- #346: Sine Ira et Studio: Without Anger and Passion (6/18/2026)
- #342: Lessons From Hungary’s Election (5/8/2026)
- #339: Strategic Ambiguity (3/12/2026)
- #334: The True Iranian Revolution Is Happening Now (1/10/2026)
- #333: Maduro Captured: Global Implications (1/4/2026)
- #321: The Problem with Populism: Why Democracy Needs More Than Simple Answers (11/5/2025)
- #317: Between Enlightenment and Obscurity: Restoring the Democratic Promise of Science (10/13/2025)
- #314: Preserve Your Democracy. A Conversation with Konstantin Samoilov (10/2/2025)
- #313: Government Shutdowns Make No Sense – Specifically This One (10/1/2025)
- #312: Big Loss for Putin: Moldova Votes Pro EU (9/29/2025)
- #311: A.I. and Civic Responsibility (9/26/2025)
- #310: Dare to be Centrist, Aka, Why Centrism Is Necessary (9/22/2025)
- #309: Against Group-Think (9/17/2025)
- #304: Challenging the West? The 2025 Shanghai Cooperation Summit in Tianjin (9/4/2025)
- #299: Democracy Beats Dictatorship Anytime (8/27/2025)
- #298: Ukraine Can and Will Win. Why and How? (8/27/2025)
- #297: Europe Must Step Up to Support Ukraine (8/22/2025)
- #295: Trump Met Putin – The Aftermath (8/15/2025)
- #292: Trump Meets Putin: What to Expect? (8/14/2025)
- #290: On Criticism vs. Hate (8/6/2025)
- #289: How We Speak to Each Other Matters (8/4/2025)
- #287: The Need For Dialog (7/30/2025)
- #286: Democracy Needs Humility (7/28/2025)
- #285: Ukraine Is Not Perfect,But Still Deserves Our Support (7/25/2025)
- #284: Ukrainian Democracy Lives (7/24/2025)
- #281: A.I. Requires us to Know and Think More, Not Less. Some Reflections, With a Fascinating Bonus Response from AI (7/22/2025)
- #280: How Pseudo-Wokeness has Destroyed the Original Meaning of “Woke” (7/19/2025)
- #278: We Hate Everyone: Against the Politics of Vitriol (6/24/2025)
- #274: The Root Cause of the Russian-Ukrainian War (5/12/2025)
- #273: Peace Needs Justice: It Matters How to Make Peace in Ukraine (4/24/2025)
- #272: Is This All a Brilliant Plan? (3/4/2025)
- #271: Does Zelenskyy Want Peace? (3/3/2025)
- #270: Our Soft Power and Reputation Are at Stake with Ukraine (2/22/2025)
- #269: Trump’s Toxic Negotiation Style Echoes Putin’s Propaganda (2/19/2025)
- #268: Peace in Ukraine – Trying to Stay Calm and Carry On (2/19/2025)
- #267: Are the United States Abandoning Europe? (2/14/2025)
- #265: Ukraine Wants Peace and Russia Must Lose (12/16/2024)
- #263: Don’t Believe Putin’s Lies. He Can (and Must) Be Defeated (11/25/2024)
- #262: Defeating Russia is the Path to Make America Great Again (11/17/2024)
- #261: If You Govern Against the People, You Will Fail (11/8/2024)
- #260: Now That Happened: After the Election, All Our Work Continues (11/6/2024)
- #259: These Insults Need to Stop (10/31/2024)
- #258: Ukraine Must Win. Understanding Russia’s Imperial Ambitions in Ukraine (9/24/2024)
- #256: Words Are Not Violence, But They Can Promote It (7/16/2024)
- #255: Reflections on Recent Developments in the War Against Ukraine (6/20/2024)
- #254: What If I’m Wrong? (6/13/2024)
- #249: The Resistance Against Wokeness, Part II: Addressing Religious Objections (3/5/2024)
- #248: The Resistance Against Wokeness, Part I (2/26/2024)
- #247: Politics After Resentment (2/25/2024)
- #246: Navalny’s Killing Exposes Putin’s Weakness (2/19/2024)
- #245: Tucker Carlson Reveals Putin’s Fear and Delusion (2/9/2024)
- #242: On the Difference between Opposition and an Anti-Democratic Stance (1/28/2024)
- #238: Kristallnacht, 85 Years Later (11/10/2023)
- #233: On Equity and Equality of Opportunity (10/23/2023)
- #232: The Downside of the Emotional Appeal (10/23/2023)
- #231: Centrism Is a Methodology, Not Primarily an Ideology (10/21/2023)
- #226: We Must Not Give Up on Global Democracy (10/6/2023)
