There is something of a consensus on abortion, sort of like safe, legal and rare. And i think that's going to continue to firm up as more of this evidence in conversation happens. On the one hand, it has no moral implications at all and should have zero regulation. Or on the other hand, it should absolutely never be allowed; anyone who does it is a murderer. It's got to be somewhere between there.
Disinformation. Trolling. Conspiracies. Social media pile-ons. Campus intolerance. On the surface, these recent additions to our daily vocabulary appear to have little in common. But together, they are driving an epistemic crisis: a multi-front challenge to America’s ability to distinguish fact from fiction and elevate truth above falsehood.
In episode 190, Michael Shermer speaks with Jonathan Rauch as he reaches back to the parallel eighteenth-century developments of liberal democracy and science to explain what he calls the “Constitution of Knowledge” — our social system for turning disagreement into truth. His book is a sweeping and readable description of how every American can help defend objective truth and free inquiry from threats as far away as Russia and as close as the cellphone.