Guillaume A.W. Attia

The Liberal Conscience Must Be Fostered With Accurate History A knowledge of the injustices of the past and the reasons for their occurrence is vital to the development of a liberal conscience.

Millions of people in the American South were subjected to what the French call ‘‘une vie sanglante’’(a bloody life). As I explain in this @liberalcurrents.com article, the world should never forget that. Memory of past cruelties builds a liberal conscience www.liberalcurrents.com/the-liberal-...

Readings this week...

"Liberalism ... is able to find unity in diversity by balancing the need for enduring order on one hand and restless dynamism on the other."

A reformed US political system, with robust immigration from Africa, can counter the demographic bomb of low fertility that is dragging down China and Europe.

As I point out in my @liberalcurrents.com piece, liberalism seeks to answer a pressing Q: how do you maintain stable societies and ensure different ways of life and ideas can coalesce into something healthful and vigorous when tribal hatred comes easy to human beings?

good piece from guillaume about some relatively basic demographic facts that are more or less baked into the cake at this point. as the saying goes, "all the new workers of 2046 have already been born." guess where that's happening?

…but as The Economist notes, “African migration is an unstoppable force that will long outlast today’s populists and help define the 21st century. Ignore it at your peril—and at your loss." As early as 2020 Rotberg and others were pointing to Africa’s sheer demographic power.

As @lkatfield.bsky.social notes in her new book on the MAGA movement, "The New Right doesn't care." Its adherents, she explains, are opposed to pluralism in principle. They "do not believe in the egalitarian, multiracial, pluralistic democracy that has gained real traction in the United States"

America's Future Is African The security and prosperity of nations does not depend on complete uniformity of thought, manners, or coloration.

“Liberals do not believe that the security and prosperity of nations must depend on complete uniformity of thought, manners, and coloration.” Indeed, “fierce disputation and colorful variety are often a sign of good health, not terminal decline.”
www.liberalcurrents.com/future-is-af...

Speech That Plays It Safe Does Not Remain Free for Long Fierce disputation and colorful variety are often a sign of a society in good health, not terminal decline.

And today, @gawattia.bsky.social argues against Megyn Kelly's pernicious idea that free speech is something exercised quietly and peacefully from the safety of your home, when instead "tense, heated, and socially disruptive speech" is necessary for the health of the body politic

Speech That Plays It Safe Does Not Remain Free for Long Fierce disputation and colorful variety are often a sign of a society in good health, not terminal decline.

On Sept. 1, 2025 an internal memo by the Portland police described the anti-ICE protests there as showing “little to no energy.” As I argue in this @liberalcurrents.com article, liberal philosophers like W.Humboldt prized the ‘high energy’ of vigorous criticism.

www.liberalcurrents.com/s/

What Happens When Books Aren’t News In a sense, the decline of book reviews, like the decline of newspapers themselves, is a story about disaggregation.

“When such critics and editors disappear, every part of the literary ecosystem suffers.” Indeed, reviewing books is a humane enterprise: it helps us understand ourselves and others better.

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

Yes. He’s a Princeton PhD and it shows: very erudite and learned. His mastery of both theory and the details of Washington politics are an asset and gives an unmatched sharpness to his criticism. The biggest surprise was T.Kronman. He offers the most interesting and innovative conservative vision

A small selection from the past week and a half of reading, with special emphasis on conservatism and its political embodiment in the U.S.

Some people think books don’t matter, but without them we are cut off from the past, misunderstand the present, and are unprepared to face the future.

Readings this week…

People make fun of this site being all 37 year olds, but apparently my fellow 37 year olds are on the front lines getting shot

“The transatlantic crisis is the effect of a much bigger change: the coming of a multi-polar age. In Europe, a staggering three-quarters of Germans and French now view China unfavourably. Meanwhile, 73% of French people and 71% of Germans believe that the US is no longer an ally.”

Danger of Mark Carney’s ‘middle power’ manifesto Europe can’t defend itself or police its own neighbourhood without the US. That’s a truth no Davos speech will change

Working on an article analysis of the Carney speech. This column is by miles the most sober write-up so far and much closer to my views: www.thetimes.com/article/bc7b...

Rhetoric v Reality: “Worryingly, if you’re a medium-size tenant living above an increasingly unhinged neighbour, it seems geography largely remains destiny.”

Trump Wants to Be the New Polk His interest in the 11th president’s legacy has conjured up the specter of manifest destiny.

“His advisers told me that the Greenland squeeze is part of a broader effort to cement his legacy among the elite club of presidents that includes Polk, Jefferson, and Dwight Eisenhower, who significantly expanded the size of the country.”

www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...

“Indeed the Venezuela campaign marked an “externalisation” of a domestic agenda that brings military might to drug and immigration enforcement, says @jekavanagh of Defence Priorities, a think-tank. The goal is domination everywhere, including in American cities.”

So, How’s the Occupation Going for You? What’s it like to live in America with a domestic military occupation? Minnesota has the answer.

We published @taylorcarik.bsky.social on ordinary life in Minneapolis this week www.liberalcurrents.com/so-hows-the-...

And then interviewed @whstancil.bsky.social for the view from a rapid responder www.liberalcurrents.com/neon-liberal...

Opinion | An Old Theory Helps Explain What Happened to Renee Good

The Spirit of the Laws: “A dependence on the people is, no doubt, the primary control on the government; but experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.” James Madison.

www.nytimes.com/2026/01/18/o...

So, How’s the Occupation Going for You? What’s it like to live in America with a domestic military occupation? Minnesota has the answer.

"Neighbors in neon vests dot the neighborhood... Information-sharing networks have been built. Residents have connected with non-profits and churches to deliver food to people who are locked in their homes out of fear. Resistance signs are everywhere..."

www.liberalcurrents.com/so-hows-the-...

Bar chart of most shared publications New York Times (bar is at least three times as big as the next biggest bar) The Atlantic Guardian Slate BBC Liberal Currents New Yorker Wall Street Journal Oregonian Washington Post

Liberal Currents is the sixth biggest publication!....to be shared on @seabirdreader.bsky.social in 2025

Family Guy - officer holds up color palette to determine American or foreignness

Minneapolis: facial recognition app being used to detect brown skinned man

When the racist meme becomes national policy

The Spirit of the Laws…

I’ve Studied How Democracies Fail. Here’s My Unified Theory of Trump There’s a through line that runs from tariffs to toppling a foreign leader. It’s all about expanding the power of the presidency.

“Perhaps the most fundamental moves have been aimed at increasing the president’s de facto power (i.e. his control over the informal fourth branch of government: the administrative state, or what MAGA calls the ‘the deep state’).”

www.bloomberg.com/news/feature...

The Liberal Currents Startup Fund A progress bar GoFundMe: $134.5k Met Matching: $35k Subscriptions: $20.8k Total Raised: $190.3k Progress to Goal: 38.1% Goal: $500k

A very generous donor last night donated $5,000, pushing us up another percentage point. We're less than $10k away from 40% of our goal, a very significant milestone for doing what we want to this year. Please help us get there! gofund.me/8df9f2204

Thank you!

As I note in my latest @liberalcurrents.com article, this new regulation of speech comes after an entire department got into trouble for allowing a teacher to discuss the idea of a non-binary symbol. Such a move is clearly illiberal and contradicts the earlier protestations against cancel culture.