Truthdig’s Top 50 TD Originals of 2017

2017 was a tough year. Truthdig sought to help make sense of our world by publishing over 1,000 stories. Many of the articles were TD Originals—opinion pieces that provide analysis of the news and solutions for the problems we face.

These were the 50 most popular TD Originals this year.

50. “The Coming Constitutional Crisis” by Bill Blum

Are we on the threshold of another Watergate—or something worse?

49. “Panic in Trumpland, but Clinton Camp Should Be Wary” by Bill Blum

More heads could roll after special counsel Robert Mueller indicts Paul Manafort and two other former Trump campaign aides.

48. “DNC Fraud Suit Exposes Anti-Democratic Views in Democratic Party” by Norman Solomon

The group’s defense? That it has a right to be unfair during the presidential nominating process.

47. “When Fear Comes” by Chris Hedges

Fear, a despotic state’s most potent weapon, keeps a population compliant. It will be lavishly supplied as we are thrust into a new dark age.

46. “A Lesson on Slavery for White America” by Paul Street

The more we know and understand our racist past, the more we can change history for the better—in the present and future.

45. “Capitalism: The Nightmare” by Paul Street

As American activist Joel Kovel wrote six years ago, “The future will be eco-socialist, because without eco-socialism there will be no future.”

44. “The Price of Resistance” by Chris Hedges

To stand with the oppressed means being treated like the oppressed.

43. “Magical Thinking Is Stopping Us From Taking to the Streets” by Paul Street

One reason people are quiescent in the face of racist, sexist, ecocidal outrage is their belief that Russiagate special prosecutor Robert Mueller will save them.

42. “Building the Institutions for Revolt” by Chris Hedges

We must form our own new structures and carry out continual mass protest and civil disobedience to wrest back power from the corporate state.

41. “Faces of Pain, Faces of Hope” by Chris Hedges

Intentional communities of young men and women, cast aside by the corporate state, are lighting the embers of resistance.

40. “The Return of American Race Laws” by Chris Hedges

The campaign to deport millions is a first step toward the clash of civilizations that the white supremacists in the White House believe is inevitable at home and abroad.

39. “The Age of Anger” by Chris Hedges

Many among the billions of humans cast aside by modernity, denied access to the prosperity, freedom and stability enjoyed by global elites, have risen in fury to extract vengeance against those who betrayed them.

38. “Fight the Disease, Not the Symptoms” by Chris Hedges

The symptoms of globalized corporate capitalism are the same, whether in India, Turkey, Russia or the U.S. They must not be confused with the disease.

37. “America’s War on America” by Eric Ortiz

That sound of doomsday you hear in the distance is not “ka-boom.” It’s “ka-ching.”

36. “How Gore, Kerry and Clinton Put Trump in Office” by Harvey Wasserman

We will recover only if we do what the corporate Democrats have not: Address the sham of our entire electoral system and then change it.

35. “Eating Our Way to Disease” by Chris Hedges

The animal agriculture industry knows its products are harming us, but it, along with the medical and drug industries, is making billions from illnesses caused by our diet.

34. “Terrorism in Charlottesville, Seen Through the Lens of an Eyewitness” by Michael Nigro

A professional lensman was on the scene as racist factions converged and fomented violence in Virginia.

33. “Only Nonviolent Resistance Will Destroy Corporate State” by Chris Hedges

Standing Rock and 20th-century history offer crucial guidance: A movement’s success depends on organization, discipline and not being baited into violence.

32. “Trump and the Christian Fascists” by Chris Hedges

The Christian right is swiftly filling the president’s ideological vacuum.

31. “Zero Hour in Palestine” by Chris Hedges

Trump’s decision to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem eradicates all pretense of a peace agreement or respect for the rule of law. It leaves the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement as the last tool to achieve justice for Palestinians.

30. “A Nation of the Walking Dead” by Chris Hedges

Donald Trump mastered the techniques of turning desperate gamblers at his casinos into zombies, techniques he used to become president.

29. “A Women’s Revolt That Targets Far More Than Sexual Abuse” by Chris Hedges

The current movement is not just toppling predators in high places: It is defying the core sickness and rigid hierarchy of corporate culture.

28. “James Baldwin and the Meaning of Whiteness” by Chris Hedges

At this frightening moment in American history—with a racist in the White House and amid rising levels of racial hatred—there is no more important writer than Baldwin.

27. “The Abuses of History” by Chris Hedges

“History” often is a tool for keeping power in the hands of the elite. The controversy over Confederate monuments points up the mendacious national narrative that has been spoon-fed to Americans.

26. “The Feuding Kleptocrats” by Chris Hedges

While the power elites—inside and outside of government—squabble over corporate health insurance, they are demolishing the remnants of democratic institutions and programs.

25. “Our Ever-Deadlier Police State” by Chris Hedges

Better training and reforms are not the solution: The problem with U.S. law enforcement is that the system is designed to protect the interests of the rich at the expense of the poor.

