Colleague, News, and Opinion Links for the Week of February 9, 2025
Newsletter #321 - February 10, 2025
Reader Suggested Links
Highlighting links suggested by our readers. Please send us links to things that you find useful.
Constructive Communication
Discovery Through Dialogue: Expanding Brown’s ethos of open inquiry through dialogue — A new campus-wide project will create more opportunities for students, faculty and staff to advance dialogue skills and participate in meaningful conversations across a wide range of perspectives.The Hyper-Polarization Threat
Polarization was the word of the year. It’s highly problematic and we can do better. — Polarization has too many different definitions to be meaningful without highly specific modifiers. Additionally, its most obvious interpretation of ideological differences among the general public is less pervasive than typically believed.The Hyper-Polarization Threat
“Overthreat” and “Undertrust” Should Replace the Term Polarization. — Overthreat refers to an outsized perception of threat posed by people of another political party, and undertrust refers to a lack of trust of people of different political parties due to an underestimation of factors that support trust.Israel / Hamas War
The Song Remains The Same — With the release of a few of the remaining Israeli hostages, we are getting a new and terrifying look at the barbaric evil that characterizes Hamas -- something peacebuilders need to find better ways of opposing.US Politics
This time, the anti-Trump resistance is in the courts, not in the streets — An overview of what is happening in the courts – the one arena in which there is significant pushback on President Trump's claims of executive authority.Authoritarians (and Wannabes)
Why the Supreme Court may be open to Trump’s push for expanded power — A look at the debate surrounding the conservative legal theory surrounding the concept of a "unitary executive" and the role that this debate may play in constraining or enabling President Trump.US Politics
Many Americans Say the Democratic Party Does Not Share Their Priorities — More poll data that helps us understand the gap that has opened up between the Democratic Party and so much of the electorate.Race / Anti-Racism
As Trump Attacks D.E.I., Some on the Left Approve — A report on Democrats who are going beyond a reflexive defense of DEI programs and actually trying to understand and constructively respond to criticisms.US Politics
“The Week ‘Democrats Must Work With Trump’ Died” — An explanation of why it is so difficult for the losing political party to, after a bitterly fought election, start engaging in true collaborative governance.
Colleague Activities
Highlighting things that our conflict and peacebuilding colleagues are doing that contribute to efforts to address the hyper-polarization problem.
Constructive Communication
I Don’t Think That Word Means What You Think It Means — Republicans and Democrats often use the same words, but they mean different things. A new project seeks to build a bipartisan dictionary to help us better understand one another.De-Escalation Strategies
The Mirror Effect - Tim Shriver — Tim Shriver, Co-Creator of the Dignity Index, shares how participants initially used the Index to judge others, only to realize that it also serves as a mirror—helping them reflect on their own words and actions.Psychological Complexity
The Human Need for Tangibility in a Polarized World — Tangible experiences -- listening to a vinyl record, or reading a physical book, -- demand patience and presence. They create space for reflection in a way that digital platforms, designed for engagement and outrage, do not.Civic Education
Civic Learning Week: March 10-14, 2025 — From the National Civic League, a nationwide initiative highlighting the critical role of civic education in sustaining and strengthening our constitutional democracy.Developing a Unifying Vision
Trump wants to be a unifier. Here's how he could do it. — Stephen Hawkins from More in Common argues that neither President Trump's supporters, nor his opponents want him to override the Constitution.Saving Democracy
Exploring Plural Voting as a Method for Citizen Engagement — From New America, this interview is part of a series spotlighting successful stories of co-governance models across rural, urban, and tribal communities.Bridge Building
Introducing the Bridging Dictionary — Could seeing how opposite sides of the US political spectrum use the same words differently be a first step toward greater cross-political understanding?Media Reform
Isaac Saul: Doing Journalism That's Trusted by Both Sides [Podcast] - BCB # 56 — An interview with the man who is trying to do what many consider to be impossible -- build a widely trusted news source (one that doesn't just preach to the choir).Race / Anti-Racism
Martin Luther King, Conservative? — A podcast highlighting the many ways in which conservatives agree with the teachings of Martin Luther King -- could this be a basis for imagining a way out of our deep divisions?Peacebuilding
Great Hatred and Little Room: Building Peace in Northern Ireland — Insights from two individuals who came of age in the deeply segregated Ireland during the "troubles." Like Americans today, they had to learn how to live together despite deep distrust.The Hyper-Polarization Threat
South Korean democracy is grappling with political polarisation — Political polarisation is gripping South Korean democracy and slowly making it dysfunctional, with increasingly less leeway to address the needs of its citizens.A Rwandan Lesson to Americans in Reconciliation, Forgiveness, and Community — What is most inspiring about Rwanda’s strong cultural values are the ways that they’ve positively shaped the country’s post-genocide reconstruction and reconciliation process.
