Podcast Notes Key Takeaways

• Around the 1970s and ‘80s, America had shifted into two parties: conservatives and progressives
  • “Before that, things were all scrambled and rural people were often democrats…there was a lot of mixing and matching” – Jonathan Haidt
    • During this time, coalitions started to base themselves around values instead of legislation
      • “Now the other side is evil, they’re bad people”
• Changes in how social media was used in 2009-2011 gave us an outrage machine in addition to the outrage from cable TV
  • “There was a lot of anger in the 2016 election, had there not been so much anger, had we not been so polarized, there’s no way Donald Trump would have gotten elected” – Jonathan Haidt
• Most Americans are reasonable people but a small minority are on the extreme left or right who use traditional media or social media as a megaphone to shout their point into the world
  • “Don’t give up on Americans, but it’s almost time to give up on the system or network that we have” – Jonathan Haidt
• It’s harder to find the truth in news because each party has its own agenda and tells the side of the story that benefits it
  • “There are very few trusted gate-keepers of information” – Sam Harris
• “I just feel that whoever Joe Biden is or has been, he’s better than Trump” – Sam Harris
• “I’m certainly hoping that Trump is not reelected” – Jonathan Haidt
  • “Negative partisan, voting against what you don’t want is more powerful than voting for what you do want and that I think explains how Donald Trump was able to win in 2016” – Jonathan Haidt
• “There has to be some type of identity verification for major platforms” – Jonathan Haidt
  • You wouldn’t have to post using your real name, but there needs to be a crackdown on intimidation. Ideally, there would be a 3rd party platform that verifies the identity of anyone who wants to join a social media platform and makes sure the person passes the age limit.

Read the full notes @ podcastnotes.org

In this episode of the podcast, Sam Harris speaks with Jonathan Haidt about the maintenance of a healthy society. They discuss the problem of orthodoxy, the history of political polarization in the US, the breakdown of public conversation, remaining uncertainty about Covid-19, motivated reasoning, the 2020 election, the future prospects for Gen Z, the effect of social media on the mental health of girls, Jonathan's experience with psychedelics, positive psychology, loss of self, the experience of awe, and other topics.

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