Vice and the Crisis of Liberalism
February 3, 2026
The triumph of vice in American life — the haze of marijuana in our cities, the gambling apps pulsing in so many young male pockets, the success of OnlyFans layered atop the ubiquity of online porn — happened gradually and suddenly. Gradually in the sense that there was no one Supreme Court decision that made all the difference, no single presidential election that turned on legal pot or legal porn. Suddenly in the sense that a convergence of forces, legal and cultural and technological, had a turbocharging effect over just the past 10 years.
This combination, a drastic transformation that feels organic rather than politically imposed, makes the rise of vice a useful point of entry into the debate about liberalism’s crisis. It’s a vivid illustration of why the critique of liberalism has power nowadays, even as it highlights the problems that beset its post-liberalchallengers as well.
