Newsletter #478 — August 6, 2026

by Guy Burgess and Heidi Burgess

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Highlighted Links

A few suggestions about links that we think are especially interesting.

• Developing a Unifying Vision
  Workers Deserve More! — A must-read document for those trying to separate claims about what Democratic Socialists believe from what they're really saying. This is their official program (and an outline of their revolutionary agenda).
• US Politics
  A Small Band of Socialists Is Sowing Panic in the Democratic Party — A long, well-documented, and critical profile of the Democratic Socialists who are surging to prominence in our deeply divided democracy.
• US Politics
  I Was in the DSA. Here’s What They Really Believe. — A long profile of the Democratic Socialists of America – a profile that explains just how much of the U.S. democracy and economic system it seeks to dismantle (and how little we know about what they want to put it in its place).
• US Politics
  Welcome to the Age of Slopulism — An explanation of a useful new term "slopulism" – a populist political movement based on extravagant and unrealistic promises (plus a very poor understanding of the problems that they are trying to fix).
• US Politics
  ‘The Easiest Explanation for This Phenomenon Is That Ideology Really Matters’ — Another attempt to understand the nature of the new socialist movement and explain why it has suddenly garnered so much support. This one compiles what political scientists are saying on a topic.
• Israel, Hamas, Iran, and Related Wars
  The War That Could Swallow the World — Avoiding catastrophe requires anticipating the things that could go wrong and then taking steps to avoid those things. This article explores ways in which the ongoing confrontation between the US and Iran could go wrong.
• Israel, Hamas, Iran, and Related Wars
  Iran has Trump exactly where it wants him — An argument for recognizing the magnitude of the United States' defeat in its war with Iran and for seriously considering what this means for global security.
• Theories of Change
  The Public Intellectuals America Needs — Thoughts about the positive role that trustworthy experts can play at a time when institutional credibility has collapsed.
• US Politics
  The DSA Is a Parasite — This critical article accuses Democratic Socialists of staging a hostile takeover of the Democratic Party by exploiting the primary processes (which is biased toward activists). This parallels Trump's takeover of the Republican Party.
• Social / Economic Complexity
  The Two Great Threats to Truth — A thought-provoking article that highlights the symbiotic relationship that exists between moral relativism and fanaticism – a relationship that is seldom recognized.
• Interstate War
  This Is What’s Keeping Me Up at Night — A hopefully paranoid, but quite possibly prescient, exploration of the factors that are increasing the risk of a third world war.

Colleague Activities

Highlighting things that our conflict and peacebuilding colleagues are doing that contribute to efforts to address the hyper-polarization problem.

• Effective Problem-Solving
  Democracy Resource Hub Learning Series — A collection of practical learning resources to help people build civic trust, host democratic conversations, and take action across differences.
• Trust / Trust Earning
  At a glance: Six key findings from our second community survey report — The Trust for Civic Life’s second community survey reveals insights into what cultivates trust, agency, belonging and participation in rural communities.
• US Politics
  The Rise of the DSA — An Allsides analysis, showing what the right and the left think of the Democratic Socialists of America.
• Saving Democracy
  Beyond the Doom Loop: The Tactical Reality of Independent Campaigns — Political consultant Nathan Smolensky exposes the strategic blind spots of the two-party duopoly and how tech is leveling the playing field.
• De-Escalation Strategies
  Philanthropy and Polarization: Ten Ideas from a Foundation Leadership Retreat — The Institute for Integrated Transitions, in cooperation with the Andrew Carnegie Foundation and the Paris Institute for Advanced Study published these recommendations on how funders can help reduce polarization.
• Saving Democracy
  The Next Frontier for Democracy — What happens when democracy advocates stop working country-by-country and begin learning together across borders? Daniel Stid talks with Yordanos Eyoel.
• Conflict Advice
  7 Ways to Disagree With Someone You Love (Without Torching the Relationship) — The people closest to us are often the ones we clash with hardest, because we actually care what they think. The real skill is learning to explore ideas without torching relationships.
• De-Escalation Strategies
  Beyond Polarization: Why you might be wrong about the 'other side' — Polarization is a threat to American democracy and peace. How can we disagree better? Part 1 of the Beyond Polarization series from Making Peace Visible.
• Saving Democracy
  Building the Alternative: Bridging Gen Z Movements and Governance for Lasting Change — A report that analyses over 500,000 global protest datapoints to map the architecture, drivers, risks, and impact of contemporary youth-led movements.
• Social / Economic Complexity
  What Money Can't Buy — The commodification of connection risks accelerating the inequality in our social lives, while debasing the sacred good of human relationships. It's on us to define where markets do and don't belong.
• Saving Democracy
  Distrust in our Election System Runs Deeper Than Belief in Trump’s Claims — Trump voters react to President Trump's primetime address on election security and integrity.
• Saving Democracy
  Why Post-Watergate Fixes Won’t Save the DOJ — Historical reforms required national consensus on what broke. What happens when we no longer agree on what a crisis is?
• Theories of Change
  The Engagement Staircase: A Strategic Guide for Catalyzing a Network of Changemakers for Systemic Change — For anyone wanting to catalyze systemic change, the question isn’t if they need to engage others, but how, and when. It is far more complex than "getting people on board."
• Theories of Change
  A Shared Framework for a Maturing Field: FIDE North America Releases Theory of Change for Citizens' Assemblies — This document identifies three core problems that citizens' assemblies address — limited electoral accountability, unrepresentative decision-making, and governmental inability to resolve contentious issues.
• Culture and Religion
  The Verdict Is the Tell — What to do when disagreement gets treated as a moral failing.
• Constructive Communication
  Listen Like You Might Be Wrong': Harvard Student Goes Viral For Stunning Speech On Trump Amid Feud — A powerful commencement speech urging people to reject division and embrace mutual understanding.
• Communication Complexity
  Supreme Court Media Coverage Silences Legitimate Debate — When the Supreme Court announces its decisions, political tailwinds understandably follow. Each decision is binary in nature, and this year’s docket saw disappointments for both the left and the right. 
• Leadership
  Wanting Leaders with Good Character — Amongst the many reasons today's political leaders disappoint, one stands out -- character.
• Saving Democracy
  Encore! A Table Talk on Democracy with Joel Kauffman — What is the state of our democracy in the U.S. today? What does it mean to be a democracy? Lamar Roth and Tom Klaus check in with historian Joel Kauffman on these and other questions.
• Civil Society
  Building Civic Muscle, Together: Notes from the July Civic Innovation Forum — A theme ran through every conversation: our differences are not the problem — our distance is. And closing that distance takes intention.
• Social / Economic Complexity
  DORA, Adam Smith, and the Opportunity Hidden in Regulation — Resilience, trust and commercial success are often mutually reinforcing outcomes rather than competing objectives.

