Now JonRauch on 🦋

New: at @JoinPersuasion, I address claims that "anti-woke" "free speech warriors" have 1) hypocritically abetted Trump's attacks on free speech/civil liberties (mostly no) 2) enabled Trump's ascent by stoking "moral panic" about "cancel culture" (nope!) persuasion.community/p/dont-blame-t…

Why do some lawmakers cross the aisle while others cross their arms? Join us on Jan. 12, 10:30–11:45 a.m. EST for an online discussion with David Barker, @bindersab, and @jon_rauch on the psychology of legislative compromise. RSVP: brookings.edu/events/dealmak…

This 25-year-old paper by Jonathan Rauch @jon_rauch distinguishes "Hidden Law" (social norms judiciously enforced by gossip and disapproval) from "Bureaucratic Legalism" (formal rules and procedures), noting the expansion of the latter. Examples include adultery, insults, pornography, and euthanasia. He nicely presents a case for "rational hypocrisy" similar to the final chapter in When Everyone Knows That Everyone Knows.... (Some of the discussion would have to be amended in the Age of Trump, where flagrant norm-busting is a new norm.) aei.org/research-produ…

Reading this a year later, it holds up brilliantly: A century ago, a German sociologist explained precisely how Donald Trump thinks about the world, @jon_rauch writes. Understanding this view is essential to defeating it. theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/…

Labeling people “narco-terrorists” without proof just to justify killing them is not the law. It’s lunacy. This policy risks dragging America into another foreign war. We need transparency, oversight, and respect for the Constitution.

Honored to do this important work with @HdxAcademy and the intellectual hero of our work at The Village Square @JonHaidt. Any conversation with @jon_rauch is brilliant. Subscribe to @CoreysNathan's exceptional podcast for lot of great interviews: tinyurl.com/36u9uwfu

As someone who has written about both the dark side of human nature and the promise of liberal Enlightenment ideas, this analysis by @jon_rauch strikes me as exactly right | Why Is the American Experiment in Trouble? Simple: A Demagogue Has Ignited the ‘Dark Passions’ of the People theunpopulist.net/p/why-is-the-a…

Had a fascinating conversation with @noUpside, @Yascha_Mounk, and @jon_rauch in a live recording of The Good Fight podcast from @JoinPersuasion

At @UnPopulistMag, @jon_rauch's superb review of @BillGalston's new "masterpiece" insists that the fault, Dear Brutus, is not in liberalism if the American experiment is in trouble, it's in us that we are such underlings. You'll want to read it. theunpopulist.net/p/why-is-the-a…

Very glad so many people liked the @wmarybeard episode of the David Frum Show. Tonight we drop audio -and tomorrow video - of a dialogue with @jon_rauch on the connection between true knowledge and political freedom. youtube.com/watch?v=EpFFyQ…

What kind of regime is Trump trying to implement? Not Fascism, exactly, since it's not guided by an ideology. I agree with @FukuyamaFrancis and @jon_rauch that we're seeing a backsliding from a rational-legal mode of political organization, where rights & responsibilities are stipulated by a social contract, to a patrimonial state, governed by the three basic human relational models: kinship, dominance, and reciprocity. (This trichotomy comes from the anthropologist Alan Fiske, a big influence on my work.) persuasion.community/p/making-the-w…

"Radical skepticism is like the acid that eats through every container. And sure enough, postmodernism’s skepticism undermined itself. How could it be for anything if all truth claims, including its own, are masks for power?" Excellent analysis @jon_rauch persuasion.community/p/the-woke-rig…

This article by @jon_rauch in @JoinPersuasion on rightwing (and leftwing) postmodernism is a must read (if you're a NAVI staff member, it's literally a must read!) persuasion.community/p/the-woke-rig…

Join me and a stellar cast at the Institute for the Study of Modern Authoritarianism's second conference on how to understand and defend our endangered liberal democratic experiment. Last year's featured thoughtful speakers and good hallway conversations. #speakers" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">conference.ismaglobal.org/#speakers

I had the pleasure of interviewing @jon_rauch this past week, mostly about his newest book "Cross Purposes." Take a listen, and maybe even subscribe? open.spotify.com/episode/6b2bSZ…

Our weekend read is @jon_rauch’s “Cross Purposes: Christianity's Broken Bargain with Democracy” amazon.com/Cross-Purposes…

Postmodern Patrimonialism: Trump's Everything-Everywhere-All-At-Once Strategy as a Venture Capital Model of Politics, by @jon_rauch @ajkeen open.substack.com/pub/keenon/p/p… Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting the daily KEEN ON show, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy interview series. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.

Is truth still defensible in our age of epistemic nihilism? Deep-dive conversation that you'll enjoy as much as I did... youtube.com/watch?v=EtNaPv…

@jon_rauch of @BrookingsInst, discusses his latest book and explores the declining influence of Christianity in America, along with the historical symbiosis between religion and liberal democracy. Check the full episode at buff.ly/yj18YbH

I've done many conversations about Christianity's role in democracy's crisis; this was one of the truly special ones. I, moderator Tom Gjelten, and the audience felt moved by the experience. youtube.com/watch?v=6v_2oj…