Ethical Permission Slips If the following formulation sounds familiar, it’s probably because you were active on Facebook or Twitter in 2015-2017:

This week, I spend some time examining the problem of moral outsourcing:
arikohen.substack.com/p/ethical-pe...

Person A says, does, or agrees with something that’s questionable or problematic. Person B calls Person A a racist, a sexist, a homophobe, a Nazi, or something similar. Person A responds by saying “Well, since you’ve called me this terrible name, now I have no choice but to act even more like that.”

If the following formulation sounds familiar, it’s probably because you were active on Facebook or Twitter in 2015-2017:

"Fascist Legacies," the new book from me and Gerald Steinacher will be published this summer and it's available for pre-order now from the University of Nebraska Press (tinyurl.com/2x9z32pk). We're very proud of this fourth volume in our ongoing book series, Contemporary Holocaust Studies.

The Liberal Virtue of Unpopularity The fear of being alone is central to the human experience; it isn’t some sort of peculiar anxiety at the heart of contemporary democratic life or something unique to liberal democrats.

Liberal political thought doesn’t demand alienation from our neighbors, but it does recognize that there will be moments when our values require us to hold positions that are deeply unpopular.

In today's post, I spend some time thinking about why it matters much more to be right than to be popular:

Turning Off The Outrage Machine About a year and a half ago—maybe a bit longer than that now that I think about it—I deleted all of the social media apps from my phone.

About a year and a half ago—maybe a bit longer than that now that I think about it—I deleted all of the social media apps from my phone.

Read about why I did it and why I think it matters for liberalism as a political philosophy here: arikohen.substack.com/p/turning-of...

I got an email this afternoon from a Jewish organization that referred to “intolerable antisemitic violence” and that phrase has been stuck in my head ever since. It certainly feels intolerable to American Jews. But nothing will change until it’s intolerable to a lot more people.

If Congress Was Alive To See This I’m a weirdo.

So you can imagine my chagrin when President Trump announced a couple of weeks ago that he was attacking Iran without Congressional approval.

Read my post about it here:
open.substack.com/pub/arikohen...

I’m a weirdo. I love institutions and rules. Regulations and regular order really are my cup of tea. I spent a fair amount of time learning parliamentary procedure in high school. When someone “calls the question” during a meeting, I know what we’re supposed to do and what we’re not supposed to do.

Any society that spends this much time debating the genetic makeup of Jewish people is not a healthy society.

Absolutely, yes.

Exciting news in our house:
Sara Kohen is running for a seat on the Omaha Public Power District board of directors. It’s an important role in our community and I hope a lot of people will jump in to help her win this race!
Lots of info is here:
saraforoppd.com

What People Should Actually Be Doing A few weeks ago, I wrote about the pervasive sense that the slow decline of liberalism has sped up considerably but at the same time that it’s not clear what we can do about it.

Instead, it’s going to take a whole bunch of people doing some pretty specific things. And so I thought I’d write a bit more concretely about all of this:
arikohen.substack.com/p/what-peopl...

But, if liberalism is going to survive this period, it won’t be because someone wrote a really fantastic Substack post with some (admittedly) general ideas about how we can move forward.

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the pervasive sense that the slow decline of liberalism has sped up considerably but at the same time that it’s not clear what we can do about it.

Know Your Rights Last Saturday, at my synagogue in Nebraska, the staff put red cards in the pews and by the front door.

And lest we get to a point where anyone says to themselves, “This doesn’t apply to me,” we should be clear that the question of what it means to have and exercise our rights is a central one to all of us as citizens of a liberal democratic republic.

Read the whole post: substack.com/home/post/p-...

If we feel that we cannot safely attend a protest or film a law enforcement officer or legally carry a gun—whether or not we will ever do these things or have any desire to ever do them—then we cannot be said to have these rights in any meaningful way.

New Year, Same Problems It’s 2026!

Maybe we’ve reached a point of no return?

I wrote all about this and you can find the whole post over here: arikohen.substack.com/p/new-year-s...

In fact the first weeks of the new year haven’t just felt like more of 2025 for political liberals but significantly worse. Whether or not we can actually measure it, it certainly feels like the pace at which liberal democratic norms and institutions are eroding has sped up considerably.

It’s 2026! But when it comes to writing about liberalism we haven’t changed very much by breaking out that new “12 Hilarious Basset Hounds for 2026” calendar we got for Hanukkah last month.

Semester's End Right before the beginning of this semester, I made a series of changes to the syllabus of one of my classes after attending a seminar on teaching civil discourse.

Here's how it went and what I learned:
arikohen.substack.com/p/semesters-...

Since the class focused on Israel, the Palestinians, and the politics of the Middle East, it seemed a good contender for a class where we should be up front about how we study contentious topics.

Right before the beginning of this semester, I made a series of changes to the syllabus of one of my classes after attending a seminar on teaching civil discourse.

Thinking about Community After Thanksgiving I find that I repeat myself a fair amount, and not just because I’m getting older and more forgetful.

I think this is just obviously true and I assume that it’s something everyone understands at some level. We either do this thing together or it probably doesn’t get done.

Read the whole post here:
arikohen.substack.com/p/thinking-a...

I say this to my kids when I have to miss dinner because I’m going to an evening lecture on campus. I say it to explain my level of volunteerism. And I say it when I’m trying to convince someone to join a Board or show up to an event.

I find that I repeat myself a fair amount, and not just because I’m getting older and more forgetful. One thing that I never get tired of saying is that a community is only as good as you make it.

Yes! More and more I’m convinced that single biggest problem we face is that people have lost or given up on the idea of the university as a community where amazing things happen due to the proximity and repeated interactions of interesting people.

The Scenius at the Heart of Liberalism If there’s one thing I find myself saying to my students in every class I teach, it’s this: we need to spend more time together.

This is how a scenius begins. But if you’re not there, it can’t.

Read the whole post here: arikohen.substack.com/p/the-sceniu...

If you show up, you’ll learn something. And you might meet the person with whom you’ll have everything in common. The person with whom you have nothing in common. The person you’ll travel with and the person you’ll end up arguing with and the person you’ll end up splitting a pizza with.

The Scenius at the Heart of Liberalism If there’s one thing I find myself saying to my students in every class I teach, it’s this: we need to spend more time together.

If there’s one thing I find myself saying to my students in every class I teach, it’s this: we need to spend more time together.