Forbearance is one of the two essentials for a functioning democracy described by Steven Levinsky and Daniel Ziblatt in their book “How Democracies Die.” Along with mutual toleration, forbearance enables more rounds of the electoral game to continue, as opposed to devolving into a civil war over the legitimacy of authority. Forbearance essentially means, “self-control.” […]
Stay tuned for quotes, theories, and ideas from some of the world’s foremost thinkers — concepts that have stood the test of time. Featuring selections from: Timeless wisdom from early history Timeless wisdom from the Stoics Epictetus (50 – 135 AD) Timeless wisdom from historical figures James Madison
The radical right is a fervent anti-government strain of Libertarian ultraconservative, emerging out of the anti-New Deal ideology of the 1930s. From McCarthyism to the John Birch Society, from fiscal conservatives to Christian nationalists, the radical right contains some of the most extreme ideologies in the right wing. Conservative ideology has gotten more and more […]
Some of us have been boning up on this topic for about 6 years already, while others are just tuning in now based on the horrors of recent events. It can be overwhelming to come in cold, so here — don’t go it alone! Take this: Putin’s war against the west President Biden “declassified” an […]
The caricatures of the TV show — at least some of them — ring true, especially politically these days. The MAGA folks who remain loyal are truly stuck in time. They’re back at an event that’s over — some to spend the rest of their lives relitigating the election and holding onto its Lost Cause-style […]
This is more of a scratch pad of ideas at the moment I’m afraid, but I’m aiming to come back and curate this as we get further into 2022. Cliff’s Note version: Broken Record messages for 2022 About Democrats We have a terrible habit of being Debbie Downers about our own party. No matter how […]
Ask not what your country can do for you — but how you can save democracy in your country. “No one can do everything; but everyone can do something.” — Gil Scot-Heron Why? This moment is urgent. The GOP is 3 cults in a trenchcoat, all moving rapidly through radicalization and a veer headlong into […]
Research has shown that emotional repression causes authoritarianism (Altemeyer, Adorno, Stenner et al). Fundamentalist religious groups favor the most repression, culturally — ergo, fundamentalist groups are at the highest risk for nurturing authoritarian traits. Emotional repression is the keystone of fundamentalist parenting. The strict application of “Biblical law” as cherry-picked by extremists is inherently contradictory […]
It may have seemed like the election of 2016 came out nowhere, and the January 6, 2021 attempted coup event was another deep gash to the fabric of assumption — but in reality, the authoritarian movement to dismantle America has been working diligently for a long time. Depending on how you count, the current war […]
Data literacy is the newest frontier. The world of information has a pale twin universe of disinformation, deep fakes, fake news, and true believers — keeping track of reality will become more and more important and valuable into the future. RussiaGate: Russian hacking of the 2016, 2018, 2020, and 2022 US elections The Thinkery See […]
It’s not just here at home in the US that fascism seems to have taken root in the population. There are many burgeoning nationalist movements resurrecting right-wing populism around the world, and as per many experts’ warnings, right-wing authoritarianism is on the rise around the globe. Many of the right-wing populist thatches that have sprung […]
The following list must be prefaced with some caveats about painting with broad strokes, and acknowledging everything is a distribution and Not All Republicans espouse all of these things to the same degree or even at all. Nevertheless, both the extremism and the polarization in our political system is the highest in recent memory — […]
It ain’t just a river in Egypt, y’all. Denial is a psychological condition in which a person rejects a fact or truth that is too painful, or that they are simply unwilling or uninterested to hear. Denial is a common trait amongst certain kinds of personalities, including Cluster B personality disorders like narcissism and sociopathy. […]
These numbers come from the FEC by way of opensecrets.org, and indicate the industry each donor reports they work for (or Retired, if they report not working any longer). The overall political contributions have skyrocketed within our system since the Citizens United ruling gave corporations wide latitude to give money to political campaigns, without necessarily […]
It feels odd to have to make these arguments for diversity, again, some centuries after the Enlightenment. And decades after Darwin, in whose name many fallacious opposite “interpretations” are levied. Nevertheless, the evidence is there for us as it has always been. Diversity isn’t a bad thing — it’s a good thing. For populations, for […]