Opinion Today: ‘Reiner’s career shows what we’ve lost’
Here’s what we’re focusing on.
Opinion Today
December 16, 2025
Rob Reiner in 1993.
Ted Dayton/WWD/Penske Media, via Getty Images

Notable

Three Opinion writers on Rob Reiner’s films. “Reiner was liberal in his politics when his movies seemed to call for politics, but he did not make movies to satisfy his political impulses or treat his directing career as an extension of his activism. And the fact that his death provoked such an extraordinary bit of political nastiness from the president doesn’t change — and, if anything, emphasizes — the fact that Reiner’s legacy belongs to a different realm entirely.”

— Ross Douthat, Opinion columnist, in conversation

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The rise of the Washington grievance memoir. “They are ancillary characters inflating themselves into victims, heroes, even symbols. It is the inevitable memoir style for a moment when everyone feels resentful, oppressed, overlooked — in a word, aggrieved.”

— Carlos Lozada, Opinion columnist

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Will creative work survive A.I.? “The future of human creativity is inextricably linked to the future of creative labor. The sooner we recognize this, the better chance we have to preserve artists’ livelihoods — and human-made art itself.”

— Caitlin Petre and Julia Ticona, sociologists who study the effects of technology on society and culture

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Spotlight

The Palais du Midi in Brussels, with construction materials outside it.
Jan Staiger for The New York Times

Europe Is in Decline. Good.

Demotion need not be traumatic.

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ICYMI

Why the world must fight for Jimmy Lai. “Mr. Trump said on the presidential campaign trail last year that it would be “easy” to free Mr. Lai. Mr. Trump should deliver on that boast.”

— Mark Clifford, author of a book about Jimmy Lai

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