Facts and formal rationality alone will not save democracy or address the climate crisis. Something more is needed alongside. Something that touches upon our deepest commitment to substantive, ethical values.

“The question is: how are freedom and democracy in the long run at all possible under the domination of highly developed capitalism? Freedom and democracy are only possible where the resolute will of a nation not allow itself to be ruled like sheep,” - Max Weber

What we’re witnessing in America is what happens when disordered discourse captures a political party, then the state itself. The Republican Party was the first to fall - abandoning truth for conspiracy, ideology for grievance, and policy for performative outrage.

"Totalitarianism in power invariably replaces all first-rate talents, regardless of their sympathies, with those crackpots and fools whose lack of intelligence and creativity is still the best guarantee of their loyalty." - Hannah Arendt

I will never forget the photo of Zelenskyy’s face after he saw Russia’s war crimes in Bucha in 2022. He seemed to age years in an afternoon. Watching him constantly cross the world asking for aid that should have been thrown at him is one of the deepest shames of our age.

Cutting half of the agency staff will harm all Social Security beneficiaries, and it may be financially devastating for some, but it will be almost universally devastating for people with disabilities. The disability benefit system is already broken, these cuts will smash it to smithereens.

A reminder that bureaucracy can uphold democracy—or be a tool for elite, authoritarian interests. Facts alone won’t stop this evolution. We must reclaim ethical values like care, integrity, and accountability before it's too late. Full thoughts below. doi.org/10.1093/ppmg...

1. What is Donald Trump doing to our state? I explain this in my new book (co-authored with Stephen Hanson). It's not what you think. A thread: