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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 15, 2024

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Archive link for those of us who don’t care to make a NYT account.

There’s more than one way to define “best.” Given a bunch of conflicting inputs, you would prefer using a logical AND. You’d only consider calling your playlist “the best” for someone who loves modern production and loves sick beats and shares your blind spots.

This NYT list is pretty upfront about choosing to OR their picks. They got unrelated inputs from a laundry list of authors and commentators. The reader is clearly expected to apply their own AND:

▫️I’ve read it
Liked it? Try “Missionaries,” by Phil Klay or “Hystopia,” by David Means.

▫️I want to read it
Read our review. Then reserve it at your local library or buy it from Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble or Bookshop.

So this a list intended to contain a “best” list. You’re using it correctly by filtering out the ones which don’t fit. For somebody—perhaps the sort who buys books off the NYT—that “best” list is different.