- #224: The Individual and Society (9/30/2023)
- #222: Science Fiction and Comics Have Always Been Woke, or: Of Course Women and Minorities Can Be Heroes! (8/3/2023)
- #221: Does Putin Want to Negotiate? (7/29/2023)
- #220: Russia’s Only Interests Are Terror and Destruction. It Must Be Defeated (7/1/2023)
- #219: Some Reflections on Fukuyama and the End of History (6/24/2023)
- #218: The West Is Not in Decline (6/20/2023)
- #217: Thoughts on June 17: The GDR Was an Inhumane Dictatorship (6/17/2023)
- #215: Commonsense Diversity (6/12/2023)
- #211: Is the Pandemic Over? (5/11/2023)
- #210: Why (Some Degree of) Identity Politics is Necessary (4/27/2023)
- #207: Democracy Only Works with a Strong Separation of Powers (2/14/2023)
- #206: The Importance of Being Political (1/18/2023)
- #205: If You Want Peace: Why We Must Help Ukraine (1/16/2023)
- #204: Poem: Путин, идиот (Putin, You Idiot) (12/28/2022)
- #203: The Puzzling Resistance Against Anti-Racism (12/27/2022)
- #202: Fear Not: Why We Need to be Optimistic About the Future (12/27/2022)
- #201: Adventures in Artificial Intelligence: An Evening with ChatGBT (12/11/2022)
- #199: Why Positionality Matters (12/6/2022)
- #198: LGBTQ Rights are Human Rights (11/21/2022)
- #197: We Have Good Reasons for Hope (11/8/2022)
- #195: Fake “Referenda” Prove that Putin Doesn’t Want to Negotiate (9/25/2022)
- #194: No, the Pandemic is Not Yet Over (9/19/2022)
- #192: Biden Needs to Unite, not Demonize: In a Democracy, the “Other Side” Is Not the Enemy (9/4/2022)
- #191: Remembering Mikhail Gorbachev (8/30/2022)
- #190: On the Ability of Russians to Suffer their Government (8/27/2022)
- #188: What Is “The West” Today? From “Civilization” to Cooperation (8/27/2022)
- #187: Words Are Not Violence (8/17/2022)
- #186: Salman Rushdie and the Case for Free Speech (8/17/2022)
- #183: What Are Russians Thinking? (7/31/2022)
- #181: Are We too Stupid for the Internet? (7/30/2022)
- #180: Let Biden Be Biden (7/26/2022)
- #179: Ecce Homo: Wokeness Beyond Caricatures (7/20/2022)
- #178: Russia Deserves Better (7/14/2022)
- #177: Thinking Beyond Caricatures (7/11/2022)
- #174: Climate Change Can Only Be Countered With Technological Innovation (7/9/2022)
- #173: Putin and Lavrov Demonstrate the Weakness of Today’s Russia (7/9/2022)
- #171: Writing as Witnessing (6/22/2022)
- #170: Sanctions Against Russia Are Working – And Need to Be Even Stronger (6/21/2022)
- #168: Why Must Ukraine Win? (6/6/2022)
- #166: Reflections on Memorial Day (5/31/2022)
- #165: Realpolitik Is About Appeasing Power, not Reality or Morality (5/26/2022)
- #160: Victim Blaming Par Excellence: Russia Complains About Those Helping Ukraine (4/21/2022)
- #159: Stop the Ukrainian Genocide (4/6/2022)
- µ#8: Will Smith Apologized; Let It Go (4/4/2022)
- #157: Liars Lie. Stop Believing Putin and Lavrov (3/17/2022)
- #156: Politics, Arts and Sports: Some Erratic Reflections (3/17/2022)
- #155: Dear Russia: Make It Stop (3/12/2022)
- #154: Against Putin: Yes. Against Russia: No. (3/7/2022)
- #152: Democracy vs. Tyranny, or: How Does It Feel to Live in a Dictatorship? (3/2/2022)
- #147: Why Should We Care About Ukraine? A Pragmatic Answer (2/27/2022)
- #146: The Fall of the Soviet Union Was the Greatest Event of the Late 20th Century (2/27/2022)
- #145: Putin Has Never Been Threatened By NATO (2/27/2022)
- #144: Putin’s War Against Ukraine Is a War Against All of Us (2/24/2022)
- #143: The Madness of the Czar: Putin’s Incoherent Speech (2/22/2022)
- #142: Oh, Canada… (2/22/2022)
- #141: Is Wearing a Star of David Labeled “Unvaccinated” Anti-Semitic? (2/20/2022)
- #140: We Need Vaccine Mandates After All (2/19/2022)
- #138: The West Is not Weak, But It Has Lacked Commitment (2/14/2022)
