MikaHorelli

The Crusades failed almost completely; two centuries of holy war ended in ruin at Acre. So why is this catastrophe the founding myth of the American right, and why does the US Secretary of War wear its battle cry on his bicep? New essay, on the crusade that never was. https://open.substack.com/pub/nordicledger/p/the-crusade-that-never-was?r=mwsn6&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Populism wasn’t created by Russia, social media or AI. It grew where liberal democracies stopped listening. Globalisation’s winners and losers. Immigration. Stagnating wages. CEO pay. Housing. AI replacing entry-level careers. If democracies want to defeat populism, they first have to understand why it became persuasive. My latest essay ↓ https://open.substack.com/pub/nordicledger/p/the-blind-spots-of-liberal-democracy?r=mwsn6&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Europe doesn’t run on unanimity. It runs on the ability to manufacture unanimity. But what happens if France and Germany stop wanting the same Europe? My new Nordic Ledger essay, The Coffee-Break Theory of European Unity, looks at Marine Le Pen, the AfD, Reform UK—and the future of European integration. https://open.substack.com/pub/nordicledger/p/the-coffee-break-theory-of-european?r=mwsn6&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Equal before the law. Terms and Conditions Apply. During 12 years in New York I learned that justice doesn’t have to become corrupt to become unequal. It only has to become expensive. The latest Atlas of Impunity suggests this is no longer just an American story. My latest essay: https://open.substack.com/pub/nordicledger/p/equal-before-the-law-terms-and-conditions?r=mwsn6&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

America turns 250 tomorrow. I spent twelve years there as a correspondent, and a lifetime before that dreaming about the place. My new essay is about two Americas: the one that exists, and the one Europeans invented. And about a letter to Pennsylvania that was never answered. https://open.substack.com/pub/nordicledger/p/the-america-i-dreamed-of-never-really?r=mwsn6&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Advertising learned that beautiful nonsense is expensive to defend. Politics never did; a promise costs nothing to make and little to abandon. New column on trust, performance, and why audiences recognise insincerity before they hear the argument. https://open.substack.com/pub/nordicledger/p/the-sound-of-not-being-believed?r=mwsn6&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

EU etsii uusia verotuloja historiallisen budjettinsa rahoittamiseksi, Saksa taistelee autoteollisuutensa puolesta ja Lähi-idän kriisi muistuttaa energian geopoliittisista riskeistä. 🇪🇺 EU Mediaviikko uudistuu — tämän numeron voi lukea ilman maksumuuria. Linkki alla 👇 https://eumediaviikko.substack.com/p/eu-mediaviikko-30062026

The debate about Putin's wealth asks the wrong question. Not: how much does he own? But: does he own anything at all — in any legally meaningful sense? Ownership without institutions is just possession. And possession is contingent on who comes next. ↓ https://open.substack.com/pub/nordicledger/p/what-you-own-when-you-own-nothing?r=mwsn6&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Book bans don't work. They never have. The Catholic Church tried for four centuries. The Soviets tried. Every dictatorship has tried. The result is always the same: forbidden books become essential reading. American school boards are now running the western world's most effective book marketing campaign — entirely free of charge. https://open.substack.com/pub/nordicledger/p/the-best-way-to-sell-a-book-in-america?r=mwsn6&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

For decades, a conservative physician and his socialist neighbour disagreed about almost everything in Finnish politics. They argued, played tennis, shared meals, and remained close friends until the end of their lives. That sounds unremarkable. In the current political climate across the Western world, it feels almost radical. In my new Nordic Ledger column, I write about what has changed — and why the missing ingredient is not better fact-checking, stronger institutions or smarter politicians. It is something the French Revolutionaries understood well enough to carve in stone alongside liberty and equality, but that contemporary democracies have quietly abandoned in practice. The column covers the mechanics of democratic erosion: how political identity replaced political disagreement; how online harassment achieves what censorship cannot; how the war against institutions matters more than any individual lie; and why Brexit was not really about Europe. The underlying argument is simple, though not comforting: democracies are not primarily threatened by their enemies. They are threatened by the habit of treating opponents as enemies. https://open.substack.com/pub/nordicledger/p/the-missing-word-in-democracy?r=mwsn6&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true