Colleague, News, and Opinion Links for the Week of July 6, 2025
Newsletter #366 - July 7, 2025
Highlighted Links
A few suggestions about links that we think are especially interesting.
Saving Democracy
America Has Always Been a Dangerous Idea — Thoughtful reflections on the most valuable features of US society and the contributions that it has made to humanity.Saving Democracy
On Patriotism and Protest — Thoughtful reflections on how to resolve the apparent contradiction between being patriotic and, at the same time, very critical of a society.Peacebuilding
Executive Order 14311: Establishing a White House Office for Special Peace Missions — From the Federal Register, a surprising executive order which might become meaningful. It is worth remembering that, after a rocky beginning, the United States Institute of Peace was able to flourish under the George W. Bush administration.Climate / Environment / Health
How this group got Trump to sign a pro-environment executive order — Another surprising Executive Order from the Trump administration — an order that gives hope that there really are opportunities for persuasion and compromise.Family / Gender / LBGTQ+
How the Gay Rights Movement Radicalized, and Lost Its Way — A really perceptive and thoughtful history of the emergence of the gay rights movement, its success with Obergefell, and the downsides of the shift towards gender issues.Superpower Conflict
What Trump Doesn’t Understand About Nuclear War — Given increasing superpower tensions and the potential role of nuclear weapons in the conflicts between India and Pakistan and Israel and Iran, thoughts on what Trump and everyone else ought to know.Superpower Conflict
The President’s Weapon — As risks of nuclear war continue to escalate, an examination of how US tradition and law place authority over the use of these weapons almost exclusively in the hands of the president.
Reader Suggested Links
Highlighting links suggested by our readers. Please send us links to things that you find useful.
Israel / Hamas War
What ‘Globalize the Intifada’ Really Means — A primer on what the term "globalize the intifada" actually means, along with an explanation of the implications of its increasingly widespread use.US Politics
The Limits of Culturally Radical Economic Populism — Thoughtful reflections on the political strategy being pioneered by the surprisingly successful campaign of the Democratic nominee for Mayor of New York, Zohran Mamdani.Israel / Hamas War
‘Death to the IDF’ Chant at Glastonbury Music Festival Sparks Uproar — A rare example of an anti-Semitic incident that was so extreme that it provoked widespread condemnation (in contrast with the slower, but more widely accepted, erosion of taboos against anti-Semitism).Israel / Hamas War
Islam, Israel, and the Tragedy of Gaza — One individual's very thoughtful and well-reasoned analysis of Israel's ongoing wars, their causes, their tragic consequences, and what it will take to stop them.Class Inequity
Billionaire do-gooding is out. Naked oligarchy is in — Disturbing reflections on the changing norms of the superrich.Violence
As Christians Are Slaughtered, the World Looks Away — Yet another example of the gross inconsistencies in the way that the world looks at and responds to violent atrocities.Communication Complexity
Elon Musk Gives Antisemites a Chance to Rewrite History — With respect to Elon Musk and anti-Semitism, this article offers a more broadly applicable look into how those building the new AI platforms can rewrite our history to fit their own purposes.
Colleague Activities
Highlighting things that our conflict and peacebuilding colleagues are doing that contribute to efforts to address the hyper-polarization problem.
Developing a Unifying Vision
New Pluralists 2030 Strategy — The New Pluralists' 2030 Strategy seeks to address 3 pernicious barriers to pluralism: dehumanization, disconnection, and distrust.Israel / Hamas War
The Most Significant Long-Term Consequence of the U.S. Strikes on Iran — It’s not the damage to Fordow or Natanz. What has changed most dramatically since the strikes is Iran’s internal discourse on nuclear weapons, which used to be secret, and now is open and hardened.Media Reform
From Harm to Health — The new Blueprint for Prosocial Tech Design Governance lays out systems that incentivize prosocial design —and goes beyond just removing harm.Peacebuilding
Insights Research Partners — EIRP is a group of professionals who work on advancing evidence and learning in the international democracy and development sector. In 2025, they started this collective to support their peers in the face of the termination of USAID funding.Saving Democracy
RealTime DemTrends — A new substack trying to assess what's REALLY going on with US democracy based on measurements of 39 factors across 13 key dimensions of US Democratic health.Networking
Self-Organization Needs Activators: The 9% Who Turn Networks into Movements — Effective collaboration across networks of groups requires supporting the "middle layer" of participants -- network catalysts who step into leadership roles but aren't part of the core team.Constructive Communication
The power of deep listening: insights from Emily Kasriel’s new book and our research — BBC journalist, Emily Kasriel, is coming out with a book on her pioneering method for high-quality listening: Deep Listening: Transform Your Relationships with Family, Friends, and Foe. She talks about the book here.Authoritarianism
Authoritarianism Resource Library — This resource library is a curated collection of articles, essays, tools, and analyses designed to help readers understand the roots, tactics, and impacts of authoritarian movements.Climate / Environment / Health
Building Climate and Conflict Resilient Communities (2023-2025) — This Karuna project empowered farmers and herders in northern Benin to better anticipate and respond to tensions over land and water use, in order to prevent escalation of conflict and counter the influence of violent extremism in the area.Constructive Communication
The Quiet Power of the Potluck — Yet another powerful way to bring communities together.Violence
Local Officials Seek Increased Safety Support Amid Heightened Threat Environment, Survey Results Show — A new BDI-CivicPulse survey indicates that local elected officials are looking for additional resources to mitigate the risk of threats and harassment, including enhanced privacy protections, personal security, and tools to manage conflict during public meetings.De-Escalation Strategies
Loretta J. Ross: Don't call people out -- call them in — Loretta Ross shares a toolkit for starting productive conversations instead of fights -- what she calls a “call-in culture” to challenge wrongdoing while still creating space for growth and forgiveness.Israel / Hamas War
Enough is Enough — In the wake of back-to-back anti-Semitic attacks, Builders' Founding Partner Daniel Lubetzky breaks down how hate --against Jews and others -- isn’t just spreading. It’s being amplified for profit.Media Reform
Sourdough, Submission, and the Algorithm: When Wellness Becomes a Gateway — How lifestyle content is quietly radicalizing our feeds—and what it says about culture, gender, and power.
