Beyond Intractability in Context Blog
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Posts ordered from most recent to earliest.
- An example of the advantages of not framing all social problems in racial terms. #mbi_context -- Clean air doesn't need explicit racial targeting -- Mar 01
- A exploration of what might happen if Russia wins (and a counterpoint to the previous post on the possibility of a Russian defeat). This is what drives extreme escalation! #mbi_context -- What if Russia Wins? -- Mar 01
- Status anxiety is a new "psychological problem" that discounts the complaints of populists who believe that they are no longer viewed as valued members of society. #mbi_context -- Status Anxiety Is Blowing Wind Into Trump’s Sails -- Mar 01
- Empathy isn't just for interpersonal conflicts. It is critical to the management of international relations and, especially, efforts to prevent war. #mbi_context -- Strategic Empathy: The Afghanistan Intervention Shows Why the U.S. Must Empathize with its Adversaries -- Mar 01
- An exploration of the all too common practice of creating conflict and confrontation as a strategy for diverting attention from other issues. #mbi_context -- Causing Crisis Works -- Feb 28
- An example of something that's not done nearly often enough -- thinking about the ideas that political opponents have that could help strengthen society. #mbi_context -- What Conservatives Get Right About Politics -- Feb 28
- A cultural history of the many ways in which a long tradition of sophisticated political provocations and propaganda has shaped (and is shaping) Russia. #mbi_context -- Vladimir Putin’s Hall of Mirrors -- The Russian president sees the world through the lens of maskirovka and provokatsiia. -- Feb 28
- A look at how efforts to give us all a more accurate view of the world through the supression of misinformation could easily make things worse. #mbi_context -- The "misinformation problem" seems like misinformation -- Feb 27
- A persuasive argument that Ray Bradberry's Fahrenheit 451 does a better job of describing our contemporary dystopian moment than 1984 or Brave New World. #mbi_context -- “A Pleasure to Burn”: We Are Closer to Bradbury’s Dystopia Than Orwell’s or Huxley’s -- Feb 27
- A story about the steps that Canada is taking to quash the tracker protests--they seem to be "canceling" anybody who in any way supports the protesters. #mbi_context -- A Social Credit System Arrives in Canada -- Feb 27
- As the Ukrainian war now unfolds, a look at the realities of military power and the things that the West has done that are contributing to the tragedy. #mbi_context -- The West Is Sleepwalking Into War in Ukraine -- Feb 24
- In addition to overt aggression, the Ukrainian War is showing us the military implications of high-tech efforts to inflame and exploit the West's internal political divides. #mbi_context -- Ukraine is the world’s first major “troll power” war -- Feb 24
- A report on Alaska's nonpartisan, rank-choice primary system -- one of the most promising democratic reforms on the horizon. #mbi_context -- More Places Should Do What Alaska Did to Its Elections -- Feb 24
- A really perceptive exploration of the complex process of remembering and forgetting that is critical to the crafting of a viable national identity. #mbi_context -- 1619 vs. 1776 -- Feb 17
- A look at the global trend toward suppressing the expression of disagreeable ideas (rather than doing the hard work of building agreement). #mbi_context -- The War on Free Speech -- Feb 17
- As tensions between Russia and the West threaten to explode, a look at why our efforts to prevent such crises keep failing. #mbi_context -- Why the West’s Diplomacy With Russia Keeps Failing -- Feb 17
- A big part of our problem is we can't pay attention to our problems long enough to solve them. Part of the reason is that our attention is being stolen. #mbi_context -- Your Most Valuable Resource Is Being Stolen -- Feb 16
- A look at what happens when the zeal with which we try to enforce new norms comes in the conflict with our underlying goals (like fighting racism). #mbi_context -- The New N-Word Standard Isn’t Progress -- Feb 16
- CSVR works to understand violence, heal its effects, reconcile communities and build sustainable peace in South Africa, and beyond. #mbi_colleague -- Center for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation -- Feb 16
- A look at what happens when cherished progressive goals come into conflict with one another – this time over the enforcement of gun-control measures. #mbi_context -- The Anti-gun Laws That Make Progressives Uneasy -- Feb 16
- A vitally important exploration of "rights" and the "responsibilities" that must accompany those rights (if we want continue to enjoy those rights). #mbi_context -- Where Everyone Has Rights and No One Has Responsibilities -- Feb 15
- A look at exactly how our society (and its social media companies) select the opinion leaders that have so much influence on the way we think. #mbi_context -- Facebook Has a Superuser-Supremacy Problem -- Feb 15
- Instead of building a politics around the complaints we have about one another, how about focusing on our shared interests and values. #mbi_context -- A Politics of Commonalities, Not Differences -- Feb 15
- An an exploration of the limits of cancel culture-style efforts to suppress disfavored views. #mbi_context -- The Joe Rogan case is the latest example of how ‘deplatforming’ doesn’t work -- Feb 14
- A story about the massive amount of social power that the left can deploy against those with disfavored views (and a big reason why this scares the right). #mbi_context -- The Blue Stack Strikes Back -- Feb 14
