Massively Parallel Peace and Democracy Building Links for the Week of November 3, 2024
Newsletter #293 — November 3, 2024
Reader Suggested Links
Highlighting links suggested by our readers. Please send us links to things that you find useful.
De-Escalation Strategies
Whatever Happens, Love Thy Neighbor — TA plea for voters to remember, in the aftermath of the election, that those who vote the other way aren't evil caricatures, they are the decent folks that you see every day.De-Escalation Strategies
How I Learned To Stop Criticizing Everything — A philosophical argument about lifestyle choices that, if more widely followed, could help heal our divisions.Non-Violence
The Science of Violent vs. Non-Violent Resistance — Addressing calls for violent resistance to Israel and Jews on his campus, Peter Coleman points to research by Maria Stephan and Erica Chenoweth that show that nonviolence is about twice as likely to succeed as violence.US Election
Case Study Panel: America’s Moment of Truth (Again) — During the annual Athens Democracy Forum hosted by the Democracy and Culture Foundation and the New York Times, this international panel of journalists, academics and activists reflects on the coming U.S. election.Israel / Hamas War
Abigail Shrier: The Kindergarten Intifada — From California, a must-read story about the way in which educational institutions are driving a terrifying rise in hate-filled antisemitism.US Election
The Danger Is Greater Than in 2020. Be Prepared. — In uncertain times it makes sense to develop contingency plans for dealing with the many things that could go wrong.Israel / Hamas War
Game-ender or game-changer? — An examination of what Israel intended to achieve in retaliating for the recent Iranian missile attack (and reflections on whether or not they were successful).
Colleague Activities
Highlighting things that our conflict and peacebuilding colleagues are doing that contribute to efforts to address the hyper-polarization problem.
Media Reform
Announcing Version 10 of the AllSides Media Bias Chart! — Featuring six new sources and strengthened ratings for 10 outlets ahead of the 2024 presidential electionConstructive Communication
Promising Revelations: Undoing the False Impressions of America’s Faithful — This study, from More in Common, finds significant perception gaps relating to faith in America today. It examines how Americans are navigating the country’s deep polarization from the perspective of their faith identities.Developing a Unifying Vision
The UN’s New Pact for the Future: A Milestone That Can Set a Path for Change — The UN Pact for the Future, though imperfect, can serve as a stepping stone for even more ambitious, high-impact improvements within the UN system.De-Escalation Strategies
How South Africa Avoided Civil War and Built a Democracy — The story of South Africa’s transition provides powerful lessons that Americans can apply to find common ground, re-humanize the “other,” and safeguard democracy.Civil Society
Protecting civic space around the world — American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) published an interview, Protecting Civic Space Around the World, with Kerri Kennedy, Associate General Secretary for International Programs at AFSC.Violence
Violence Prevention: Understanding the Quiet but Critical Role of ‘Civic Diplomats’ — This short guidance note highlights the importance of secret and confidential actions and initiatives in preventing political violence and overcoming situations of conflict and crisis.De-Escalation Strategies
If You Can Imitate Them, Maybe You Can Understand Them — BCB #122 — Sun Tzu famously said that in order to win a battle you need to know yourself and know your enemy; we could say the same about making peace.Artificial Intelligence
Is this the most aligned we've seen Democrats and Republicans on any issue? — More in Common studied American attitudes toward Generative Artificial Intelligence, a major technological development poised to profoundly impact our psychology, society, and politics. Dem's and Rep's attitudes towards Gen AI are very similar.Saving Democracy
Lessons from Around the World: Engaging ‘Pillars of Support’ to Uphold and Expand Democracy — From Maria Stephan of the Horizons Project, a review of the strategies that politicians, business leaders, religious leaders, trade unions, sports figures, and others have used to fight authoritarianism outside the U.S.Peacebuilding
USIP Newsletters — The United States Institute for Peace sends out weekly and monthly newsletters about it work, important events and resources from their education department. Sign up here.Saving Democracy
Protect Democracy — Protect Democracy is a cross-ideological nonprofit group that uses litigation, legislative and communications strategies, technology, research, and analysis to defend elections, rule of law, and fact-based debate.De-Escalation Strategies
Radical Unity's Inaugural Year Concludes in Arizona and Georgia — A report from the Mediators Foundation on how the arts can be used to unite people across deep divides.De-Escalation Strategies
Can Dignity Prevail in America’s Polarized Landscape? — From More in Common, thoughts about the critical importance of treating one another with dignity and respect and strategies for encouraging such behavior.Media Reform
Can We Trust Tech Giants to Rebuild Society? — David Beckemeyer examines the dreams of Elon Musk and Peter Thiel on how they want to reshape society. Beckemeyer argues that they seek a "digital, decentralized world where institutions like government and law are relics of the past."
