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I’m in search of intelligent conversations. This space is my open notebook — a place where I write reflections on power, with time stamps, as I work through ideas. These notes are part of my process of thinking, documenting, and refining. You’re welcome to look over my shoulder…

On the Politics of Provocation As long as you always reduce things to “stupidity” you will never understand what’s actually happening. In Elon’s world, stupidity is strategy. Elon’s goal isn’t to be right, it’s to rile up the right. His viral tweets are simple, emotional,…

On Shame and Reintegration I respect the desire to not blur moral lines. Moral clarity is important. But when it turns into public shaming, it stops guiding people and starts punishing them. It’s easy to call for moral firmness and harder still to hold that line without losing…

On the Myth of the Free Market The free market was never free. We’re told that America’s success was built on grit, innovation, and the magic of the free market. But in his book, Understanding Power, Chomsky explains that key industries in the U.S. (especially high tech) only…

On the Stories Nations Tell Every nation is built on a story. Not just borders and laws, but a narrative one that explains who they are, why they are here, and why their power is legitimate. Think stories of “founding fathers,” of heroic struggles, of sacrifices and destiny.…

On AI and the Great Replacement If we are all fully replaced by AI, many of us would descend into collective nihilism. As such, Governments will be forced to artificially keep people employed or enforce employment quotas to maintain stability. We’ve already seen this with…

On the Limits of Artificial Intelligence Here are some of my thoughts on AI and the future: —AI is likely reaching a point of diminishing returns. Just like the iPhone, I expect all future releases to be less impressive. The big leaps have already happened, now it’s about…

On Leaders and Accountability When people talk about holding leaders accountable, they often do it as if leaders are free agents who can act however they want. But leadership doesn’t work like that. Every decision they make sits inside a web of constraints; economic,…

On Suffering and Making Meaning Suffering is woven into the fabric of human life. No one moves through this world untouched by pain, loss, or hardship. The question is not whether we will suffer, but how we make sense of it. Meaning is what transforms suffering from something…

On Moral Awakenings There are no real “moral awakenings” in media or policy. Just narrative management and shifting interests. In one word: pragmatism. When a government, corporation, or media outlet suddenly “cares” it’s never because they’ve had a change of heart. Policy…

On Individual Transformation and Collective Power I often hear Muslims talk about the need to “work on ourselves,” but I always find myself wondering what that actually means. I’m still sitting with this question. I don’t usually look at things from the individual level,…

On Ideology as a Mobilizing Force Ideology isn’t just a set of beliefs. It’s a recruitment tool. Behind every political project, movement, or regime, there is a coalition of actors competing for power. These actors need foot soldiers, sympathizers, and enablers. Ideology is…

On Advocacy and Realism Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to do advocacy when you see the world through a realist lens. I look at the scale of power, who actually controls resources, who makes decisions, and it makes me feel small. Like nothing we do really…

On the Overton Window The Overton window is the range of ideas that people see as acceptable at a given time. It’s like an invisible frame that decides which opinions feel normal, which ones are controversial, and which ones are too extreme to even talk about. Anything inside…

On Regime Change Regime change is often portrayed as a victory for “the people” or the dramatic fall of a dictator. But in reality, the story is rarely written by ordinary people. All leaders, whether democratically elected or authoritarian, are backed by a faction of elites.…

On Sexual Violence The idea that rxpe is about sex and is a “evolutionary reproductive strategy” is false and depraved. This argument is a form of biological determinism, the idea that human behavior can be explained through evolutionary drives. But it is also a deeply…

On UAE Bots The loud Emirati influencer ecosystem on X that endlessly flatters Israel isn’t made up of random voices. These are coordinated, state-aligned accounts amplifying pro-Israel messaging to signal alliance to Israeli elites, shape perceptions of the UAE as modern…

On Trump and All Leaders People talk about Trump as if he’s a one-man show who can do whatever he wants. In fact, people do this with leaders all the time — Putin, Xi Jinping, Erdoğan, Netanyahu, Kim Jong Un, MBS, Modi, and others. They imagine these figures as absolute rulers…

On the Ummah The Ummah is both a spiritual ideal and a political narrative. Spiritually, it represents a single moral community bound by shared faith that transcends borders, race, and tribe. It is a living collective where no Muslim is abandoned or forgotten. Politically,…

On Theodor Herzl Theodor Herzl (1860–1904) was the father of modern political Zionism. He was an Austro-Hungarian journalist and political thinker and a secular (atheist) European Jew radicalized by the rise of antisemitism in Europe. Contrary to the image of him being…