Ukrainians are unsatisfied with their revolution. Maybe they’re right.
Last Tuesday was the fourth anniversary of the beginning of the demonstration that turned into a revolution in Ukraine. To mark the occasion, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko visited the Maidan,...
View ArticlePresident Trump is now a troll
Though it has a long way to go, the science that underlies the fight against extremism has made a lot of progress in recent years. Psychologists and social media analysts have found that people become...
View ArticleBrexit has brought the Irish problem back
The Northern Ireland “Troubles” — really a low-grade civil war — lasted 30 years. During that period, more than 3,600 people died from car bombs, street violence or skirmishes between Catholic...
View ArticleThe Polish government is cracking down on private media — in the name of...
If you have become numbed to President Trump’s constant attacks on the media, if you have lost interest in which networks he currently considers to be “fake news,” if you have grown tired of hearing...
View ArticleHow Doug Jones won
“How did he do it?” That’s the question I was asked more than once by European friends the day after Alabama’s Senate election: How did Doug Jones win? The question was not idle. In many ways, the...
View ArticlePoland is illegally dismantling its own constitution. Can the E.U. do anything?
It’s never been easy for Americans — or for many Europeans — to understand the European Union, so let me offer an analogy: Think of the United States in the years after the revolution but before the...
View ArticleThe euphemisms I refuse to use in 2018
In columns or commentary, one sometimes needs to simplify in order to save space. But here’s my New Year’s resolution: In the coming 12 months, I will try to avoid the expressions “far right” and...
View ArticleThe Trumps and Kushners may spell the end of the Wilsonian world
The optimism, the enthusiasm, the breathless naivete: To reread Woodrow Wilson’s canonic “Fourteen Points” speech, given to a joint session of Congress on Jan. 8, 1918 — 100 years ago — is to enter a...
View ArticleThe ‘Oprah in 2020’ talk is proof of our democracy’s degradation
She’s a self-made billionaire, as opposed to one who inherited much of his money and business. She’s a genuine philanthropist, with a real foundation instead of one under a cloud. She unites people...
View ArticleThe America Europe needs right now is missing
No one has yet nailed down who really runs them or funds them, although Czech journalists have spent years trying. That hasn’t stopped the 30-odd “pro-Russian” websites in the Czech Republic from...
View ArticleRussia finds young men who love guns — and grooms them
By now we are all familiar with the Russian disinformation campaigns, designed to undermine democracy and sow distrust, which are present in many Western countries. The many uses of Russian corruption...
View Article‘Since the violence ended’: Peace, even if imperfect, comes to Colombia
On the journey up the Sierra Nevada to the San Lorenzo ridge, a very few abandoned military posts — forlorn bits of concrete, now green and crumbling — can be glimpsed along the side of the rutted...
View ArticleThe Czech election says more about the state of Western democracy than we’d...
He isn’t the country’s most important politician. In the Czech Republic, as in many European countries, the prime minister is far more powerful than the president. Nevertheless, the Czech president...
View ArticleThe stupidity and unenforceability of Poland’s speech law
The Streisand effect is one of the curious byproducts of the Internet age. Named for the singer — who tried to suppress a photograph of her Malibu mansion, only to have the picture seen far more widely...
View ArticleIn Britain, the specter of anti-Semitism returns
Anti-Semitism is back. Not just as a nasty little fringe sentiment, and not just in the Breitbart comment sections. Not just in social media either, although anyone who posts or tweets and has a...
View ArticleA Russian dissident pulls off a virtuoso trolling of the Putin regime
Anyone who wants a glimpse of the information wars that could lie in America’s future should have a look, immediately, at Alexei Navalny’s latest video (it’s got English subtitles). The video so...
View ArticleAfter the Parkland shooting, pro-Russian bots are pushing false-flag...
For most Americans, the Parkland shooting was a terrible tragedy. But for social media accounts that promote the interests of Russia in the United States, it was a fantastic opportunity. On the morning...
View ArticleWhy Facebook is afraid of Robert Mueller
Who is afraid of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III? President Trump is afraid. So are those who worked on his campaign. But they are not alone. Over the weekend, Rob Goldman made it clear that some...
View ArticleThe ‘Oprah in 2020’ talk is proof of our democracy’s degradation
She’s a self-made billionaire, as opposed to one who inherited much of his money and business. She’s a genuine philanthropist, with a real foundation instead of one under a cloud. She unites people...
View ArticleAmerica doesn’t need Russia to ruin democracy. It can do it itself.
Enrage the base. Use violent language. Create fear and anxiety. Talk the country down, tell everybody that things are getting worse. Promote division — sort Americans into “us” and “them,” in speech...
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