- #135: Conspiracy Belief, Science, Ego and Humility (2/3/2022)
- #134: If People Apologize for Their Mistake, They Should Not Be Cancelled (2/3/2022)
- #133: Am I Really Not Paying Attention If I Am Not Outraged? (1/31/2022)
- #131: Please Stop this Fascination with End-Times Rhetoric (1/26/2022)
- #130: German Hypocrisy: How to Claim to be a Moral Leader While Acting Like an International Free-Loader. A Polemic (1/25/2022)
- #128: Russia Is Part of the West (1/19/2022)
- #125: Eliminating the Filibuster Is Political Stupidity (1/15/2022)
- #124: Happy New Year 2022! (1/6/2022)
- #121: Outrage Is Not a Successful Communication Strategy (11/28/2021)
- #120: Differential Treatment of Vaccination Opponents Is not Discrimination (11/25/2021)
- #119: Thoughts on Covid Vaccine Mandates (11/25/2021)
- #118: The Voter is Always Right: The Meaning of Democracy (11/7/2021)
- #117: It’s Not About Trump. It’s About the Issues (11/4/2021)
- #109: We Cannot Lose Hope (8/20/2021)
- #108: Carefulness Is Not Fear (8/15/2021)
- #99: Anti-Zionism Is Anti-Semitism (5/29/2021)
- #98: The Populist Attack on Democracy During the Pandemic (5/22/2021)
- #94: What Is Political Extremism Today? (5/13/2021)
- #85: Anti-Asian Hate and the Human Capacity for Divisiveness (3/31/2021)
- #83: The Purpose of History, or, We Need to Explain Democracy Better (3/28/2021)
- #80: There Is No Alternative to Dialog and Debate (2/23/2021)
- #78: What Is Social Justice – and What Isn’t (2/18/2021)
- #76: We Need No Saviors (2/11/2021)
- #75: There Are No “Internal Matters” (2/9/2021)
- #71: The Improvement of Society Never Ends (1/18/2021)
- #69: No, American Democracy Is Not Dead (1/8/2021)
- #68: We Do Not Need Enemies (1/3/2021)
- #66: Democracy Needs Well-Educated Citizens (12/26/2020)
- #65: Sine Ira et Studio: The Strength of Dispassionate Criticism (12/14/2020)
- #62: Democracy is a Consensus-Creation Machine (11/6/2020)
- #61: We All Need to Appreciate Each Other (10/28/2020)
- #59: Why Really Big Conspiracies Cannot Exist (10/21/2020)
- #54: The Dictator as False Messiah: A Belated Review of Game Of Thrones Season 8 (9/30/2020)
- #51: The Politics of Division Cannot Work (9/24/2020)
- #48: Moderation is Strength; Radicality is Weakness (9/11/2020)
- #46: We Need to Move Beyond the Left/Right Paradigm (8/31/2020)
- #43: “Worst Persons” in the World: Hate Is the New Normal (8/18/2020)
- #42: Be the World You Want It to Be (7/30/2020)
- #40: Enabling Free Speech, or, the Problem of the Public Sphere (7/10/2020)
- #39: Free Speech is Absolute (7/9/2020)
- #38: Radical Empathy (6/24/2020)
- #36: Diversity Is Democracy, and It Is Not a Zero-Sum Game (6/20/2020)
- #35: What Is Social Constructivism? (6/20/2020)
- #34: What is White Privilege? (6/20/2020)
- #33: Race Does Not Exist. But Racism Does (6/20/2020)
- #32: Guilt vs. (Historical) Responsibility (6/20/2020)
- #31: What Is Systemic Racism? (6/9/2020)
- #30: What Is Racism? (6/9/2020)
- #29: Black Lives Do Matter (6/8/2020)
- #28: Violent Protest Does Not Work (6/6/2020)
- #27: What is Peace? (6/5/2020)
- #25: Legitimate and Illegitimate Arguments Regarding the Coronavirus Shutdown (5/18/2020)
- #21: Media: Don’t Tell People What To Think (5/9/2020)
- #18: What’s Left: Communism, Socialism, Progressivism, Social Democracy, and the Value of Dissent (4/24/2020)
- #17: Coronavirus: This is the Apocalypse (4/23/2020)
- #16: Coronavirus and Democracy (4/16/2020)
- #14: The European Project Needs Both Unity and Disunity (4/11/2020)
- #11: Authoritarian Governments Must Lie, and Democracies are Grown-Up Systems (3/24/2020)
- #5: Democracy Means Humility (1/6/2020)
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occasional reflections on culture & politics