Introducing: the Philosophy of Lawn-sign liberalism

Owen and I started this project during the summer of 2025. It is 2026 now, and a lot has changed. During the school year, I took a course called “Apocalypse” in which we read fiction, philosophy, economic theory, and manifestos, all in hopes of diagnosing the issues of our current, ever-changing society. It made me realize that the central thesis of the Newton Critique—that Newton residents often display a pseudo-preformative-liberalism—was incomplete. It cannot simply be explained by the examples we laid out in the “articles” tab, because behind the issues lies a collective attitude that is not merely coincidental. The issues we tackled prove the existence of the condition, but they hardly explain why Newton residents act the way they do. So in this new section of the Newton Critique, I will bridge philosophy and memoir to try and explaint the physcology of Newton residents. The condition I plan on writing about is not exclusive to Newton. It describes the mental state of many wealthy, liberal towns and cities around the country. As this is a more creative endeavor, all the photography is mine. I hope you find it as interesting as I do.