The trouble with Ron

When I was a kid, my very liberal grandmother would say that the U.S. shouldn’t be the policeman for the world. She believed the country should disentangle itself from its foreign commitments and focus on its many domestic challenges, particularly economic inequality. Being a young, somewhat naive Cold Warrior, I countered that promoting democracy internationally was critical in the nuclear era if we were to remain a country at all. So much has changed since then. My grandmother didn’t live to see 9/11, but I often wonder about the arguments we would have had (always respectfully) regarding the military conflicts that ensued. Something about those seemingly endless wars changed us, I suspect, because now both sides of the political aisle are more wary of military involvement and spending. And that’s okay. There’s a fair debate to be had over how much we can and should commit to defense—especially others’ defense. What’s not okay is the debate that’s actually happening in some quarters. When Donald Trump says his American political opponents and the “Deep State” are a greater threat than Russia—just to score political points with the conspiracy-minded flank of his base—there’s a serious problem. My grandmother and I often disagreed, but we were always family first. Our domestic politics are supposed to work in much the same way. Unfortunately, they’ve increasingly strayed far beyond the water’s edge and, in some cases, our democratic principles. —Melissa Amour, Managing Editor

• Xi Jinping to meet Vladimir Putin in Moscow next week —NPR

• Unusual lending practices at Silicon Valley Bank contributed to the bank's collapse —NBC News

• Environmental groups file complaints hoping to stop the Alaska oil drilling project —CNN

• Justice Dept. investigating TikTok’s owner over possible spying on journalists —The New York Times

• Texas’ takeover of Houston Schools draws congressional scrutiny —U.S. News & World Report

• Who is Guo Wengui? Chinese billionaire with ties to Steve Bannon arrested —Insider

• New data links pandemic’s origins to raccoon dogs at Wuhan Market —The New York Times

• France pension protests: Hundreds detained after French government forces through changes —CNN

• Hunter Biden sues laptop repair store owner, citing invasion of privacy —The Washington Post

• Trump attorney ordered to testify before grand jury investigating former president —CNN

And what if Georgia invaded Florida, Mr. Governor?

As we remember all too well, Vladimir Putin played an outsized role in the 2016 presidential election, and he’s already having an impact on 2024. In the same week that Russia downed a U.S. drone and the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for the Russian president’s arrest, he found a friend in Florida. Gov. Ron DeSantis, widely expected to announce a bid for the Republican nomination for president, declared this week that protecting a democratic ally from Russian aggression isn’t a key U.S. interest. Further, he reduced the war in Ukraine to “a territorial dispute.” In response, Kyiv invited the governor to pay a visit. Let’s hope they’re not holding their breath. —The xxxxxx

• “Serious damage Ron DeSantis did to the United States.” DeSantis’ controversial position didn’t go unnoticed. Republican senators like John Cornyn, Thom Tillis, Lindsey Graham, and Marco Rubio pushed back. “What Ron DeSantis basically did yesterday was not deliver a message to Republican voters or Ukraine. He delivered a message to Vladimir Putin that says, if you hold on until the '24 election is over, I just might be your guy that makes all your problems go away," said former Rep. David Jolly. Indeed. —Raw Story

• Welcome to the Sunshine State, comrade. There’s some pretty controversial stuff happening at home too. The Florida House this week advanced a bill that would ban state colleges and universities from using funds to "promote, support, or maintain any programs or campus activities that espouse diversity, equity, or inclusion,” and would give the state's board of governors the ability to remove "any major or minor that is based on or otherwise utilizes pedagogical methodology associated with Critical Race Theory." A federal appeals court ruled yesterday, however, that a temporary block on a law pushed by DeSantis that restricts what can be taught in public colleges and universities will stand. —CNN

• And that’s not all… DeSantis and Republican lawmakers in Florida hope to roll back open records laws known, ironically enough, as Sunshine laws. They are seeking to remove defamation protections for the media, exempt more government documents from open-government access, and broaden the executive privilege. Shine on, sweet freedom, shine on. —Axios

MORE: Murphy worried DeSantis and Trump’s ‘support for Putin’ part of ‘broader lack of enthusiasm for democracy’ —The Hill

French: Where’s the courage?

“Forty years ago, Reagan spoke with truth and conviction about the nature of foreign threats. This week, Ron DeSantis and Donald Trump failed. Two men who’ve built their political brands around fighting their domestic political enemies now wilt in the face of inferior Russian arms. If one of these men prevail, then the Reagan Republican Party is truly lost, its moral clarity is gone, and the preservation of the international order will fall to a Democratic Party that now shows more confidence than the GOP in the moral and military power of the United States.” —David French in The New York Times

David French is a New York Times columnist, attorney, and author of “Divided We Fall: America’s Secession Threat and How to Restore Our Nation.”

