Yesterday ignited lots of comments: bsky.app/profile/tryg... They deserve a response: What You Are Actually Saying When You Say You Are Done Talking — Moral Clarity without relationship leaves only judgement. Judgement without connection won’t fix what is broken open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

THE HARDEST CONVERSATIONS ARE THE ONES DEMOCRACY NEEDS MOST 1 in 5 Americans has ended a relationship with a friend or family member due to political differences. 2 in 3 actively avoid political conversations with coworkers, friends, or family. Let that sink in. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

Empowerment or Exploitation: The Real Battle Behind AI We have been here before, many times. The question of progress has always been a questions of more than simply the political, but of who ultimately benefits as time marches forward and technology evolves. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

Our job is to build a coalition of the reasonable — liberals, conservatives, independents — anyone who believes in truth, pluralism, and peaceful power In the end, it’s not about left vs. right It’s about democracy vs. extremism Faith vs. fear Freedom vs. control open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

Whether you are on the Left, Right, or Center, Free Speech Isn't a Punchline. Ask yourself: Do you want to live in a country where you are afraid to say what you believe? Where your children or grandchildren never know how to speak their truths, because those with power fear their voice?

Wednesday’s events overtook what I had intended to share in remembrance of 9/11. However I have decided to share it today — something I originally wrote in 2018 on 9/11 because it is perhaps more important today than it was back then. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

When Violence Comes Home — we have to start with asking ourselves who are we and what do we want us to be as a nation. My latestest on Substack. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

When AI Lies, Trust Dies Let’s start with this: I didn’t expect ClickUp Brain to be a real brain. But I also didn’t expect it to be a pathological liar with a straight face. clickup.bsky.social open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

Everywhere I go right now, I hear the same thing: “I’m exhausted.” People who care about democracy feel like they’re in a permanent crisis loop. But here’s the truth: Democracy building isn’t regime change. It’s a long-term investment in a better world. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

One of the most dangerous myths in American politics today is that authoritarianism is something that happens “over there.” It doesn’t. Not anymore. Not in 2025. Because the fight for democracy — and against it — is now global. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

In the early 2000s, I worked in countries where democracy was fragile, new, or still just an idea. We didn’t talk about “election years” or “get out the vote.” We talked about survival Strategy. Coalition Courage We didn’t always win. But we learned what worked open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

Most people think opposition movements rise or fall based on charisma, ideology, or momentum. But the movements that survive fear-based regimes, and actually win, rely on something else. ://open.substack.com/pub/trygveolson/p/what-opposition-movements-need-and?r=f0clj&utm_medium=ios

We’re in a global contest between two systems — one rooted in democratic values, the other in strategic manipulation, fear, and zero-sum control. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

One Thing That Made America Great For all our flaws, one of the things that truly made America exceptional — and made us trusted — was this: We didn’t cook the books. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

Stillbirth doesn’t leave you with many instructions. Especially if you’re a dad. You’re expected to hold it together. Be present. Be useful. Be strong. And maybe you try to do that. But inside, it’s something else entirely. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

Stillbirth is a different kind of loss. You’re not just grieving a child — you’re grieving the future you imagined. The milestones never come. There’s no timeline to anchor the pain. It’s a life unlived, and a version of yourself that disappears with it. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

NEW #ThatTrippiShow: @joetrippi.bsky.social & @trygveolson.bsky.social discuss Trygve’s s seven rules for winning back control of the public square from AI and the threat to democracy posed by the technology. www.lincolnsquare.media/p/that-tripp...

The Law of Political Gravity In The Battle for Democracy, I wrote that democracy building — like physics — operates by laws. One of the most important: Fear-based systems work top-down. Free societies work side by side. Fear consolidates. Freedom distributes. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

Authoritarians won’t need to steal elections. They’ll just use AI to steal your belief that the results were real in the first place. But here’s the thing Democracy is resilient. Belief can be rebuilt. But only if we act with urgency, clarity, and the right tools open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

I’ve met FSOs who learned the language, understood the culture, and stayed long after the rest of Washington had lost interest. When you fire 1,300 of them, you don’t just eliminate jobs. You gut the connective tissue of American soft power. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

Autocrats will Use AI to Erode Reality, Democracy’s Defenders Must Use it to Anchor Shared Truth Reality is now a frontline. We don’t defend it with nostalgia. We defend it with infrastructure, speed, and clarity. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

Bottom Line Authoritarians will use AI to simulate solidarity and sabotage it. We must utilize both AI tools and human strategy to reinforce what is real. Solidarity isn’t soft. It’s a security system. And in 2025, division isn’t just a risk — it’s a weapon. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

What Democracy Must Do We can’t stop this by legislation alone, though regulations will matter. We must use AI to defend the rights it’s being weaponized to destroy. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

What This Series Is This isn’t a primer on AI. It’s a field manual for people trying to protect democracy from the systems that now threaten it, digitally and psychologically. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