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.)
Trust / Trust Earning
Can You Trust Anybody? — A lament about what it means to live in a society in which there are no longer sources of information that are widely trusted.Israel / Hamas War
WATCH: Inside the Massacre that Never Happened — An illuminating video that explains the seldom reported story behind widespread and inflammatory allegations that Israeli forces fired on Palestinians at aid distribution centers.Authoritarianism
The Real Lesson of the Iran-Israel War — A hopeful thing that we have learned from the Israeli / Iranian war — the mutual support bond between authoritarian actors is nowhere near as strong as we might have thought.Civic Education
To save themselves, universities must cultivate civic friendship — An explanation of both the meaning and utility of an interesting new concept, "civic friendship."Israel / Hamas War
The Anti-American Academic Who Helped Build the Caliphate — For those trying to understand why some societies follow the path of violence and aggression, a look at the origins of a cluster of ideas that have been extremely influential in the Muslim world.Hate Mongering
The BBC: enough is enough — An important reminder that even mainstream, left-leaning news sources can be subject to astonishing levels of bias — bias that can have profound and negative impacts on the people affected.Social / Economic Complexity
Exploding U.S. indebtedness makes a fiscal crisis almost inevitable — As both parties resort to borrowing ever larger sums of money to avoid having to make hard choices over "who gets what," thoughts on the ultimate limits of this deficit-financed approach to conflict resolution.Communication Complexity
The Entire Internet Is Reverting to Beta — An explanation of the many ways in which the Internet that we had become accustomed to is collapsing and the differing systems that are competing to take its place.Education
Education’s Elephant in the Room — As we struggle with the complex conflicts surrounding inequality, thoughts about aspects of inequality that are beyond our control.Corruption
A Comprehensive Accounting of Trump’s Culture of Corruption — A detailed report outlining how far we have come, under the Trump administration, from a political culture in which corruption and conflicts of interest were a serious political liability.World Order
Don’t Give Up So Quickly on the Liberal International Order — As the moral and legal constraints associated with the liberal international order continue to be replaced by contests of raw military power, a reminder of the many advantages of a rules-based system.Family / Gender / LBGTQ+
The Liberal Misinformation Bubble About Youth Gender Medicine — A welcome example of the kind of hard questions that backers of all social movements ought to be asking themselves.Social / Economic Complexity
"The Global Fertility Crisis is Worse than You Think" — Sustainability ultimately depends upon a community's ability to raise a succession of generations each willing and able to do their part to sustain and, hopefully, improve society.Violence
Is Rioting Acceptable? If So, How Much? — As frustrations mount and more people seem willing to consider (or at least condone) acts of limited violence, thoughts about the complex moral questions involved.Non-Violence
“No Kings” Is Not Enough — For those encouraged by the size and enthusiasm of the "No Kings" protests, thoughts about what else we really have to do before we can repair our democracy.Artificial Intelligence
A.I. Might Take Your Job. Here Are 22 New Ones It Could Give You. — One of the few articles that I've seen that actually starts to consider the new kinds of jobs that AI is likely to create.Artificial Intelligence
A.I. Can Already See You in Ways You Can’t See Yourself — For those wondering how AI thinks about us, the surprising look at its unconventional "thought" process.Progressive Left
Why Woke Failed — A terrific summary of the excesses of the "woke" revolution and an analysis of why it failed in its goal to transform society and, instead, helped bring us Donald Trump.Race / Anti-Racism
Are White People a Protected Class Now? — An illuminating report on the history of "protected classes," the recent Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services Supreme Court Case, and questions about whether it is possible to discriminate against white men.
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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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