"Trolls be gone" | Stephen Kinsella at AEON

Anonymous users generate most toxic abuse and conspiracy theories online. The right to be anonymous should be curtailed 

Political Economy Books of 2021

A scholarly examination of market’s power toll on American workers, the collected works of a pioneering economic thinker, an ambitious narrative of US economic history, a first-hand account of how the American justice system is failing, and China’s antitrust exceptionalism: here are (in no particular order) some of the best books published during the past year. 

Viktor Orbán and the Fall of Democracy

 Der Spiegel: "Cronyism, control of the media, attacks on the EU: Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is transforming his country into an autocracy. This spring he will once again stand for re-election. Will Hungarians allow him to get away with it this time?"

Michael Ignatieff on Liberal Values in Politics

 Podcast with Yascha Mounk

The Power Atlas

 Power is now defined by control over flows of people, goods, money, and data, and via the connections they establish. Only states that see the new map of geopolitical power clearly will be able to control the modern world.

Junk Science of 2021: COVID-19 Edition

the most dangerous pandemic in a century spawned all sorts of junk science in 2021, running the gamut from pure quackery to ideology-fueled misinformation 

democracy faces collapse as polarization leads to loss of diversity

 Fifteen interdisciplinary teams of political scientists and complex systems theorists in the natural sciences and engineering explored how polarization is produced and influenced over time by the actions and interactions of individual voters, people in power, and various social networks.

via Steven Novella

Link to EurekAlert

add-note 

Link to PANS