Attention to the Unseen

Zaza Bibilashvili and Tom G. Palmer in conversation at The Unpopulist: Zaza Bibilashvili: Over the last decades we’ve witnessed the rise of authoritarianism and a worldwide crisis of liberal democracy. What caused such developments and what should be done to reverse the trend? Tom G. Palmer: Most prognoses focus on demographics, technological changes, economic structures, and so on, which gives an air of inevitability to trends. I think that there are such contributing factors, notably the rise of media fragmentation…

Read More Read More

Michael Lynk writes: In 1982, Meron Benvenisti, former deputy mayor of Jerusalem, spoke to the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) in Washington, D.C., about research that he and other social scientists in Israel were conducting into the political implications of the rapidly expanding Israeli settler population in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT). That year, there were 22,000 settlers living in the occupied West Bank, with another 76,000 settlers in East Jerusalem and 6,500 in the Gaza Strip. According to an Anthony…

Read More Read More

Reuters reports: The U.S. Interior Department said a database revealing how President Donald Trump’s administration planned to revise information on key phases of ​American history at national park sites was deliberative and the employees ‌who released it “will be held accountable.” An internal government database first reported by the Washington Post and posted on two public websites on Monday revealed the scope of the Trump administration’s ​effort to revise or remove information on African-American history, LGBT rights, ​climate change and…

Read More Read More

Barbara Slavin writes: Many if not most successful revolutions boast inspirational leaders followed by less charismatic figures who serve to entrench the new ideology and system of government. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the second-ever supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, exemplified that latter role. Khamenei never had the fervent following of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic, and he became increasingly unpopular as his rule dragged on. But after succeeding Khomeini in 1989, Khamenei managed to…

Read More Read More

To the following question, What are the ideological connections shared by Calvin Coolidge, Hitler, and Stephen Miller? Google AI responded: The ideological connections between Calvin Coolidge, Adolf Hitler, and Stephen Miller are primarily centered on strict immigration restriction based on eugenics, nativism, and the pursuit of national “homogeneity” or “racial purity”. While separated by different political contexts—1920s American conservatism, 1930s Nazism, and 21st-century American populism—they are linked through a chain of influence and shared admiration for the Immigration Act of…

Read More Read More

Philip Kennicott writes: Most of the buildings in the Depression-era Federal Triangle development have an irregular geometry. The Federal Trade Commission office, known as the Apex Building, is a right-angled triangle with its sharpest point rounded off. The Ronald Reagan Building, added in 1998, looks a bit like a stumpy meat cleaver. And the Justice Department building, named for the slain senator, former attorney general and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, is a four-sided polygon with corners beveled flat. It…

Read More Read More

Peter Beinart writes: In 1945, the United States stood at the apex of its global dominance. It comprised half the world’s GDP, owned 80% of its hard currency, and possessed the only nuclear weapons on earth. So, it’s hardly surprising that, in the spring of that year, Americans designed the logo for the new organization tasked with keeping world peace: the United Nations. With diplomats from across the globe set to arrive in San Francisco for the UN’s inaugural meeting,…

Read More Read More

Another day, another outrage. How Hitler used outrageous behavior to distract the German establishment. Google’s AI offers this overview: Hitler utilized a strategy of manufactured crises, constant scandalous behavior, and extreme rhetoric to disorient, distract, and eventually dominate the traditional German establishment—including conservative politicians, military leaders, and the press—between 1930 and 1934. By creating an atmosphere of perpetual chaos, Hitler compelled the elite to react to immediate “emergencies,” preventing them from organizing effective opposition to his true goal of dismantling…

Read More Read More

Jonathan V. Last, after summarizing the events immediately leading up to the Civil War’s pivotal Battle of Gettysburg, writes: It’s not clear why the Trump regime chose to invade Minneapolis. Maybe it was animus toward the city’s Somali population. Maybe it was because Gov. Tim Walz had run against Trump and Vance. Maybe it was because they believed the state’s welfare fraud investigations made Minneapolis favorable terrain on which to fight. But when the regime’s forces occupied the city they were surprised…

Read More Read More

Jonathan Rauch writes: Until recently, I resisted using the F-word to describe President Trump. For one thing, there were too many elements of classical fascism that didn’t seem to fit. For another, the term has been overused to the point of meaninglessness, especially by left-leaning types who call you a fascist if you oppose abortion or affirmative action. For yet another, the term is hazily defined, even by its adherents. From the beginning, fascism has been an incoherent doctrine, and…

Read More Read More

Garrett M. Graff writes: America has never seen a moment in modern history like the federal occupation of Minneapolis. Thousands of masked federal officers with uncertain authority are rampaging through the region, assaulting protesters and innocent people, abusing constitutional safeguards, staking out daycares and schools, snatching people off the streets in unmarked vans based on the color of their skin or their accent, and recklessly, relentlessly provoking violent confrontations with civilians—all against the loud, repeatedly expressed wishes of local and…

Read More Read More