Spirals of Silence w/ Jonathan Rauch

As part of our ongoing therapy, we welcomed Jonathan Rauch, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution. Jonathan is one of our favorite authors, and his books “Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought” and “The Constitution of Knowledge -  A Defense of Truth” are heavily earmarked in both our bookshelves. 

We ask Jonathan to help us hold on to our values and ideals in the face of October 7th, when everything we thought we knew was challenged. We talk about moral courage, what the roles of universities should be, how silence can be weaponized to make us feel like a minority, and we draw some optimism from Jonathan’s struggle for gay marriage – when it seemed like the whole world was against him.

• Why JR was not surprised by the reaction to October 7th
• And why it’s good that the veil came off
• It is your job to educate
• “Ohio State opposed Genocide” – does it matter?
• When massacre and rape are too controversial to condemn
• Swastika graffiti is too easy to condemn
• Spirals of silence and false consensus 
• If you don’t speak up – you lose.
• The parallels to Jonathan’s fight for gay marriage 
• Are idealism and policy incompatible? 
• The amazing story of Frank Kameny
• Fallibilism > skepticism.
• What JR missed when he wrote Kindly Inquisitors
• Twitter/X is an epistemic sewer
• Civic literacy
• Thanks for the free publicity, crazies
• Don’t rise to the bait of the craziest person. 
• The person you need on your side is the quiet person in the middle
• Optimistic? Hopeful.

Joing the AAJ conversation on Susbtack! askajew.substack.com

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