Russ Roberts on the Information Revolution, Politics, Yeats, and Yelling

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4.7 • 4.3K Ratings

🗓️ 16 July 2018

⏱️ 62 minutes

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Summary

EconTalk host Russ Roberts does a monologue on how political discourse seems to have deteriorated in recent years and the growth in outrage, tribalism, and intolerance for those with different views from one's own. Roberts suggests that part of the problem is the revolution of the market for information caused by the internet that allows people to customize what they see to fit their own political narratives and worldview. In short, the market for news works to make us feel good rather than to help us to discover the truth. The monologue closes with some suggestions for how we might improve the way we consume information and interact with those we disagree with.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Econ Talk, part of the Library of Economics and Liberty.
0:08.0	I'm your host, Russ Roberts of Stanford University's Hoover Institution.
0:12.0	Our website is econtalk.org, where you can subscribe, comment on this podcast,
0:17.0	and find links and other information related to today's conversation.
0:21.0	We'll also find our archives where you can listen to every episode we've ever done going back to 2006.
0:27.0	Our email address is mailadycontalk.org. We'd love to hear from you.
0:33.0	Today is July 5th, 2018, and I'm going to do something I haven't done in a while,
0:38.0	which is a monologue episode.
0:41.0	I thought it's on an issue that I thought you might find interesting.
0:44.0	And that issue is the state of political conversation, discourse in America,
0:53.0	and it probably applies to lots of places as well. It's not just America.
0:57.0	And I'm going to be talking about the role of social media and other websites,
1:01.0	and their impact on that conversation in our political system.
1:06.0	I realized, didn't getting ready for this episode that some of this goes back to my conversations
1:12.0	with David Weinberger.
1:14.0	I think it's the 2007 episode, which is crazy.
1:19.0	A more recent episode with Cass Sunstein on his book, Hashtag Republic,
1:26.0	as well as an episode with Matt Stoller on monopoly issues.
1:31.0	But it's also a theme I've been thinking about quite a bit in the last year or two,
1:36.0	the Angry Nature of American Politics, the Lawsessibility, mutual respect, and so on.
1:43.0	And it's somewhat related, I think, to the episode with Meghan McCartle on internet,
1:48.0	shaming, and those kind of things.
	...

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