Today’s most challenging global issues have a common root cause – the prevalence of rivalrous (zero-sum) systems over anti-rivalrous (positive-sum) systems. Rivalrous systems fuel scarcity and competition, while anti-rivalrous systems foster abundance and cooperation. It’s essential to acknowledge the unsustainability of rivalrous systems if we hope to tackle humanity’s most pressing concerns and move towards a more sustainable and cooperative future.

Welcome to the ultimate game for the sleuthing Conspiracist Spotter: Conspiracist Bingo! It's a fun and light-hearted way to navigate the deep, dark rabbit holes of online chatter. Ever been told that "you'll own nothing and be happy" or referred to as a "sheep" by a "critical freethinker"? Well, now you can make it a fun game for you and your "normie" friends!

What sphinx of cement and aluminium bashed open their skulls and ate up their brains and imagination?

In this complex information age, distinguishing between rigorous scientific fact and veiled pseudoscience is a pressing challenge. In the vein of my previous writings on information pollution and cognitive biases, let us now consider a series of questions we can ask ourselves to gauge the scientific integrity of an idea or claim:

In recent years, a confluence of events, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, increasing economic instability, global warming, and political corruption, have merged into what is now termed a poly-crisis or meta-crisis. This tumultuous landscape, rife with uncertainties, is deeply unsettling. As the mainstream falls short in explaining these events and the simultaneous occurrence of multiple crises, many people turn to alternative narratives in an attempt to understand what is happening.

In today's ever-evolving information landscape, media platforms, both legacy and alternative, wield unprecedented influence in shaping public opinion. Within this media ecosystem, familiarity with the inherent "failure conditions" of each media source is becoming increasingly important.

We live in an era marked by escalating existential threats and global crises. Climate change poses urgent challenges, evidenced by frequent extreme weather events such as wildfires and hurricanes, while human activities continue to degrade the environment, as seen in the depletion of the Amazon and overfishing.

We, the citizens of The Both/And! Project, declare to practice equity and inclusion in all our words and actions.

Every year during the odd period between Christmas and the New Year when no one knows what day it is, I, like many others, spend that time reflecting on the year closing and considering the one about to begin. Aside from the more personal and professional changes I made this year, my big focus for 2022 was attempting to better embody the behaviours I believe can lead us to a saner, wiser, and more tolerant world.

In the last 24 hours, somewhat surprisingly, I’ve seen plenty of commentary on my social media timelines in different threads about the British people's supposed ‘unwillingness’ to fight austerity and oppression.

This is the third and final article in a short series on cleaning up the information environment. Part one can be found here, How to Fight Information Pollution, and part two here, How to Identify Your Cognitive Biases & Allergies. This one focuses on identifying unwitting (or witting) culture warriors parroting tribal narratives in the wild and online:

This essay is the second in a short series about taking personal responsibility for improving the quality of the content circulating in the information environment. In essay one, ‘How to Fight Information Pollution’, we considered methods we can adopt to help ensure the information we share is integral and truthful. This second essay focuses on a process to help us gain greater awareness of our individual cognitive biases and allergies.

In this age of polarisation, disinformation and fake news, never before has it been so important that we carefully and thoughtfully evaluate the information we consume before we share it. I think of it as fighting “information pollution”.

In the face of escalating cultural divisions and systemic crises, the urgency for us to learn how to effectively manage personal and societal transformation has never been greater. The life journey of Malcolm X, a prominent civil rights figure, offers a powerful prism through which we can examine this process. His personal evolution, closely mirroring the seismic societal shifts of his era, sheds light on the complex dynamics of transformative change, both on an individual and collective scale.

I've been thinking a little recently about the intensity of the conversations around vaccines and attempting to understand what underpins the most hardened and vocal positions on either side. While far from a definitive list, the primary concerns and fears might best be defined with the following propositions:

“Rather than focusing only on what is false or who or what is at fault, wisdom involves focusing on whoever and whatever is true, whole, wholesome, valid, and right.” — Forrest Landry

We are living through a crisis of meaning and sensemaking. No longer is there a single consensus reality that binds us together.

Marxism is a political theory and method of socio-economic and historical analysis that originates from the works of 19th-century German philosophers, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels.

In a previous article published last November, I explained the reasons why I cancelled my membership of the Labour Party and how, for the first time in twenty years, identity politics had left me questioning who to vote for at a general election.

Much has been written about the Labour Party, the crisis of the Left and progressive politics in general. I’m adding to it not because I claim to hold any authority on the subject, but from a compulsion to share my personal experience, and, as an ex-Labour member, my deep frustrations with the current situation in the party.

Joker is the must-seemovie of the moment. That rare type of movie that succeeds in mirroring the cultural moment in which it was made, as Taxi Driver did in the seventies and Fight Club managed in the nineties.

My wife and I land at Marco Polo Airport for a short stay in Venice, affectionately known “The Floating City”, a week after its worst flooding in 22 years.

Unless you are a political junkie or obsessive nerd like myself, it is quite likely that you have never heard of the ‘Overton window’. Named after its originator, Joseph P. Overton, the Overton window represents, at any given time, the frame of reasonable options or opinions across a spectrum of possible options/opinions in public/political discourse.

The notion that there are vast disparities in power and influence which favour men over women across all levels of society is so prevalent and commonsensical to us these days that to challenge the concept of the ‘patriarchy’ and to question the dominant narrative on gender inequality is, at best, a demonstration of ignorance, at worst, an act of misogyny.