Source: Gideon’s Substack
by Noah Millman

“More recent waves of recognition of Palestine have generally been interpreted by Israel as unwanted interference in negotiations that it says should be left to the parties; more recently, they have been interpreted as signs of fundamental hostility to Israel’s existence, aiming at deepening its isolation and ultimately destroying it. But it’s worth pointing out that despite the recognition extended to Palestine, very few countries have actually severed relations with Israel. … The fact that the effort is self-interested on these countries’ part doesn’t mean it is insincere, and it actually argues against the view that it is motivated by atavistic hostility to Israel or the Jewish people. It may reflect a lack of appreciation of the stakes as Israelis see them — but by the same token, Israelis themselves may be blind to the stakes others have, most obviously but not exclusively the Palestinians.” (09/22/25)

https://gideons.substack.com/p/is-recognition-of-palestine-motivated

Source: EconLog
by Kevin Corcoran

“An iconoclast is someone who loudly and boldly takes stances far outside of conventional (expressed) public opinion. Iconoclasts can attract a lot of criticism. On the other hand, in situations where there is widespread preference falsification, the only way to break out of that is for at least some people to be willing to noticeably make their private beliefs publicly known. Each person who does so makes it just a little bit easier for the next person to do so as well. The first people to do so may face heavy criticism — even attempts at cancelation — but iconoclasts often revel in the controversy rather than being deterred by it. There are upsides and downsides to this.” (09/22/25)

https://www.econlib.org/the-social-benefits-of-iconoclasts/

Source: Persuasion
by Sam Kahn

“Historical goldfishishness is letting us drift to the false security of a closed society.” (09/22/25)

https://www.persuasion.community/p/the-closed-society-is-ascendant-dont

Source: The American Prospect
by Dylan Gyauch-Lewis

“Until the assassination of archconservative pundit and activist Charlie Kirk that afternoon, September 10 was shaping up to be all about artificial intelligence and the federal government’s increasingly maximalist approach to its development and deployment. That morning, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), chair of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, introduced legislation that could allow the White House to unilaterally exempt AI companies from nearly any federal regulation. The bill, called the SANDBOX Act (standing for ‘Strengthening Artificial Intelligence Normalization and Diffusion by Oversight and eXperimentation Act ‘ ….That program would allow companies working on artificial-intelligence products to request ‘a waiver or modification of one or more covered provisions’ for an initial period of two years, renewable up to four times for a total of one decade of exemption from federal regulations.” (09/23/25)

https://prospect.org/power/2025-09-23-ted-cruz-attempts-to-exempt-big-tech-from-law/