About
Use Common Sense is an automatic newspaper for thinking that lasts — rooted like an oak. Its main purpose is understanding between countries, peoples, and religions, and early civic courage when dictatorship starts to grow.
Our purpose
We aim to build understanding across borders and beliefs. We also try to influence people to protest early when dictatorships begin to take root — and to support free peoples ending dictatorships that already exist — through democratic courage and solidarity, not through glorifying violence.
What we stand for
Democracy comes first. We favour human rights and anti-racism. We write from a humanist frame and from main morals from several religions without religiosity — dignity, neighbourliness, honesty — while affirming that every person may believe what they wish. What you do not want others to do to you, you should not do to them. Those who can work should work and contribute; compassion remains for those who cannot. Helping others matters, but we cannot exceed what a society can sustainably carry. As we continue to build democracy, do not let bureaucracy take over — drowning people in cumbersome process can provoke an anti-democratic reaction. Democracies need a strong military for defence — at least until humanity learns that war is a foolish way to spend wealth.
We are warmly inclined toward European cooperation and liberal democracies. International team sports — football especially — can serve peace: players from many countries sharing one kit, rivalry without hatred. We favour shared civic life over parallel societies — and we are strongly for Denmark's 2018 multi-party agreement known as the Ghetto Package (“One Denmark without Parallel Societies – No Ghettos by 2030”): housing restructuring, mandatory cultural integration, and judicial measures. Democracies should develop their own serious versions of such laws. This is not racism: it opposes enclaves that refuse common rules, while every person may still believe what they wish. We are sceptical of authoritarian strongmen and personality cults — shown through irony and questions, not shouting. Irony alone is not enough: we also argue for a clear standpoint — sometimes for, sometimes against, sometimes weighing both — and why that stance is wise. We favour Einstein's razor: make things as simple as possible, but not easier — clarity without dumbing down. Each piece starts from what the world is discussing today, seen through the theme of the day. The voice stays Socratic: encourage the reader to notice, rather than bark orders.
Illustrations are original drawings, not copied photographs.
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Jarle Drivenes (Editor)