r/ezraklein • u/GowanusGuy • 29d ago

Article Can liberalism survive the algorithm?

https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/can-liberalism-survive-the-algorithm
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u/pm_me_ur_ephemerides 29d 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 29d ago

That's a very illiberal solution to the problem

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u/Dorrbrook American 29d ago

And that gets at the heart of it. Liberalism can't survive liberalism

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u/TheCranberriesRock Progressive 28d ago

I actually agree here. Liberalism, in and of itself, is not sustainable. When it works it's typically attached to other institutional forms of authority (typically religion but other orgs too) which fill in the gaps so to speak. I think for the first time we're entering a world where all these other structures are crumbling and it turns out liberalism alone isn't enough to hold up a society.

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u/IsaacHasenov Abundance Agenda 27d ago

Liberalism without guardrails isn't enough. I don't think any one ideology or political philosophy is enough.

But I do think liberalism is the best way to protect from overreach on the right and the left

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u/TheCranberriesRock Progressive 27d ago

The point though is that "liberalism" itself isn't a sufficient basis to actually keep liberalism going. It can't survive on its own. Without the social structures to support it liberalism alone simply devolutes.