News and Opinion
From around the web, more insight into the nature of our conflict problems, limits of business-as-usual thinking, and things people are doing to try to make things better. (Formerly, Beyond Intractability in Context.)
things people are doing to try to make things better. (Formerly, Beyond Intractability in Context.)
US Election
Democrats Stump for Trump — As they demonize the former president, a troubling story about how Democrats are also willing to promote Trump and his supporters in cases where they find it politically useful.Progressive Left
In Shift From 2020, Identity Politics Loses Its Grip on the Country — Further information about the apparent decline in the influence of "woke" political ideas.US Election
Four Lessons From Nine Years of Being ‘Never Trump’ — From a long-standing Republican opponent of President Trump, reflections on the big things that he has learned from the experienceTheories of Change
Politics Without Winners: Can Either Party Build a Majority Coalition? — A thought-provoking article the possibility of building a political coalition that gets beyond today's 50-50 split and actually earns the widespread support of the people.Education
Niall Ferguson: After the Treason of the Intellectuals" on YouTube— An argument that the progressive monoculture that has taken over higher education and intellectual life has abandoned the honest pursuit of truth.Saving Democracy
How Congress Unleashed the Presidency — An interesting argument that many of our difficulties stem from the fact that we created a government that was too big for our democratic institutions to govern.Disinformation
Efforts to combat disinformation in retreat as voters head to the polls — An update on struggle between efforts to combat the disinformation being circulated by those who are truly acting in bad faith and efforts to combat those who unfairly target legitimate criticism as disinformation.Social Complexity
Life makes mistakes — A look at the complexities of biological and social evolution and the surprising role of mistakes.US Election
There Is a Silver Lining in This Tense Election Year — As the saying goes, "things that can't go on like this, don't." Thoughts about the possibility that hyper-polarization has reached the point where people recognize that they have no choice but to do something about it.Progressive Left
The Left Wants to Forget Its Mistakes. That Is a Very Dangerous Plan. — The sensible argument that the left ought to remember and learn from (rather than forget) the things that they have promoted the turned out to be bad ideas. (Advice for the right as well.)Race / Anti-Racism
Three Questions That Probably Doom California’s Reparations Push — Hard questions that proponents of reparations need to be prepared to answer.Runaway Escalation
The Law of Group Polarization — Going back to basics -- one of the foundational articles outlining the nature of polarization dynamics.Left / Right Conflict
America’s political realignment is catching Democrats flat-footed — The pretty persuasive argument that politics is repolarizing in ways that divide the more from the less educated.De-Escalation Strategies
From Concession Speeches to Constructive Dialogue — An argument that electoral winners ought to temper their ambitions and provide losers with assurances that they will have a meaningful voice in shaping the victors' agenda.Developing a Unifying Vision
The Death of American Exceptionalism — Based in part on the examination of past periods of social conflict and distress, this hopeful article explains how politics is lagging behind positive changes that are taking place in our society.Immigration
Is There Really a Plot to Use Migrants to Turn America Blue? — A well-documented and thorough inquiry into the politics of immigration -- motivations, strategies, and implications.US Election
It’s Not Too Early to Begin the Reckoning — An early compilation of things that social scientists think that they have learned from this year's election.US Election
The Election Is Happening Too Soon — Based in part on historical analogies, this hopeful essay argues that today's destructive politics is lagging behind ongoing and much more positive societal changes.Authoritarianism
We’ve Just Had a Glimpse of the World to Come — An essay exploring the possibility that the recent meeting of the leaders of Brazil, Russia, India, and China might offer a preview of what a much more authoritarian world order might look like.Progressive Left
How Gender Ideology Captured the State Department — An exposé, with lots of links, documenting the way in which the Biden administration's "whole of government" effort to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion has reshaped the State Department
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About the MBI Newsletters
Two or three times a week, Guy and Heidi Burgess, the BI Directors, share some of our thoughts on political hyper-polarization and related topics. We also share essays from our colleagues and other contributors, and every week or so, we devote one newsletter to annotated links to outside readings that we found particularly useful relating to U.S. hyper-polarization, threats to peace (and actual violence) in other countries, and related topics of interest. Each Newsletter is posted on BI, and sent out by email through Substack to subscribers. You can sign up to receive your copy here and find the latest newsletter here or on our BI Newsletter page, which also provides access to all the past newsletters, going back to 2017.
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