Ezra Klein

Columnist, @NYTOpinion
Author, "Why We're Polarized"
Host of "The Ezra Klein Show" podcast

[Ezra Klein @ezraklein]

Enough people have asked me about the Peter Thiel-Dialog story that I think it's worth saying what it is, or at least what I saw it to be. So:

–Dialog is a conference. I went once in 2018 and once in 2022. No one ever asked me to keep it or my presence a secret.

–My understanding was Thiel was one of its founders but no longer involved by the time I went. I never saw or talked to him in connection with Dialog.

–Nor did I see the other names I’ve heard mentioned, like Ted Cruz or Elon Musk or Joseph Gordon-Levitt or Jared Kushner. Dialog was not sold to me as a bunch of big names, which is part of why I went. I don’t need to go to a conference to hear what Ted Cruz thinks.

–You could be a Dialog member, but I wasn’t. I don’t think joining got you much except guaranteed invitations to future Dialogs. There were occasional dinners and webinars, but I never went to one. I would not have described it as a secret or a society.

–The panels were largely self-organized, so people would propose panels and hold them. I went to one on being a working parent and another on whether crypto had any real use cases and another on how to accelerate scientific breakthroughs. You’d usually have 8 or 10 people in a room. It was all very TED-talk adjacent.

–In 2018, I found it very optimistic, with an idealistic hacker-ish vibe. In 2022, I found the conversations and vibe more curdled and resentful. I didn’t enjoy it, and I didn’t go back. (That did prove a pretty good signal of where tech’s politics were going though, maybe I should’ve paid more attention.)

–That said, Dialog was a pretty ideologically diverse crowd. I met some people there who were *extremely* far left and far right. I met some real eccentrics and weirdos. I appreciated that about it.

– I’m a journalist, I go to lots of things in the hopes of getting to know people, hearing new ideas, finding podcast guests, etc.

–Being at something does not mean I endorse it, or everyone at it, or everyone who organized or founded it. I try to go to things where I don’t share the politics and perspectives of the crowd, for obvious reasons.

–I am surprised how credulous some people have been on this story. You have to believe some weird things about the world to believe Julián Castro and Peter Thiel are somehow engaged in a common project. Secret societies, I imagine, need a lot of trust to function, but the people being named here do not trust each other and do not have aligned agendas.

So that’s what I saw at Dialog. I’ll just end by saying it’s a weird experience to have a conference you haven’t thought about for years become the center of a new conspiracy theory.

https://t.co/bG2fPmE3ke

[Ezra Klein @ezraklein]

Full forum here: https://t.co/jAitbl8Hwc

[Ezra Klein @ezraklein]

Here's @XavierBecerra on how he'd balance his pledge to cut California's home construction costs against the parts of his plan that would appear to raise them:

[Ezra Klein @ezraklein]

Full forum — with Steyer, Becerra, Porter, and Villaraigosa — here: https://t.co/jAitbl8Hwc

[Ezra Klein @ezraklein]

Here's @MattMahanSJ, on the lessons — both politics and policy — of trying to cut unsheltered homelessness in San Jose to zero

[Ezra Klein @ezraklein]

On Friday, I hosted a forum with the top 5 Democrats running for governor of California on how they'd fix the state's housing crisis. Some really interesting moments, including this one, from @katieporterca, on California Forever and master-planned communities.

Full forum on podcast apps/Youtube.

[Ezra Klein @ezraklein]

Lovely riff from Naomi Klein on what it means to “build a more welcoming left” - and where you can see it already happening.

[Ezra Klein @ezraklein]

https://t.co/309NrTh7Pg

[Ezra Klein @ezraklein]

“I think what Americans intuitively get better than their political elites, their national security elites and even some of their media is this: War is terrible. War has risks - and even if it’s well intentioned on paper, leads to bad outcomes for the Americans who have to fight in it, the American taxpayers who pay for it, and the people on the other end of the war, whom you say you’re trying to help.” - @brhodes

[Ezra Klein @ezraklein]

One of the real advantages Democrats have going into 2026 is that Trump seems to genuinely believe his presidency is going great.

[Ezra Klein @ezraklein]

"Economic justice is mentioned 3,000 times in our Scriptures, both the New Testament and the Hebrew Scriptures. This is such a core part of our tradition, and it’s nowhere to be seen in Christian nationalism or on the religious right." - @jamestalarico

[Ezra Klein @ezraklein]

https://t.co/Pd9ykBSRDb

[Ezra Klein @ezraklein]

.@jamestalarico has a message for @JDVance

[Ezra Klein @ezraklein]

What makes Newsom so fascinating right now are his contradictions — the places where he's going in two directions at once.

We talk a lot about a lot of those here.

https://t.co/wEpvcEnYR9

[Ezra Klein @ezraklein]

Trump often lies about Democrats giving healthcare to undocumented immigrants. In California, Newsom actually did it. And defends it.

"I'm proud of that. I believe in universal health care."

But, he says, "we failed on the border. We need to own up to that."

[Ezra Klein @ezraklein]

https://t.co/69i87hC8Fm

[Ezra Klein @ezraklein]

To beat back Trumpism, does the Democratic Party need to be more populist? More moderate? More socialist? Embrace Abundance?

Yes.

[Ezra Klein @ezraklein]

In the last few years we've seen:

- The plot to kidnap Gretchen Whitmer
- The Storming of the Capitol and pipe bombs left at the RNC and DNC
- The break-in to kidnap Nancy Pelosi and the brutal on Paul Pelosi
- Multiple assassination attempts against Trump
- The assassination of Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband and the shooting of on State Senator John Hoffman and his wife
- Luigi Mangione's assassination of Brian Thompson
- The assassination of Charlie Kirk

Political violence is contagious. It is spreading. It is not confined to one side or belief system. It should terrify us all.

The foundation of a free society is the ability to participate in it without fear of violence. Political violence is always an attack against us all. You have to be so blind not to see that.

[Ezra Klein @ezraklein]

It's ghoulish to mock or justify the shooting of Charlie Kirk. Rising political violence is a horror of our time. Unchecked it will lead to catastrophes none of us want to imagine.

Deeply hoping he pulls through. We are all people, whatever we believe. That has to come first.