Robert Wright's Nonzero

A new, Jared-centric theory for why Trump kisses up to Putin ... Bob's weekly Steve Bannon update ... Who will Trump pardon next? ... Mickey says the Supreme Court ruling on churches is no big deal ... The (probably Israeli) assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist ... Have deficit hawks gone extinct? ... Bob: "I do think the Biden administration is kind of doomed" ... Mickey critiques Bob's blockbuster debate with Bill Kristol ... Evaluating Biden's initial cabinet picks ... Bob on the future of Bloggingheads ...

How Bill became a NeverTrumper ... Bob worries that neoconservatives have exploited the Resistance ... Bill has some regrets about supporting Tom Cotton ... Bob accuses Bill of countenancing guilt-by-association tactics ... Charges of anti-Semitism and dual loyalty in the Israel debate ... Bill: The cartoonish caricature of the GOP turned out to be correct ... The psychology of GOP elites who still support Trump ... Bill's hopes for the Biden administration ...

Mickey denounces Rudy ... Is Trump damaging democracy? ... Hate speech vs. free speech ... Mickey says "the Left" doesn’t want a peaceful transfer of power ... Ezra Klein and Matt Yglesias leave Vox ... When exactly did the New York Times abandon objectivity? ... Will Trumpian election truthers be a major force for years to come? ... The Nonzero Newsletter’s Progressive Realism report card ...

Stephen’s new book, Tomorrow, the World: The Birth of US Global Supremacy ... How the term "isolationism" came to be ... Stephen: Most US foreign policy elites wanted to stay out of Europe through 1940 ... The fall of France and America’s decision to dominate the world ... Stephen: The UN was created to project American power ... What happened to making the world safe for capitalism? ... Bob puts Stephen’s arguments through the ringer ... Biden and the future of American hegemony ... Stephen says “restrainers” are gaining ground in foreign policy circles ...

Trump’s chances of overturning the election ... Revelations from Giuliani’s Four Seasons Landscaping press conference ... Mickey’s Freudian theory of guilt-fueled anti-Trump triumphalism ... The debut of the progressive realism report card ... Explaining down ballot Republicans’ outperformance of Trump ... What’s next for Trump and Trumpism? ... Jeffrey Toobin's punishment ...

Greg's book, The Coddling of the American Mind ... Greg: Paranoid parenting made today's college students fragile ... How social media increased polarization and mental illness ... Greg critiques the "hyper-bureaucratization" of universities ... Is the anti–cancel culture brigade hypocritical about free speech? ... Greg praises the American folk understanding of free speech ... How much should we respect the religious sensibilities of others? ... How cognitive behavioral therapy helped save Greg's life ... Twitter as meditative practice ...

With Trump poised to lose, Mickey looks on the bright side ... Bob deplores Trump's unfounded election allegations ... Why were the polls so off? ... If Latinos are assimilating culturally by voting GOP, are Mickey's immigration fears kaput? ... Possible reasons for the tightness of the race ... Will Trumpism live on? ... Bob has some good news on the Covid front ... Mickey foresees a dreary Biden administration ... Bob foresees a Blob-ified Biden foreign policy ... Did Trump move the GOP to the left? ...

Philo of Alexandria, seminal Logos theorist ... Bob: Teleology is perfectly compatible with a scientific worldview ... A logic shaping the unfolding of life ... How Jordan Peterson understands the Logos ... Does order flow from consciousness? ... Moral progress and human interdependence ... Teleology without theology ... The Logos and the "simulation hypothesis" ...

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Bob worries Hunter could cost Joe the election ... Mickey: "There's a huge journalistic conspiracy" to bury the Hunter story ... Bob argues that Trump is an existential threat to democracy ... Why is immigration restriction Mickey's main answer to low wages? ... Can there be a Trumpism without Trump? ... Glenn Greenwald resigns from The Intercept ... Mickey worries that woke Millennials will ruin Substack ... Why the identity of the anti-Trump "Anonymous" didn't shock Mickey ... Mickey’s election predictions ...

Matt's new book, One Billion Americans: The Case for Thinking Bigger ... Matt: "Immigration is very underrated" ... Bob: What about the political backlash against low-skilled immigration? ... Why people have fewer kids than they want ... Matt: Climate change isn't a good reason not to have children ... Is international cooperation on climate change possible? ... Did we make a big mistake on China and information technology? ... The case for solidaristic American patriotism ...