An opportunity was lost with the collapse of the #IntellectualDarkWeb. Logic only travels so far in the absence of social trust, and building trust rich social networks across tribes is extremely hard to do.
This is part of what I argued to #SamHarris
This is part of what I argued to #SamHarris
We live in an era of echo chambers. I won't listen to your information because I don't trust your sources, because I see them as being ill-motivated and not just potentially wrong.
Wherever you stand on voter fraud, the Covid vaccine (both of which Sam and I get in to...)
Wherever you stand on voter fraud, the Covid vaccine (both of which Sam and I get in to...)
...there is a need to sustain the attention of vastly different thinking people on a singular topic where information is being discussed that conflicts with their biases.
Most of us can listen to such information if it is coming from someone whose intentions we trust. If not...
Most of us can listen to such information if it is coming from someone whose intentions we trust. If not...
...well we check out, or interpret everything we hear with about as little charity as we can.
Sam was disappointed by the turns Dave Rubin, Bret & others made on various issues. The stakes of these disagreements tore this group apart and Sam walked away...
Sam was disappointed by the turns Dave Rubin, Bret & others made on various issues. The stakes of these disagreements tore this group apart and Sam walked away...
...as a matter of social responsibility, in his view.
But Sam's friendships with #JoeRogan #JordanPeterson #BretWeinstein #BenShapiro and others produced multi-hour exchanges on topics ranging from science and race to God with hundreds of thousands to even millions of people...
But Sam's friendships with #JoeRogan #JordanPeterson #BretWeinstein #BenShapiro and others produced multi-hour exchanges on topics ranging from science and race to God with hundreds of thousands to even millions of people...
...people who inevitably disagreed with Shapiro if they agreed with Harris on some topic, etc - but who trusted each of them enough to stay engaged with topic all the way down. And in so doing found some metalevel common cause with millions of people who would vote differently...
...because we were engaged in this pursuit of truth together.
Had that network been functioning in 2020 it might have made a real difference in our collective ability to make sense of complexity and mitigate polarization. Instead at least of the country tuned out #CNN & the #CDC
Had that network been functioning in 2020 it might have made a real difference in our collective ability to make sense of complexity and mitigate polarization. Instead at least of the country tuned out #CNN & the #CDC
...while the rest of America scourged #Newsmax and the rest of the rightwing infosphere and as a result we could never have a national conversation in which our attention could be sustained on complex, existential issues with patience, nuance, & goodfaith towards our fallible...
...countrymen who maybe were generally doing their best to grapple with the problems (the grifts and misinformation coming opportunists notwithstanding).
We don't necessarily need to rebuild the #IDW. But it may be that it still succeeded...
We don't necessarily need to rebuild the #IDW. But it may be that it still succeeded...
...maybe it succeeded in laying some of the groundwork for a cross-partisan movement of goodwill. One that can step into the light.
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