Civic Education
Action Guide for Improving Civic Health in Rhode Island — The National Civic League partnered with the Rhode Island Foundation to create this guide to improving civic health -- a guide that has much more widespread applications.
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.)
Psychological Complexity
Is Trump Literal, Serious, or Both? — An especially good look at how the complex relationship between Israel and the Muslim world interacts with President Trump's still mysterious thought processes and especially his plans for Gaza.Psychological Complexity
The Zero-Sum Presidency — A provocative hypothesis that President Trump is primarily motivated by a zero-sum, win-lose psychology.Israel / Hamas War
Trump Takes a Wrecking Ball to the Middle East Status Quo — A look at the way in which President Trump's statements regarding Gaza and the Middle East are transforming everyone's calculations (even though they have yet to be backed up with any real action).Authoritarianism
I Ran U.S.A.I.D. Killing It Is a Win for Autocrats Everywhere. — From Samantha Power, President Biden's director of USAID, a defense of that institution.Progressive Left
The FAA's Hiring Scandal: A Quick Overview — For those who want to know the degree to which DEI politics has been distorting FAA hiring practices, a report (with links to court documents) on the ongoing litigation surrounding this issue.Disinformation
Trump’s efforts to censor the press — A revealing look at how the Trump administration's efforts to combat censorship (and Democratic control of the media) are turning into Republican efforts do pretty much the same thing.Social Complexity
What to do with sincere but unpopular beliefs? — Interesting reflections on the most constructive way of handling members of your political coalition who have deeply held, but widely unpopular, beliefs.Runaway Escalation
Government Keeps Going Too Far — An exceptionally good essay describing what hyper-polarization means in actual practice -- political parties that chronically go too far in the pursuit of once laudable objectives.Social Complexity
Coalitions are everywhere — From a game theory perspective, an examination of coalitions, the processes that create them, and their role in promoting polarization and hyper-polarization.Social Complexity
Revisiting the Thucydides Trap — A provocative essay asking an important but seldom asked question: Is it always in your best interest to strengthen your political power by aligning yourself with a coalition?De-Escalation Strategies
Don't Just Let Radicals Dictate Your Opinions — An interesting effort to get beyond us-vs-them thinking and explore the conflict between those at the extremes of the political continuum and those at the center.Psychological Complexity
How to feel bad and be wrong — A description of the meaning and importance the psychological concept, "attribute substitution" -- a seldom recognized bias that distorts our thinking.Superpower Conflict
Is This the End of Pax Americana? — Now that the United States' brief reign as the world's only "hyperpower" has passed into the history books, thoughts about whether it will take "Pax Americana" (and, perhaps, peace as well) with it.US Politics
Trump's Populism Isn't a Sideshow. It's as American as Apple Pie. — A podcast that places today's anti-elite populism into the broader context of the United states' long-standing distrust of its elites and its embrace of populist rebellions.US Politics
Democrats have become the party of permissiveness. That’s ballot box poison. — From Rahm Emanuel, an argument against focusing exclusively on "kitchen table" economics and neglecting the many other issues that affect day-to-day quality-of-life.Saving Democracy
The End of the Cordon Sanitaire — An insightful comparative analysis of how coalition building works and doesn't work in US and European democratic systems.US Politics
How Do We Understand Culture? — Thoughtful reflections on what we have and should have learned from the failures of the "resistance" movement in President Trump's first term.Constructive Communication
What Conservatives Get Right About Politics — The first of the two-part series that tries to explain to one side some of the good ideas that the other side has that are worth embracing.Class Inequity
The 'White-Collar Lie' Led Americans To Embrace Illegal Labor — A provocative and insightful essay that asks hard questions about why so many people disrespect those who do blue-collar work and the relationship between this and our embrace of extra-legal immigration.US Politics
We Have No Coherent Message’: Democrats Struggle to Oppose Trump — A report on interviews with more than 50 Democratic leaders that highlights the ongoing conflict within the party over how best to respond to Trump's victory.US Politics
Democratic States Are Wards of Washington — An exploration of the ways in which state and federal government finances are deeply intertwined (with Democratic states especially dependent on the federal government).Class Inequity
Why Is Africa Poor? — An important and persuasive argument that much of Africa's struggles are attributable to a lack of basic freedoms rather than its colonial legacy.
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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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