy...

Oct 10, 2024 • Louis Anslow

The 1912 War on Fake Photos

Concern about deceptively edited photos feels like a very modern anxiety, yet a century ago similar worries were being litigated...

Sep 24, 2024 • Louis Anslow

The Eiffel Tower was Called Techno-Dystopian

The Eiffel Tower is just as iconic of France as croissants and baguettes, and equally emblematic of Paris, standing alongside landmarks like Notre-Dame…

Aug 18, 2024 • Louis Anslow

Skateboarding: from Nuisance to Olympic Sport

Skateboarding was considered a silly and childish phenomenon for much of its existence, its emergence in the late 1950s would see opposition almost…

Jul 30, 2024 • Louis Anslow

When the Surgeon General Warned About Pac-Man

This week U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy published an op-ed in The New York Times calling for a ‘Warning Label on Social Media Platforms’, this…

Jun 18, 2024 • Louis Anslow

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