Newsletter Archive

• In this issue of MRN, we (1) summarize a week in which the chances of war with Iran dropped and the number of Democratic presidential candidates grew (again); (2) ponder various issues raised by the extremely stringent new anti-abortion law in Alabama; (3) explore the motivation of a man who has reason to hate Trump and is trying to love him; (4) steer you to background readings on things such as Trump’s pardoning of a criminal friend/hagiographer, the latest attack on Rashida Tlaib, endangered rural hospitals, and the challenge of talking sense to Flat Earthers.

–Robert Wright

Continue reading Issue #73: May 12–18, 2019

In this week’s MRN we: (1) summarize a week in which Trump administration bellicosity was directed more at Iran than at Venezuela (stay tuned for next week’s pendulum swing); (2) complain about how obediently Facebook and other social media companies abet America’s reckless foreign policy; (3) consider trying to love Trump; (4) come to our senses; (5) steer you to background readings on things ranging from psychedelic mushrooms to colonizing outer space to the emotional reactions of liberals to the Mueller report.

–Robert Wright

Continue reading Issue #72: May 4–11, 2019

In this week’s MRN we (1) note signs of a race-based Trump foreign policy; (2) explain how you, via the magic of micro-initiatives, can make the world a better place and maybe even save it; (3) summarize the week’s news so smoothly that you’ll feel almost no pain; (4) direct you to background reading on things ranging from William Barr to John Bolton, from the mindset of extremists to the oppressiveness of algorithms, from good news for the Satanic Church to bad news for Satan’s Twitter account (really); plus a lusty fourteenth-century nun.

–Robert Wright

Continue reading Issue #71: Apr 28–May 4, 2019

In this week’s MRN we (1) ask whether the Sri Lanka bombings signify the onset of a new phase in history; (2) explain how to use mindfulness to combat distraction-by-Internet; (3) summarize the Mueller report and opine on its import; (4) suggest that New York-area MRN readers come hear me talk in mid-May (and convene after the talk); (5) offer links to readings on subjects ranging from Joe Biden to Lou Dobbs to Amazon software that decides which workers to fire to Chinese software that infers ethnicity from facial features to a chimp that uses software (the Instagram app) with impressive fluency.

–Robert Wright

Continue reading Issue #70: Apr 14–27, 2019

In this week’s MRN we: (1) explore the Murdoch media empire’s powerful role in demonizing Rep. Ilhan Omar; (2) lament some things said by America’s only mindfulness-championing presidential candidate; (3) summarize a week that was rich in high-profile exits and non-exits; (4) offer background reading on things ranging from the religious left to a new activism among Amazon employees to Brexit questions you were embarrassed to ask to “the Light Triad of personality” (which is much better than the Dark Triad) to a part of the world where men and women seem to literally speak different languages. [Note: No newsletter next week, for Easter/Passover-related reasons, as discussed below.]

–Robert Wright

Continue reading Issue #69: Apr 6–13, 2019

In this week’s MRN we (1) note with approval the entry of a mindfulness meditation advocate into the Democratic presidential race; (2) explain how you can use a smartphone to fight smartphone addiction; (3) summarize a week that features an unusual amount of Capitol Hill vs. White House tension and the usual amount of White House vs. the World tension; (4) offer links to readings on things ranging from the declining objectivity of American media to a possible way to civilize street gangs to the possibility that matter is an illusion.

–Robert Wright

Continue reading Issue #68: Mar 31–Apr 6, 2019

Hi. This isn’t an issue of the Mindful Resistance Newsletter. As I explained last week, the hardworking MRN staff is taking this week off. But since the completion of the Mueller report is such a big punctuation mark in this long ordeal of a presidency, I figured I should say at least something about it. (I mentioned the report in last weeks’ MRN, but news of the report’s completion broke too late for me to say very much, and in any event the Barr letter hadn’t come out when the newsletter went to press.)

Continue reading A Note on the Mueller Report: March 30, 2019

In this week’s MRN we (1) summarize a week that included the completion, at last, of Robert Mueller’s investigation; (2) list some reasons that expectations about the Mueller report should have all along been lower than they’ve been; (3) offer some thoughts about when outrage is and isn’t productive; (4) offer links to background readings on things ranging from Beto O’Rourke to the abolition of the electoral college to the apparent destruction of 50 million songs on MySpace. [Note: There’s a chance that we’ll skip next week’s issue; details below in Notes from Bob.] 

–Robert Wright

Continue reading Issue #67: March 17–23, 2019

In this week’s MRN we (1) summarize a week that included unusual Republican defiance of Trump and a horrific terrorist attack against Muslims in New Zealand; (2) scan the white nationalist manifesto posted by the terrorist in search of clues about how to defeat his cause; (3) offer links to background reading on things ranging from Beto O’Rourke’s undergraduate years to CIA-sponsored psychology research to the new Captain Marvel movie; (4) in our News You Can Use section, offer guidance on how to listen to views you hate with some measure of equanimity.

–Robert Wright

Continue reading Issue #66: March 10–16, 2019

In this week’s MRN we: (1) dissect the Ilhan Omar controversy and offer tips for talking about Israel-related matters; (2) assess MRN’s progress toward total world domination; (3) concisely summarize a medium-intensity and medium-weirdness week; (4) offer background links on subjects ranging from climate-change couch potatoes to white-collar robots to Buddhist nationalism to Trump-Fox symbiosis; plus a map (a literal map) of America’s ideological intolerance.

–Robert Wright

Continue reading Issue #65: March 3–9, 2019