The Best Stories Splinter Published in 2017
Another rough year. And at Splinter—where the mission is to highlight injustices and amplify underrepresented voices—we had our work cut out for us, and we’re really proud of the great pieces our writers and editors produced. Below, a selection of the best.
The Long, Lucrative Right-wing Grift Is Blowing Up in the World’s Face
If you want to understand intra-GOP warfare, the decision-making process of our president, the implosion of the Republican healthcare plan, and the rest of the politics of the Trump era, you don’t need to know about Russian espionage tactics, the state of the white working class, or even the beliefs of the “alt-right.” You pretty much just need to be in semi-regular contact with a white, reasonably comfortable, male retiree. Read more.
The Best Prison Journalism Is Straight Out of San Quentin
“We’re not just in here stabbing each other. We’re not raping each other. The majority of us are just regular guys doing regular stuff, waiting for the opportunity to get out of here.” Read more.
I Am the World’s First Abortion Refugee
In 2011, María Teresa Rivera was arrested in El Salvador. She was accused of having an abortion and sentenced to 40 years in prison on the charge of “aggravated homicide.” Rivera claims she had a miscarriage and did not even know she was pregnant. Read more.
Why Working Women With Migraines Suffer in Silence
Migraine was historically seen as a mental condition, “a character flaw, a weakness, typically associated with women.” Read more.
Forget Bernie Bros: Meet the Young People of Color Leading the Country’s Socialist Revolution
Erasing people of color from the narrative is deeply ahistoric at best and intellectually dishonest at worst. Read more.
Meet the Woke Misogynist
I usually stretch a Tinder chat over days or even weeks, warily circling a guy to make sure he seems like a decent human. But on that sticky summer night, Bob* put me at ease right away. He was in an open relationship, just like me. He talked frankly and respectfully about sex. He said he was a “giver.” Read more.
How Many People Have to Die, Resign, or Go to Jail Before a Good Person Is President?
Should Trump be removed from office, the president of the United States will no longer be a deeply bigoted dummy whose political instincts appear to be limited to self-aggrandizement and spite. Instead, the president of the United States will be a deeply bigoted zealot whose political instincts appear to be limited to a draconian interpretation of his Christian faith and a scorched earth approach to the social safety net. Read more.
‘I Didn’t Want to Be One of Those People. I Was. I Am.’
I interviewed the man who assaulted me when I was 17. Read more.