24. “The Pandora’s Box of War” by Chris Hedges

Amid the U.S. outrage over Syrian civilian deaths from banned weapons, we should not forget America’s role in creating and perpetuating the seemingly endless conflict.

23. “The Great Flood” by Chris Hedges

Rising sea levels and monster storms will intensify and flood the earth’s coasts as we enter the age of the “long emergency.”

22. “The Elites Won’t Save Us” by Chris Hedges

The danger we face does not come, in the end, from Trump and his malignant cabal. It comes from severely weakened and corrupted democratic institutions.

21. “What Christmas Means” by Chris Hedges

The tale of Jesus’ birth is not for oppressors. It is for the oppressed. And what is quaint and picturesque to those who live in privilege is visceral and empowering to those the world condemns.

20. “The Cost of Resistance” by Chris Hedges

To stand against power requires us to embrace virtues that are an anathema to mass culture and today’s politics.

19. “RT America Torched in Witch Hunt ’17” by Chris Hedges

Because it had the gall to give airtime to critics of imperialism and U.S. policy, the broadcaster has been forced to register as a foreign agent.

18. “Trump Is the Symptom, Not the Disease” by Chris Hedges

Demagogues rise up in failed states that destroy their own democratic institutions and the rule of law. What is done to the populations we allow to be demonized will be done to all of us. (Includes interview with Mumia Abu-Jamal.)

17. “Defying Donald Trump’s Kleptocracy” by Chris Hedges

The president-elect represents the late stage of capitalism, when corporations, no longer able to generate profits at former levels, pillage the government and society for profit. However, he will be vulnerable to impeachment if we take to the streets.

16. “Behind the Mask of the ‘Moderates’” by Chris Hedges

Canada is only one of the democracies that, like the U.S., have been undermined by leaders who appeared to champion liberal values as they sold out to the highest corporate bidders.

15. “The Corruption of the Law” by Chris Hedges

The corporate coup that Justice Harlan Fiske Stone attempted to thwart nearly a century ago is complete. His worst fears are our nightmare.

14. “The Real Purpose of the U.S. Government’s Report on Alleged Hacking by Russia” by Chris Hedges

The declassified document is intended primarily to be a weapon for use in internal politics. If the establishment can discredit Trump, it can get rid of him.

13. “A Last Chance for Resistance” by Chris Hedges

Unless we act now, Americans will remember 2017 as the year their naive belief in the recovery of democracy died under the heel of despotism.

12. “The Death of the Republic” by Chris Hedges

The despotic forces that destroyed ancient Rome and other empires are destroying us. And removing Trump would not halt the disintegration.

11. “Diseases of Despair” by Chris Hedges

Individual Americans and their society are suffering a deep malaise rooted in lack of opportunity, hopelessness and capitalist exploitation.

10. “Reign of Idiots” by Chris Hedges

Heading the mindless generals, economists, bankers and politicians is the King of the Idiots, who victimizes the mass of Americans between tweets.

9. “Revolt Is the Only Barrier to a Fascist America” by Chris Hedges

An unwavering noncooperation with the systems of corporate control is essential. We must not be seduced into trusting the power elites, including the Democratic Party.

8. “The Silencing of Dissent” by Chris Hedges

Now that the ideology of global capitalism has been discredited, the ruling elites are turning to blacklists, internet censorship and charges of “fake news” to shut down their critics.

7. “The Permanent Lie, Our Deadliest Threat” by Chris Hedges

The collapse of democratic institutions has opened the way to a corporate tyranny built, like all tyrannies, on the permanent lie.

6. “The Dance of Death” by Chris Hedges

Falling civilizations embrace what Freud calls the death instinct. They are dominated by oligarchic elites, imbeciles, narcissists and con artists who, on the way down, feed us fantasies and steal as much as they can.

5. “Make America Ungovernable” by Chris Hedges

The window to overthrow the Trump regime is rapidly closing. We must move swiftly to make governance impossible through nationwide strikes and other nonviolent resistance. If we do not, the last vestiges of democracy will die.

4. “Donald Trump’s Greatest Allies Are the Liberal Elites” by Chris Hedges

The moral bankruptcy of the liberal class, which despite the staggering election defeat is unable or unwilling to engage in genuine self-reflection, ensures the steady march toward an American fascism.

3. “American Psychosis” by Chris Hedges

The barrage of lies from demagogues such as Donald Trump creates profound cognitive dissonance among the population that ends in a nationwide collective mental illness.

2. “How ‘Antifa’ Mirrors ‘Alt-Right’” by Chris Hedges

The two sides, both intoxicated by violence, are the products of the same alienation and despair.

1. “The End of Empire” by Chris Hedges

The death spiral appears unstoppable, meaning the United States as we know it will no longer exist within a decade or, at most, two.

What were your favorite TD Originals in 2017? Let us know in the comments section.