Much of the freakout about Elon Musk buying Twitter is based on an assumption that social media is integral to democracies and a critical tool for dissidents living in repressive regimes. But what if that assumption is overblown? Are the dustups over Twitter's new ownership really just a proxy war for the broader freedom of speech debate that has been ratcheting up recently?

Just as Elon was talking up Twitter, Barack Obama gave a major address calling for government regulation of social media platforms to curb "misinformation." Here, then, are two contrasting visions that speak to essential differences over freedom and truth—and who determines what constitutes truth in the first place.  

In the subscriber-only version of the episode, Shadi and Damir go on to debate whether low information or high information voters are better for democracy. Ordinary voters say they believe in crazy things, but in their day-to-day lives don't behave as if they believe. Ideologues, on the other hand, tend to be well-educated, so clearly better education or information isn't the answer. But then what is?

Required Reading

- Damir's tweet about Elon buying Twitter

- Obama's speech on misinformation and disinformation at Standford

- "Human rights groups raise hate speech concerns after Musk's takeover of Twitter" by Kanishka Singh (Reuters)

- "To End Foreign Meddling, End Anonymity" by Damir Marusic (American Interest)

- "How Musk could burst Obama’s ‘disinformation’ bubble" by Jason Willick (Washington Post)

- "Bad News" by Joseph Bernstein (Harpers)

- National Terrorism Advisory System Bulletin (Department of Homeland Security)

- "Just Keep It Off My Timeline!" by Freddie deBoer (Substack)

- "READING: H.L. Mencken (December 1933): On Adolf Hitler" by Brad DeLong (Brad DeLong's Grasping Reality)

- The Reckless Mind: Intellectuals in Politics, by Mark Lilla (Amazon)

- The Shipwrecked Mind: On Political Reaction, by Mark Lilla (Amazon)

- "The Texas Lawsuit and the Age of Dreampolitik" by Ross Douthat (New York Times)

- Democracy for Realists: Why Elections Do Not Produce Responsive Government, by Christopher H. Achen and Larry M. Bartels (Amazon)

- "Fantasy and Reality in Biden's America" with guest Bruno Bruno Maçães (Wisdom of Crowds)