{"id":1659119,"date":"2026-02-05T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/?post_type=article&#038;p=1659119"},"modified":"2026-02-04T12:34:37","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T17:34:37","slug":"people-think-asad-haider-tarnoff_2026-02-26","status":"publish","type":"article","link":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/articles\/2026\/02\/26\/people-think-asad-haider-tarnoff\/","title":{"rendered":"People Think"},"content":{"rendered":"The philosopher Asad Haider died in December at the age of thirty-eight. He was my friend. But I kne<div class=\"leaky_paywall_message_wrap\"><div id=\"leaky_paywall_message\">\t<div class=\"paywall\" id=\"paywall-a\">\n\t\t<div class=\"fadeout\"><\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"paywall-content text-center pb-xs-14\">\n\t\t\t<img\n\t\t\t\tloading=\"lazy\"\n\t\t\t\tsrc=\"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Sub_PrintDigital_11062022-72ppi.jpg?w=200\"\n\t\t\t\tsrcset=\"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Sub_PrintDigital_11062022-72ppi.jpg?w=200 200w, https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Sub_PrintDigital_11062022-72ppi.jpg?w=400 400w\"\n\t\t\t\tsizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 200px, 400px\"\n\t\t\t\talt=\"New York Review in various formats\"\n\t\t\t\tclass=\"paywall-img mb-xs-3\"\n\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t<p class=\"text-xs-20 text-lg-30 mb-xs-1 color-ny-red font-giza\">Continue reading <br\/>for just $1.00 per issue!<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p class=\"text-xs-16 mb-xs-2\">Choose a Digital subscription or our best deal \u2013 All Access \u2013 that includes print and digital issues, full archive access, and the NYR App!<\/p>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/subscribe.nybooks.com\/ecom\/nyb\/app\/live\/subscriptions?org=NYB&publ=NY&key_code=EPMXM01&type=S\" class=\"button font-giza bg-ny-red color-white hover-text-white hover-expand sign-in-subscribe text-xs-16 mb-xs-3 paywall-offer\"><span>View Offers<\/span><\/a>\n\t\t\t<hr class=\"mt-xs-0 mb-xs-3\"\/>\n\t\t\t<p class=\"text-xs-16 mb-xs-2\">Or\u00a0register\u00a0for a free account to read just this article. <a href=\"\/account\/register\/?level_id=0\" id=\"register\">Register<\/a>.<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p class=\"text-label color-gray mb-0\">Already a subscriber? <a href=\"\/account\/signin\/\" class=\"paywall-signin color-gray\">Sign in<\/a><\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<div class=\"paywall\" id=\"paywall-b\">\n\t\t<div class=\"fadeout\"><\/div>\n\t\t<div class=\"paywall-content text-center pb-xs-14\">\n\t\t\t<img\n\t\t\t\tloading=\"lazy\"\n\t\t\t\tsrc=\"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/PrintandDigital-2x_FreeNotebk_02112021-B.jpg?w=200\"\n\t\t\t\tsrcset=\"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/PrintandDigital-2x_FreeNotebk_02112021-B.jpg?w=200 200w, https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/PrintandDigital-2x_FreeNotebk_02112021-B.jpg?w=400 400w\"\n\t\t\t\tsizes=\"(max-width: 768px) 200px, 400px\"\n\t\t\t\talt=\"\"\n\t\t\t\tclass=\"paywall-img mb-xs-3\"\n\t\t\t>\n\t\t\t<p class=\"text-xs-20 text-lg-30 mb-xs-1 color-ny-red font-giza\">Continue reading for just $1 an issue and get a FREE notebook! 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Choose a Digital subscription or our best deal\u2014All Access\u2014that includes print and digital issues, full archive access, and the NYR App!