The Best Truthdig Originals of 2018

This year’s top Truthdig Original pieces include stark warnings from Chris Hedges, Bill Boyarsky and several regular contributors, as well as a peek into the possible future of U.S. banking courtesy of Ellen Brown and a debunking of an American myth by Jacob Bacharach. Click on the headline to read the full story.

Banks Are Becoming Obsolete in China—Could the U.S. Be Next? By Ellen Brown Big banks on this side of the Pacific are watching with trepidation as developments in China’s mobile system could presage significant shifts.

American History for Truthdiggers: Original Sin By Maj. Danny Sjursen Our society descended from colonial Virginia’s sinister caste system, in which race, class, labor and slavery were inextricably linked.

The Coming Collapse By Chris Hedges Every day the foundations of our institutions decay more, but American society is emotionally unable to grasp the mortal danger that approaches.

Chapo Trap House Imagines the Most Perverse Outcome of Trump’s Presidency By Jacob Sugarman Podcaster-cum-author Matt Christman on the failures of liberalism, his hatred of Megan McArdle and the need for the left to grab hold of our “economic death engine.”

Will 2018 Be the Year Americans Finally Face Up to Climate Change? By Natasha Hakimi Zapata Two 2018 studies paint a new, somewhat hopeful picture of Americans’ thoughts on climate change, and the change of heart is long overdue.

Rapture-Ready: How U.S. Policy Meshes With Armageddon By Sandy Tolan Because of the zealous efforts of the Trump administration, we are enabling the foot soldiers in a new Middle East holy war.

How the Pentagon Paid for NFL Displays of Patriotism By Emma Niles Pro football players didn’t appear on the field for the national anthem until 2009, when the Defense Department’s “paid patriotism” began.

The Pentagon Can’t Account for $21 Trillion (That’s Not a Typo) By Lee Camp This amount of money could solve the entire planet’s miseries, but the government blames its mystery spending on a “failure to correct system deficiencies.”

Telling Nobel Winner Nadia Murad’s Story Without Trading on Her Pain By Kasia Anderson Director Alexandria Bombach tells Truthdig how she avoided exploiting her subject’s traumatic past in making her new documentary, “On Her Shoulders.”

5 Reasons Trump Won’t Fire Mueller By Bill Blum Despite talk about presidential authority to fire members of the executive branch, the special counsel isn’t going anywhere anytime soon.

The Fed Boosts Wall Street, Not Main Street By Nomi Prins Today’s central bank collusion is nothing more than a massive “trickle down” subsidy for the financial system—and promises for the masses.

The Egregious Lie Americans Tell Themselves By Jacob Bacharach We choose to believe we’re living in the richest country in the world. Yet all available evidence suggests our wealth is largely an abstraction.

The #MeToo Movement Is Here to Stay By Sonali Kolhatkar Owing in great part to the ongoing efforts of women of color and allied groups, the movement is going strong more than a year after it began.

The Chomsky Challenge for Americans By Paul Street Monstrous U.S. war crimes since the early 1950s have gone down George Orwell’s “memory hole.” Now, we have no concept of empathy—or reality.

Truth and Ethics Are Under Siege in Pakistan’s Media By Zubeida Mustafa Although the government’s grip on media outlets has loosened in recent years, dangerous constraints, plus lowered standards of professionalism, are causing deep concern.

Poor People’s Campaign Remains Rich in Hope: Profiles of the Optimistic By Michael Nigro This movement, which Truthdig followed through six weeks of action, has nothing to do with left or right, Democrat or Republican, conservative or liberal. It’s all about right and wrong.

Tackling Opioid Addiction in Indian Country By Chelsey Luger Pharmaceutical companies should be held accountable for their role in further damaging Native peoples’ well-being, but that’s only the beginning.

The Human Cost of Getting Used to Trump By Bill Boyarsky In the detention centers and the separation of immigrant families, we can see how the Constitution and the ideals of our nation are endangered by a reckless president.

Voices From a ‘Shithole Country’ By Gbemisola Olujobi A Nigerian writer collects reactions from fellow citizens about the Trump slur, and those reactions aren’t always what you might expect.

The Nauseating Spectacle of George H.W. Bush’s Funeral By Dan O’Sullivan Pundits and politicians have transformed the 41st president into a paragon of virtue. All it took was a willful ignorance of history.