2025: The Year the untouchable became touchable
Analyzing the most-engaged stories of the year: Why the collapse of traditional protections became the defining theme of 2025.
Readers are no longer interested in the status quo.
Whether it was a corporate giant like Starbucks paying out millions, the exposure of elite networks in the Jeffrey Epstein files or the DOJ facing a judicial rebuke — 2025 was the year the untouchable became touchable.
The stories that define this past year—and specifically the ones you engaged with most — share a unified analytical framework: the collapse of traditional shields.
Here are the Most Liked Stories of 2025, broken down by the themes that defined them.
Corporate and elite reckoning
The most engaged stories of the year center on the stripping away of protections for the powerful.
1. The Starbucks Settlement ($35 Million) This isn’t just a labor dispute; it is a precedent. Starbucks agrees to pay New York City workers a staggering $35 million to settle claims of unstable schedules. With Senator Bernie Sanders amplifying the demands, this story resonates because it marks a shift in the labor-capital power dynamic. It signals that arbitrary flexibility at the expense of worker stability is a liability corporations can no longer afford.
2. The Epstein Photo Release Photos confirm Donald Trump, Bill Clinton and Bill Gates socialized with Jeffrey Epstein, dismantling years of denial. The analytical takeaway is clear: legacy and power no longer immunize leaders from the moral contagion of their private associations.
Policy-reality disconnect
Readers flocked to stories where official narratives clashed violently with on-the-ground reality.
3. The ACA Fire Alarm While lawmakers debate the calendar, a top GOP regulator pulls the fire alarm on ACA subsidies, warning of a market crash affecting 24 million Americans. This story highlights administrative dissonance — the terrifying gap between legislative pacing and the urgent economic reality facing voters.
4. Raleigh’s Tale of Two Cities Raleigh Mayor Cowell wields falling crime stats just as federal agents arrive to treat the capital like a crime scene. This story captures the data vs. experience friction that defined 2025 politics. Local data says calm, while federal mandates see threat. Americans become skeptical of statistics that don’t match the enforcement they see on the streets.
Justice system on trial
The third major pillar of 2025 was the scrutiny of the enforcers themselves.
5. The DOJ Rebuke (James Comey Case) A federal judge scolding the DOJ for “fundamental misstatements of the law” in the Comey prosecution is a rare institutional undressing. This story highlights the fragility of prosecutorial authority when it lacks procedural integrity.
6. Jeanette Vizguerra Returns — and emerges from nine months of detention, proving that resistance shifts effectively from church basements to federal courtrooms. This serves as a counter-narrative to the DOJ story above — proof that while the system can overreach, constitutional due process remains a potent, if slow, corrective tool.
Science and society
Solar Trade Paradox: New studies show imported panels saved 600 American lives, complicating the protectionist trade debate.
Scientists identify 20 new species in Guam’s deep reefs. Retrieving devices from “Twilight Zone,” a rich, unmapped biodiversity persisting in ocean’s dark depths and an urgent need to protect fragile habitats.
ICE deems a Tribal ID fake, detains actress Elaine Miles. Incident reveals a stunning, systemic contradiction and racial profiling.
Enamel Regeneration: Researchers at Nottingham develop a protein gel to regrow tooth enamel—potentially ending the era of the dental drill.
2026: Looking ahead
As we move into the new year, we continue to track these fault lines. If 2025 was the year of exposure, 2026 shapes up to be the year of reconstruction.
Thank you for reading and supporting independent journalism.
— Jay Keller | Editor | Writer | Historian | Digital Strategist | flingjore.com |
The needs of the many, are the sins of the few or the one and Trump, one way or another justice will come calling for Trump and his stench