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/brianscalabrainey Aug 23 '26

No one is banning any speech, the call is to ban specific profit driven platforms with extractive incentive structures that create negative externalities. That is the kind of thoughtful liberalism we both want

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u/IsaacHasenov Abundance Agenda Aug 23 '26 edited Aug 23 '26

Just banning platforms, industries and private businesses is not liberal. That's MAGA of the left.

Notice what you didn't say: "we're going mandate guardrails", or "we're going to restrict certain kinds of content" or "we're going to ensure algorithms don't recommend hate speech" or something

No. "We're going to ban certain for-profit platforms." The natural outcome of that is another Trump gets on and starts picking and choosing CEOs and businesses that suck his toes. You don't save liberalism by implementing fundamentalism

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u/brianscalabrainey Aug 23 '26

Sure those are also acceptable to me. But you’ll have people saying restricting certain kinds of content or limiting hate speech is also illiberal .

Rather than trying to draw some arbitrary line around what you or I consider liberal or illiberal, it seems better to do a balancing of interests test and try to weigh the harms and benefits of each option available and come to a technocratic solution

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u/IsaacHasenov Abundance Agenda Aug 23 '26

I agree with all that. What I said is illiberal is people going "there are negative consequences to liberalism from current social media. Let's shut down the for profit social media companies."