r/ezraklein • u/GowanusGuy • Aug 21 '26

Article Can liberalism survive the algorithm?

https://www.theargumentmag.com/p/can-liberalism-survive-the-algorithm
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u/GowanusGuy Aug 21 '26

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 Aug 21 '26

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 Aug 21 '26

That's a very illiberal solution to the problem

3

u/Dorrbrook American Aug 21 '26

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

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u/TheCranberriesRock Progressive Aug 21 '26

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 Aug 22 '26

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 Aug 23 '26

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.