MORE: WaPo Ed Board: Ron DeSantis’ pandering on Ukraine is dangerously wrong —The Washington Post

Focus on extremism 

As Russia has encountered setbacks in its war against Ukraine, the Kremlin has amped up its disinformation operations to weaken U.S. support for Kyiv, according to new studies. Moscow’s messages focus on pet themes on the American right that portray Russian President Vladimir Putin as an ally in backing traditional values, religion, and family in the fight against “woke” ideas. “Russia doesn’t pull even its most outlandish narratives out of thin air—it builds on existing resentments and political fissures,” says Jessica Brandt, a policy director at the Brookings Institution who tracks disinformation and foreign interference. —The Guardian

• Russia has had help. Some far-right media outlets have amplified Russian disinfo, with Fox News host Tucker Carlson being perhaps the most well-known offender. That’s not all Carlson had done. His recent (ahem) misleading reporting on the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol set off a dangerous wave of social media chatter, including death threats against Capitol police officers and Democratic leaders, according to experts who monitor extremism and a report from Advance Democracy. —USA Today

• More than just threats. Hate on the internet has a nasty habit of moving into real life. In fact, hate crimes in the U.S. rose to their highest level ever in 2021 in the more than three decades since the federal government began tracking the data. An FBI report released this week also reflected a record spike in attacks targeting people of Asian descent and increases in crimes targeting all major categories, including racial minorities, religious groups, and the LGBTQ community. —The Washington Post

• Where are the hot spots? The trend toward political violence has grown almost in tandem with increased hate-based violence. According to Adrienne LaFrance, “Experts I interviewed told me they worry about political violence in broad regions of the country—the Great Lakes, the rural West, the Pacific Northwest, the South. These are places where extremist groups have already emerged, militias are popular, gun culture is thriving, and hardcore partisans collide during close elections in politically consequential states. Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Arizona, and Georgia all came up again and again.” —The Atlantic

MORE: Carlin Keally & Andrew Mines: Amid the rising tide of hate, what happened to countering extremism in the U.S. military? —Military.com

Something is horribly, horribly wrong

By Debilyn Molineaux

Reprinted from The Fulcrum

The woman who sat next to me on a recent flight spent our five hours together sharing details of all the breakdowns in society and how it’s all gone horribly, horribly wrong. I listened carefully. This was an opportunity “in the wild'' to practice what I encourage others to do—listen and ask questions. Even with someone who believes in conspiracies. I willingly choose to engage with people who have a different worldview. Especially when we appear demographically similar. I’ll call her Jane, to protect her privacy.

A few background notes about Jane—she is married to a man who prioritizes watching sports over spending time talking with his wife. As she noted, “the stork flew past our house” as a way to explain why she doesn’t have children. She does have 56 nieces and nephews; she is part of a large family. Her career path was in outside sales; she spent years as a road warrior. When Jane was laid off in 2020 from a major media company, she assumed it was because of her worldview, not the pandemic and travel restrictions. For most of the past 15 years, she has spent her spare time researching on the internet. Jane doesn’t have any social media accounts and takes pride in finding “primary sources.” She feels has the answers, if only people would listen.

Jane’s worldview includes believing there is a cabal of financial interests who want to decrease the population, derived from generations of eugenicist research. This “cabal” has infiltrated our institutions to enact their evil plan to kill people. Adding to her hypothesis are these beliefs:

• Public education is making us more compliant.

• The healthcare system will kill us, rather than heal us.

• The media is brainwashing us to believe lies are truth.

• Entertainment is “shoving wokism down our throats” (specifically around gender identity and trans issues).

I focused on asking questions—deepening my understanding and hoping to learn how her beliefs were built. How did she arrive at the understanding that something is horribly, horribly wrong? In short, podcasters and YouTubers have revealed to her the truth; and strengthened her ability to discern the patterns of our destruction, carefully hidden from the mainstream and only available to dedicated internet researchers. When she mentioned a couple of names, I probed a bit and asked why she trusted them? After a short pause, she responded it was because their message resonated with her.

She laughed at this point, noting that her liberal family members assume she watches Fox News all the time when in fact she told me except for an occasional interview she watches online, she doesn’t. She considers Fox News to be part of the global cabal.

As I continued listening, I began to hear her pain. The pain of discord within her marriage, and with her family of sisters, aunts, nieces and nephews. Her family is evenly divided with differing worldviews. One worldview sees great harm inflicted upon themselves by the “industry complexes.” The other worldview sees great harm inflicted by the conspiracy theories that could lead to societal collapse. I asked more questions. Specifically:

• What do you want your relationship with your family to be like?

• How do you decide who to trust, especially on the internet?

• What do you want for your future?

As we talked Jane would often start to respond to one of my questions, then distract herself because she didn’t have a ready answer. Unfortunately, I have found this to be the case for most people when new or tough questions are asked. Unfortunately, we spend too little time thinking about what we want and how important our friends and family are to our lives. When we are lonely, too many of us reach out to the internet, where conflict profiteers are ready to help us feel better with their stories.

By the end of our flight, I was exhausted but also gratified because I felt Jane needed someone to hear her. She needed to express herself fully, without judgment. And while it was a chore, it didn’t hurt me. And if you're curious: Did I change my mind? No.

I left the flight feeling compassion toward Jane; for decades she has been lonely. In the last several months, she has found a way to increase her joy with a new business that includes her family members. My hope is that being around people who love her will break the doom-cycle of internet research that led her to believe that everything is horribly, horribly wrong, and through more constant connection and love she will develop a deep sense of belonging.

In truth, we all belong to each other.

Debilyn Molineaux is co-publisher of The Fulcrum and president/CEO of the Bridge Alliance Education Fund.

Like it or not, we have opened Pandora's box, and closing that box will not retract its contents. Our problem now, like it or not, is to live with and/or control the contents. In this case, perhaps AI can help us do that. —Lance N., Utah

Almost 75-years ago Isaac Asimov proposed three laws of robotics, intended to protect humans from Artificial Intelligence in the form of general purpose robots. Never happened in real life, but we now have drones with AI that are used in battle. Computer scientists have claimed that an artificial mind will never have the creativity to think for itself and take control. But many thought gene editing was science fiction, until it happened. —Bob M., California

The views expressed in "What's Your Take?" are submitted by readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff or the Renew America Foundation.