The Politics Guys

Bryan Caplan on Evil Politicians

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Mike talks with Bryan Caplan, Professor of Economics at George Mason University and blogger at Bet on It. He's the author of multiple books, including four that we’ve previously discussed on the show: The Myth of the Rational Voter, The Case Against Education, Open Borders, and Labor Econ vs The World: Essays on the World's Greatest Market. On this episode, Mike and Bryan talk about his most recent book, How Evil Are Politicians?: Essays on Demagoguery.

Topics Mike & Brian Discuss Include:

  • The meaning of evil – is it more than just self-interest?
  • Bryan’s contention that the vast majority of politicians are, in fact, evil
  • Why we should hold politicians to a higher standard
  • The almost utter lack of “moral due diligence” on the part of politicians
  • If people don’t know or just don’t care about evil politicians
  • Demagoguery as the politics of social desirability
  • Liberal vs Conservative forms of evil
  • The extent to which evil politicians are a result of a bad system
  • The pragmatic case for pacifism
  • If any US hostilities since WWII were justified
  • What, if anything, we can do about evil politicians


    • Bryan Caplan on Twitter 

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    The Politics GuysBy Michael Baranowski
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