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.)

• US Politics
  The Return of the God That Failed — A look at the last time socialism was major political force in the United States. This article profiles a classic book in which former supporters of these movements explain why they concluded that they had made a serious mistake.
• Saving Democracy
  A revolution is unfolding. Voters everywhere are furious. — A comparative, global look at the way in which populist movements on the left and right are threatening the various foundations of democratic societies. The problem isn't just Trump.
• Artificial Intelligence
  What will more intelligence actually do for us? — AI is dramatically increasing access to and lowering the costs of "intelligence." This article explores the likely social effects of this trend.
• Israel, Hamas, Iran, and Related Wars
  The War Is Lost. Now Fix What It Broke. — Another article that encourages us to face the reality of the United States' stunning strategic defeat in its war against Iran and start thinking about what we can do to repair the damage.
• Artificial Intelligence
  The end of the age of heroes — A new and enlightening contribution to efforts to understand the complex implications of the AI revolution. This one focuses on what technology will do to our ability to access collective societal knowledge.
• Constructively Addressing Complex Issues
  Is It Time to ‘Liquidate’ the Study of Sociology? — A highly critical and doubtless controversial argument that sociology has abandoned its core mission: understanding societal problems and finding ways to solve them.
• Superpower Conflict
  The Small Suffer What They Must? — In a world where major powers are increasingly seeking to forcibly impose their will on others, a call for collective defense -- the only effective means of protection.
• Saving Democracy
  Britain's New Prime Minister Sees Proportional Representation as a Cure to Polarization — A European, parliamentary perspective on one proposed strategy for reversing the United States’ hyperpolarized politics -- proportional, rather than winner-take-all, representation.
• US Politics
  Independents Are Nearly the Majority — News that politically homeless moderates are on the verge of outnumbering the combined population of Democratic and Republican partisans.
• Interstate War
  My company’s drones hit Russia — and showed what the Pentagon doesn’t know — A big part of the reason why the US is in so much trouble is that our military industrial complex is nowhere near nimble enough to keep up with the rapidly changing nature of war. This article why the Ukrainians are doing better.
• Superpower Conflict
  The Lost Art of Coercion — All negotiations occur within the context of coercive power relationships. In the context of international relations, this article talks about how the Trump administration is failing to use coercive power effectively.
• Saving Democracy
  The Long, Slow Death of Social Democracy — More insight into the widening gulf between the professional managerial elites and the rest of society -- a gulf that will not easily be bridged.
• Terror
  He Was Once the Most Famous Terrorist in the World. His Brand of Violent Chaos Is Returning. — A revealing look at an old but increasingly prominent form of terrorism -- one driven by amoral individuals willing to commit terrorist acts for a fee.
• Israel, Hamas, Iran, and Related Wars
  Scope of Hacks on U.S. Water Supply Widens as Evidence Points to Iran — A worrisome story that offers one of the many reasons why we, in the United States, should not see ourselves as immune to the violence engulfing the Middle East and Ukraine.
• Interstate War
  Jacobsen’s ‘Biological War’ is a disturbing summons to seriousness — An important reminder that nuclear weapons are not the only weapon of mass destruction that we should be worrying about, plus a warning about the complacency that we've allowed to creep into our response to these threats.
• Social / Economic Complexity
  Why free markets beat capitalism — A thought-provoking essay exploring the differing political fates of two synonyms: free markets and capitalism.
• Israel, Hamas, Iran, and Related Wars
  Entryism Comes to America — A report on the way in which the French have attempted to distinguish the genuine threat posed by Islamic extremists in their society from the Islamophobia that is often directed against the many Muslims who are good French citizens.
• Interstate War
  Putin’s Human Safari Is the Dystopian Future of War — An important reminder of the stakes involved in the war in Ukraine and of the vile, murderous nature of Russia's attempt to conquer the country.
• Family / Gender / LBGTQ+
  Sex Differences Above the Neck — A review and summary of an important new book that compiles what scientists, using a wide range of methods, have been able to find out the biological differences between men and women.
• Artificial Intelligence
  A personalized scam is coming for you — A warning about the ways in which AI is being used to craft extremely sophisticated, personalized swindles (and, a warning about how similar techniques could be used to manipulate democratic societies).
• Superpower Conflict
  The Slow Death of the Global Commons — A report on what may turn out to be the most consequential result of the Iranian war — the loss of the freedom to navigate the high seas (and the globalized economy that that navigation made possible).

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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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