[Andrew Stillman]

A key concept I don’t hear so much within this conversation is “populism.” It seems like populism is effectively the tribalism of those who feel disenfranchised by the current economic and political system, and who are willing to “burn it down” since they believe (correctly or not) that they have nothing to lose. Populism seems to just be an anti-establishment and anti-elite cultural sentiment, rather than a coherent set of ideological beliefs. The greater the economic inequality and cultural disorder in a democratic country, the greater the appeal of populism as a political tool. Populism can be used as a vehicle for State authoritarianism in the “law and order” sense, to impose the “traditional” moral or metaphysical doctrines of one group on another, or to justify the State sanctioned destruction of wealth. As a Classical Liberal, I’d argue that the excesses of populism are precisely what a well-designed government needs to curb if a pluralist, liberal democracy wants to survive.

[Andrew Stillman]

I would argue that confirmation bias and the allure of in-group conformity are a core part of our tribal and survivalist nature. In this regard, Liberalism (in the Classical sense) could be thought of as a technology intentionally designed to counterbalance the downsides of these innate human flaws by forcing us into power sharing relationships and exposure to diverse perspectives. Arguably the cognitive isolation that most humans experienced prior to modernity — owing to geography — was probably a far greater polarizing force than any social media algorithm of today, as evidenced by all the wars it prompted. So I think there’s reason for optimism that just as the written word and AM Radio created a period of imbalance in our collective sense-making abilities, so too can we outgrow this pimply and gangly phase of social media. That being said, I wonder if this moment calls into question the proper mode of governance of these new technologies. Given how easily hijacked we are by these algorithms, are profit motive and free market competition up to the task of bringing social media back into balance with our needs as a society? What regulatory alternatives do we have?

[Andrew Stillman]

Hi, I’m Andrew Stillman, CTO to Braver Angels and interested in learning how this pilot of a discussion platform is shaping up. I was brought up by die-hard Blues and have considered myself a progressive for most of my life, but I have come to diverge from the tribe when it comes to classical liberal concepts like individualism and personal agency. I have a lot of respect for conservative ideas when it comes to its recognition of the need to account for “the crooked wood of humanity” in thinking through systems and change, as I believe our founders understood much about the need to protect ourselves from the excesses of human beings operating in tribal groups.