New to Civil Heresy?
Civil Heresy is a collection of essays exploring democracy, history, political power, propaganda, and the institutions that shape modern society.
If you’re visiting for the first time, these five essays provide the best introduction to the ideas explored throughout this site.
Uses of Ignorance
How misinformation becomes power.
Some of history’s greatest threats to democracy have not come from a lack of intelligence, but from the deliberate cultivation of ignorance. This essay explores how misinformation, selective memory, and the rejection of evidence can reshape public life and weaken democratic institutions. It is the foundation for understanding many of the themes explored throughout Civil Heresy.
Persistence of Belief
Why facts alone rarely change minds.
Why do people continue to believe ideas even after overwhelming evidence challenges them? This essay examines the powerful relationship between identity, psychology, and belief, revealing why changing minds is far more difficult than simply presenting facts. It offers an essential framework for understanding today’s political and cultural divisions.
The Great Divergence
When one nation begins living in two realities.
America’s divisions did not appear overnight. They developed gradually as citizens increasingly inhabited different media environments, different versions of history, and different definitions of reality itself. This essay traces how a shared national conversation fractured into competing narratives that continue to shape public life today.
Echoes of the Reich
History’s warnings are easiest to ignore before they arrive.
History rarely repeats itself in exact form, but it often echoes through familiar patterns of power, propaganda, and institutional erosion. Rather than drawing simplistic comparisons, this essay explores recurring historical warning signs and asks what they can teach us about protecting democratic societies before those lessons are forgotten.
The Ballroom of the Republic
When politics becomes performance.
Politics has always contained an element of performance, but what happens when spectacle begins to replace governance? This essay examines the intersection of power, public image, and political theater, asking how modern democracy can become consumed by performance while substantive leadership fades into the background.
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These five essays provide the foundation of Civil Heresy. From here, explore the latest essays from the homepage or browse the archive by topic.