Instinct Versus Reason in Polarized Discourse

John and Katherine discuss emotional intuition, Jonathan Haidt's metaphors, and how gut reactions shape political positions.

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Episode notes

I sat down with writer and free speech advocate Katherine Brodsky to explore how fear and conformity have paralyzed honest dialogue in the West. Drawing on her own experience as the target of a cancellation mob for what should have been an uncontroversial statement, she’s been grappling with how our culture can return to sanity and re-embrace free speech as a core value. We reflect on how social media algorithms have distorted public discourse, whether the right is now engaging in the same bad behavior that defined the left over the past decade, and why having hard conversations is a skill we need to practice more as a society.

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Follow Katherine on X (formerly Twitter): https://x.com/mysteriouskat?s=20

Read Katherine’s work on Substack: https://substack.com/@mysteriouskat

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Outline:

[0:00] Why Katherine called me out

[6:33] How Katherine got cancelled

[22:18] Her Soviet parents saw cancel culture coming

[28:23] Why can’t we have reasonable conversations anymore?

[36:03] Instinct, rationality, and algorithmic manipulation

[43:20] Why some people stand up to the mob and others don’t

[48:09] Where are the conservatives in academia and the arts?