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As a heat wave spreads across America, the whirring of air conditioners follows close behind. AC has become an American necessity—but at what cost?
First, here are three new stories from The Atlantic:
The rise of a new, dangerous cynicism
David Frum: The most dangerous bias in today’s America
J. D.

Updated at 2:18 p.m. ET on June 18, 2024
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A lot can change in eight years. In the summer of 2016, J. D. Vance, writing in this magazine, characterized Donald Trump as “cultural heroin.” On Sunday morning in Michigan, Vance made his pitch to be Trump’s next vice president—by showing his fealty to the former president and sounding as much like him as possible.

In 1957, Ladies’ Home Journal printed a letter from a reader, identified solely as “Registered Nurse,” imploring the publication to “investigate the tortures that go on in modern delivery rooms.” She cited examples of the “sadism” she’d witnessed in an unnamed Chicago hospital: women restrained with cuffs and steel clamps; an obstetrician operating without anesthetic.

Many teens and adults use the word addictive when describing social-media sites, as if the apps themselves are laced with nicotine. The U.S. surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, wants to drive that point home as glaringly as possible: In an op-ed published by The New York Times yesterday, he writes that the country should start labeling such sites as if they’re cigarettes.

This is an edition of The Atlantic Daily, a newsletter that guides you through the biggest stories of the day, helps you discover new ideas, and recommends the best in culture. Sign up for it here.
Donald Trump is running neck and neck with Joe Biden, and might even be taking the lead in the 2024 race. Yet Republicans and their media ecosystem seem to be in a panic about their candidate.

Alex Jones couldn’t help himself. On Friday, just before a federal judge was set to decide the fate of Infowars, his conspiracy-media empire, Jones spun up yet another conspiracy.
He was on his way into a Houston courthouse as part of the ongoing saga over lies he told about the Sandy Hook school shooting. After six years of litigation, Jones owes $1.5 billion in defamation damages.

Our brains are wired to be deceived. I’m married to a professional magician, so I’m intimately familiar with the kinds of techniques that can fool the eye and trick the senses. But the human mind’s vulnerability to misdirection is more universal than that. Neurologists and psychologists have found that our predilection for trusting others—a trait that has helped us survive as a species—is a major reason con artists thrive.

Watch a few minutes of the NBA Finals, and you’ll likely notice how the Dallas Mavericks’ Luka Doncic argues with the officials every time a whistle blows in his direction. “Working the refs” is a long-standing tradition, but Doncic, one of basketball’s marquee stars, takes complaining to a new level. In his eyes, the referees are incapable of correctly calling the game, no matter the circumstance. Whining has become muscle memory.

In the world of American wedding etiquette, plus-ones are straightforward, officially speaking. According to Lizzie Post, the great-great-granddaughter of the manners icon Emily Post and caretaker of her dynasty at the Emily Post Institute, the rules go like this: Granting a plus-one to single guests, especially those who are traveling or who don’t know many other attendees, is nice—but not required. Inviting both members of a “serious” relationship, meanwhile, is absolutely essential.