Colleague, News, and Opinion Links for the Week of July 19, 2026
Newsletter #473 -July 20, 2026
Highlighted Links
A few suggestions about links that we think are especially interesting.
Progressive Left
Abolish Everything, Replace It With What? — For socialists demanding the abolition of so many of our society’s key institutions, timely and important questions about what they are offering in their place.Israel, Hamas, Iran, and Related Wars
Trump Has Only Terrible Choices With Iran — A sober and quite persuasive outline of the four principal paths that the war in Iran might take.Israel, Hamas, Iran, and Related Wars
A Way Out of the Iran Mess — A decision can be no better than the best option available. This article offers one view on the United States’ available options in Iran.Artificial Intelligence
Is This the Fastest Opinion Shift in American Politics? — Is the gathering coalition of Americans against data centers going to be the next Occupy Wall Street or Tea Party?Leadership
Authenticity And Charisma Are Not The Same As Virtuous And Wise — Thoughts on the all-important difference between building an attractive political movement and a movement capable of implementing morally sound policies that affordably deliver on their promises.Israel, Hamas, Iran, and Related Wars
When the Polycrisis and the Omnishambles hit the Strait of Hormuz — As world petroleum reserves drop to near record lows, thoughts about what might happen if this trend continues.Communication Complexity
How Meta Engineers Your Reality — An important and frightening essay on how Meta’s linguistic dictatorship follows Orwell’s dystopian vision to the letter.Developing a Unifying Vision
United Independents: Building the Infrastructure for Independent Leadership — The politically homeless are now the largest voting bloc in the United States. The United Independents are working to give independents the kind of political clout that their more partisan fellow citizens enjoy.Constructively Addressing Complex Issues
Crucial questions to ask Senate candidates — With respect to Social Security, a timely reminder that we are rapidly approaching the point where tough decisions are going to have to be made by a political system that seems incapable of making such decisions.Saving Democracy
A Democracy Safe for the World — From Foreign Affairs, a summary of an important new book on how to repair democracy: “The Political Consequences of Economic Ideas: Neoliberalism, the Left, and the Fate of Democracy.”Progressive Left
Democrats’ extremism and stupidity are catching up with the GOP’s — Harsh, but thought-provoking, criticism of the Left’s turn toward a new kind of socialist populism.Israel, Hamas, Iran, and Related Wars
Rahm Emanuel Found His Applause Line. It Was My Children’s Generational Shame. — Reflections on yet another way in which Jews are held to moral standards that don’t apply to other groups.Psychological Complexity
Gad Saad’s Empathy Alibi? — For a field that has long emphasized the positive benefits of empathy, more thought on the ongoing debate over whether empathy can become counterproductiveCommunication Complexity
Is This What a Post-Literate Era Looks Like? — Contemplations about a likely future in which the ability to follow complex written arguments disappears, leaving us with nothing but a superficial, smartphone-based image of the world.
Colleague Activities
Highlighting things that our conflict and peacebuilding colleagues are doing that contribute to efforts to address the hyper-polarization problem.
Peacebuilding
It Shouldn’t Be This Easy to Wage War and This Hard to Make Peace — The alleged end of the Iran conflict offers yet another reminder of how far we have strayed from the standard set forth in the ConstitutionConstructive Communication
Braver Angels’ 2026 Convention — A three-hour video with highlights of talks at this year’s Braver Angels’ convention.Saving Democracy
50 Ways to Honor America’s 250th — For 250 years, America’s strength hasn’t come from everyone agreeing. It comes from learning how to disagree. To stay in the room. To find common ground even when it’s hard.US Politics
Freedom 250: A Partisan Crowd Celebrating Its Own Ascendance — The “good vibes” at the “Great American State Fair” were real, but a large partisan crowd isn’t a national consensus.Constructive Communication
What’s the difference between 2024 and 2026? 180 degrees. — Piper Hendricks, CEO of Stories Change Power reflects on the 2026 Braver Angels National Convention.Theories of Change
In a World of Ugliness, Look for Beauty — When was the last time you went seeking beauty? And by beauty, Debilyn Molineaux includes a sense of awe and wonder. Seeking it everyday can greatly improve our mental health.Developing a Unifying Vision
What is the American Story? Two senators, two parties, one message — Senators John Curtis and Mark Kelly are from different parties, different backgrounds, and different views on plenty of issues. Their message: we own our story, and it doesn’t have to be written about division.
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.)
Superpower Conflict
The World’s Superpowers Are Scrambling for an Edge. It Makes All of Us Less Safe. — An overview of the intense and ongoing gray zone war that is driving the relationship between the major powers.Artificial Intelligence
China, Russia and Others Seek to Inflame Debate Over A.I. Data Centers — Rare insight into the ways in which geopolitical rivals are attempting to use the United States’ open communication systems to inflame tensions so that they can better compete in the AI arms race.Theories of Change
Change is God. — For a world in which it seems that everybody wants to be a change agent, thoughts about what change really is.Social / Economic Complexity
Maui went from wildfires to purgatory. Here’s why it struggles to rebuild. — Another example of instances in which regulatory excesses are preventing us from getting critically needed things done.Climate / Environment / Health
Beyond Lithium: New Battery Tech Starts to Break Through — A hopeful story about new battery technologies (and a reminder that new technologies really can make the world better).Artificial Intelligence
Why I didn’t sign the “We Must Act Now” statement (yet) — In the context of AI, an essay examining the politician’s fallacy: “We must do something. This is something. Therefore, we must do this.”Psychological Complexity
What if It’s Not the Phones? — For a time when it’s fashionable to blame smartphone technology for most of the problems now being faced by young people, thoughts about another possible culprit.Left / Right Conflict
How the Smithsonian Lost America’s Plot — For those really trying to understand the conflict, a more conservative perspective on the big debate over the Smithsonian’s objectivity and the Trump administration’s efforts to influence it’s many exhibits.Corruption
The Most Corrupt Presidency in American History, by the Numbers — Based on hard data from recent financial disclosures, a report on what is (at least by past standards) the incredible corruption of the Trump administration.Disinformation
How Wikipedia Turned a World Cup Controversy Into an Antisemitic Conspiracy Theory — A small, but significant, example of the ways in which social media platforms can be weaponized in the service of some political objective.Social / Economic Complexity
Britain’s Exploding Disability Dole — For those advocating further expansion of the United States social safety net, a report from Great Britain’s increasingly unaffordable system.Saving Democracy
A Win for American Democracy — A hopeful, and reasonably persuasive, argument that the recent Supreme Court decision (National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal Election Commission) was a step in the right direction.Israel, Hamas, Iran, and Related Wars
Israel’s $50 Million Experiment to Change U.S. Public Opinion — A summary of Israeli efforts to defend themselves from info-war tactics being used against them.Interstate War
Magazine Depth Crisis: The U.S. Military Is Running Out of Tomahawk Cruise Missiles — The description of yet another way in which the United States military clout is rapidly diminishing.
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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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