Your job is to make more people believe they belong in the room at all. Because in the end, democracy doesn’t need heroes. It needs humans who show up. Together. Consistently. With courage. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

Not every voice raised against authoritarianism is actually fighting it. Some are performing resistance. Some are profiting off of it. And some — whether they know it or not — are doing the regime’s work for it. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

Democracy — real democracy — takes courage. Not just the courage to fight tyranny. But the courage to give up power peacefully. To lose an election and concede. To tell the truth, even when it costs you. To stand up for others before they stand up for you. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

Authoritarian regimes don’t just target institutions. They target those who belong — and those who don’t. They divide societies into “real” and “other.” open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

Authoritarians erode democracy by isolating people from their values — and by mocking the idea that we still share any. They win when people say, “We’re too divided.” They lose when we demonstrate that shared values still exist—and still matter. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

Lesson #5 Compromise is Strength, Not Surrender! Right now, the greatest threat to the pro-democracy movement in the United States isn’t just authoritarianism. It’s fragmentation. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

Three Things You Can Do Today 1. Get brutally honest about your own purpose. Ask yourself: What are you actually trying to do? Are you trying to feel good? Be right? Or win power for democracy again? Reframe your work around that. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

Lesson #3 Trump Sucks IS Not A Winning Platform Democratic opposition groups all agree ‘(Insert Dictator’s Name) sucks.’ Unfortunately, I can’t think of how to turn that into a winning campaign motto in any country open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

Survival is not a strategy. Unity is. If fear isolates, unity is the antidote. If chaos fragments, unity gives form. If the regime wants you to fight each other, your first move is to stop handing them the win. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

Back in 2009 I was chartered with writing a field manual for those working with & fighting for democracy around the world — the Battle for Democracy. For the next ten days I will be writing based on those lessons, updated for what we face today at home and abroad! open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

About two years ago, I saw a tweet from @mcuban.bsky.social A man in his late forties had just lost his job, and he was desperate for help. Cuban responded: “Start learning large language models (LLMs). Right now!” That moment stuck with me. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

You don’t control the world. You convince it. And right now, as the U.S., Israel, and Iran spiral closer to a broader war, we’re witnessing what happens when that truth is ignored. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

Walking the grounds of the University of VA, the contradictions of America were everywhere. Founded by Jefferson a man who gave us soaring ideals and yet enslaved the people who built that very campus, UVA forces you to confront both our promise & our failure. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

Let’s be clear: Iran’s regime is brutal. Israel’s security is real. This isn’t about moral equivalence. It’s about strategic collapse. You don’t bomb your way back into credibility after you’ve walked out of the room. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

Today — What Democracy is Really About from my experiences working around the world, building it and defending it. It’s about believing that win-win is possible, and that we are better off solving problems together than trying to impose our will on each other. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

We don’t get to choose what grief gives us. But we do get to choose what we make of it. There is no why. Only what choices we make now made on the lessons we take with us. Happy Father’s Day. —Trygve open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

Lesson 7 — Hope is a Choice and so is Extremism. Extremism says, “You can’t.” Hope says, “We still can.” Extremism demands purity. Hope invites complexity. Extremism justifies cruelty. Hope insists on humanity. You don’t get to pick both. You never could. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

Lesson 5: Political Extremism Provides the Seduction of Certainty in Response to Chaos. Extremism thrives on offering certainty in the middle of confusion. A clear story. A single truth. A known enemy. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

Lesson 4: Dehumanization First, you fear them Then, you blame them Then, you define yourself against them And finally, you strip them of humanity At this point people justify things they never thought they would. Cruelty feels earned. Violence feels necessary. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

@dbarkhuff.bsky.social thank you! All you need to listen to Dan’s podcast and subscribe to his Substack…follow him too!

Please give a read and maybe even a subscribe. Thanks! @trygveolson.bsky.social @therickwilson.bsky.social dbarkhuff.substack.com/p/rule-numbe...

Searching for Hope on Extremism Lesson 3: Identity Capture Once fear is planted and blame is assigned, the next step is to offer something that feels like comfort: belonging. A tribe. A flag. A place to stand. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

Lesson 2 on Extremism: Blame Fear without direction is paralyzing. Extremism knows that. So it always offers a target — someone to blame, a reason to act. This is how it moves from feeling. Blame becomes the moral permission slip. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

Fear is not the enemy. But it’s where extremism starts. We don’t defeat extremism by pretending we’re not afraid. We defeat it by deciding fear doesn’t choose who we become. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

This isn’t a warning from the outside. It’s a message from someone who’s worked inside the system. This is about what we owe each other. What We Owe Our Kids. What I owe my daughter Vilte, whose life was never lived, but who made me a far better person. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...

In December 2003, I stepped off a plane in Ulaanbaatar and realized this Wisconsin boy didn’t know a damn thing about cold. It was -45°F. The kind of cold that doesn’t just bite — it rearranges your priorities.. open.substack.com/pub/trygveol...