<\/p>\n\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/subscribe.nybooks.com\/ecom\/nyb\/app\/live\/subscriptions?org=NYB&publ=NY&key_code=EPKXM01&type=S\" class=\"button font-giza bg-ny-red color-white hover-text-white hover-expand sign-in-subscribe text-xs-16 mb-xs-3 paywall-offer\"><span>View Offers<\/span><\/a>\n\t\t\t<hr class=\"mt-xs-0 mb-xs-3\"\/>\n\t\t\t<p class=\"text-xs-16 mb-xs-2\">Or\u00a0register\u00a0for a free account to read just this article. <a href=\"\/account\/register\/?level_id=0\" id=\"register\">Register<\/a>.<\/p>\n\t\t\t<p class=\"text-label color-gray mb-0\">Already a subscriber? <a href=\"\/account\/signin\/\" class=\"paywall-signin color-gray\">Sign in<\/a><\/p>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\n<script>\n\t\/\/ Set link current page variables\n\tvar $ = jQuery;\n\tvar paywall_type = 'register';\n\t$('.paywall-offer').each(function(index) {\n\t\tvar offerLink = $(this).attr('href') + '&current_page=' + window.location.href;\n\t\t$(this).attr('href', offerLink)\n\t})\n\t$('.paywall-offer').on('click', function() {\n\t\tdataLayer.push({'event': 'Paywall Click', 'paywall_type': paywall_type });\n\t})\n\tvar signinLink = $('.paywall-signin').attr('href') + '?current_page=' + window.location.href;\n\t$('.paywall-signin').attr('href', signinLink);\n\n\t\/\/ Push paywall custom event for gtag if it becomes visible\n\t(function() {\n\t\tif (!document.getElementsByClassName('article-main-content').length) {\n\t\t\treturn;\n\t\t}\n\n\t\t\/\/ https:\/\/www.simoahava.com\/analytics\/google-tag-manager-dom-listener\/\n\t\tvar targetNode = document.getElementsByClassName('article-main-content')[0];\n\t\tvar config = { attributes: true, attributeFilter: ['style'] };\n\t\tvar callback = function(mutationsList, observer) {\n\t\t\tfor(var index = 0; index < mutationsList.length; index++) {\n\t\t\t\tvar mutation = mutationsList[index];\n\t\t\t\tif (mutation.type === 'attributes') {\n\t\t\t\t\tconsole.log('The ' + mutation.attributeName + ' attribute was modified.');\n\t\t\t\t\tif (document.querySelector('.paywall')) {\n\t\t\t\t\t\tdataLayer.push({'event': 'Paywall Visible', 'paywall_type': paywall_type });\n\t\t\t\t\t\tobserver.disconnect();\n\t\t\t\t\t\treturn true;\n\t\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t\t}\n\t\t\t}\n\t\t};\n\n\t\tvar observer = new MutationObserver(callback);\n\t\tobserver.observe(targetNode, config);\n\t})()\n<\/script>\n\n<div id=\"paywall-ad\" class=\"inline-banner-ad d-flex flex-column\">\n\t<p class=\"text-label-sm mb-xs-2 mt-xs-2 color-gray text-center\">Advertisement<\/p>\n\t<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1600792242058-0\" style=\"margin: 0 auto;\"><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Asad Haider, the foremost socialist thinker of his generation, staked his philosophy on the principle that everyone should be fundamentally free.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":1658859,"template":"","categories":[18771,18776,18751],"tags":[],"coauthors":[30090],"class_list":["post-1659119","article","type-article","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ideas","category-philosophy-religion","category-united-states-politics","article-type-essay","article-form-feature","_issue-2026-02-26","author-roles-by","author-cap-ben-tarnoff"],"acf":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"http:\/\/nybooks.com\/articles\/2026\/02\/26\/people-think-asad-haider-tarnoff\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"People Think","url":"http:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/articles\/2026\/02\/26\/people-think-asad-haider-tarnoff\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/articles\/2026\/02\/26\/people-think-asad-haider-tarnoff\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/haider_asad-022626-900.jpg?w=125","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.nybooks.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/haider_asad-022626-900.jpg"},"articleSection":"Philosophy &amp; 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