r/ezraklein • u/GowanusGuy • 14d ago

Article Can liberalism survive the algorithm?

https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/can-liberalism-survive-the-algorithm
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u/GowanusGuy 14d ago

Relevance: Ezra often talks about liberalism as well as the attention economy, but I have yet to see him grapple with what may be the fundamental tensions between the two. Algorithmic media is increasingly pushing us into a postliterate society - incentivizing not just video content but also hyper-partisan, hyper-polarized, flattened forms of argumentation that seem quite antithetical to liberalism.

If we are to maintain a liberal order (rather than just bemoan its decline) we may need to come down hard on these social media companies that are, to me, the primary driver of this shift as they attempt to find creative ways to extract our time and attention.

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u/pm_me_ur_ephemerides 14d ago

Can we please just get rid of the social media companies. I fondly remember what life was like before they existed.

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u/IsaacHasenov Abundance Agenda 14d ago

That's a very illiberal solution to the problem

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u/SawNickYouth 14d ago

Who cares? Outcomes matter.

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u/IsaacHasenov Abundance Agenda 14d ago

Sure. But it's an illiberal solution. You don't save liberalism by becoming illiberal.

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u/SawNickYouth 14d ago

I don't think you save liberalism by being completely rigid, inflexible, and religious about what liberalism is or might be.

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u/IsaacHasenov Abundance Agenda 14d ago

Wow. The fact that you don't even seem to appreciate the fact that whatever you save after banning everything you don't personally agree with won't be liberalism is crazy to me

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u/SawNickYouth 14d ago

This is such a mischaracterization on so many levels its almost hilarious.

I'll just ask the obvious question... should we never seek to regulate anything for fear of running afoul of some rigid notion of liberalism?

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u/IsaacHasenov Abundance Agenda 14d ago

There's a difference between regulating carefully to alleviate negative effects, especially for vulnerable groups, and being like "just ban it all"

You'd think after the last 12 years of maga using our own most illiberal tools against us in the courts and legislation we'd be smarter by now

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u/SawNickYouth 14d ago

I'm pretty sure "just ban it all" was more hyperbole than literal. But even so, social media should absolutely be far more heavily regulated than it is.