Matthew Bruenig[1] (born November 22, 1988)[2][3] is an American lawyer, blogger, policy analyst, commentator,[4] and founder of the left-leaning think tank People's Policy Project. He was a blogger for the American think tank Demos covering politics and public policy[5] and has written on issues including income distribution, taxation, welfare, elections, the Nordic model, and funds socialism.[6][7][8][9]
Matt Bruenig | |
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Born | Matthew Bruenig November 22, 1988 |
Education | University of Oklahoma (BA) Boston University (JD) |
Occupations |
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Employer | People's Policy Project |
Spouse | |
Children | 2 |
Website | mattbruenig |
Bruenig's writing has appeared in a range of publications including The New York Times,[10] Current Affairs,[11] Jacobin,[12] The Atlantic,[13] Dissent,[14] and The Washington Post.[15]
In 2016, Bruenig was fired from his part-time job blogging for Demos after he posted a series of what Gawker called "rude tweets" targeting first Joan Walsh and later Center for American Progress president Neera Tanden.[16][17] Demos stated he was let go due to a pattern of "online harassment of people with whom he disagrees";[18] some journalists nevertheless speculated there may have been outside pressure on behalf of Tanden.[19][20][21]
In 2017, Bruenig founded the People's Policy Project, a left-wing think tank which raises money through crowdfunding. The think tank analyzes politics and produces market socialist[citation needed] policy proposals tailored to the United States context.[22][23]
In 2020, Bloomberg News reported that Bruenig with his wife were producing a podcast that generated about $9,000 per month from listeners.[24]
Bruenig is married to Elizabeth Bruenig,[25] Staff Writer for The Atlantic,[26] formerly an opinion writer and editor at The Washington Post[27] and The New York Times.[28] They have two children.[29]
Bruenig has stated that he was diagnosed as autistic in adulthood.[30]
Bruenig describes his brand of socialism as follows:[31]
Socialism is the idea that capital (the means of production) should be owned collectively. There are divergent ideas about how to achieve this in reality. One approach is to have the government hold it collectively in social wealth funds. This is (more or less) the socialism of Yanis Varoufakis, Rudolf Meidner, and John E. Roemer. It is also my brand of socialism, at least for the time.
Bruenig is an advocate of single-payer healthcare,[32] and has argued extensively in favor of its feasibility.[33]
..the organization clarified, 'We are not taking issue with our blogger's political opinions or with him challenging prominent, powerful people. What troubles us is a pattern of tone and conduct, not his chosen targets or the content of his ideas.'
As the feminist writer Sady Doyle wrote in an email to Demos, 'Bruenig is not only directly aggressive, he is a ringleader who inspires people to be aggressive and commit harassment in his name. Reports of being stormed after Bruenig points his followers at people are ubiquitous, and they most often come from women and people of color.'
After our tweet apologizing for Matt's personal attacks including the term 'scumbag,' we received emails from multiple individuals who made it clear that we were not aware of the extent to which Matt has been at the center of controversies surrounding online harassment of people with whom he disagrees.
Demos then responded to the ongoing Twitter thread, calling Bruenig's tweets 'unacceptable,' and apologized for his words. The organization released a lengthy statement Friday night detailing its differences with Bruenig, who has more than 270,000 Twitter followers, and his departure from the group.
'Left leaning podcasts have been listener funded,' says Matt Bruenig who hosts a podcast with his wife....'With the podcast there are no costs so it's up to basically $100,000 a year. That's pretty good money.'
Elizabeth Bruenig to Join The Atlantic as a Staff Writer
Elizabeth Bruenig will join The New York Times as an Opinion writer.
the most serious plan for dealing with it comes not from any of Washington's many mainstream think tanks but from the People's Policy Project — essentially a one-man show run by Matt Bruenig, an eccentric socialist who, along with his wife, New York Times columnist Elizabeth Bruenig, is a parent of two young kids. They whimsically call their proposal the Family Fun Pack, and while it's rigorous in its details, it's also strikingly simple in concept.