The Case for Authoritarianism | Vitalik Buterin & Noah Smith
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4.8 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 25 June 2024
⏱️ 89 minutes
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Summary
What if the information anarchy of the internet spells the downfall of liberalism?
Economist Noah Smith and Ethereum Founder Vitalik Buterin join us for a fascinating discussion on why Authoritarianism might be the answer to the current information warfare. Yes, you heard that right.
We start the episode by defining liberalism, how it has brought excessive polarization and why totalitarianism might be the only solution left. We then steelman the case against this same argument and how blockchains and crypto could play a role in all this.
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TIMESTAMPS
0:00 Intro
8:53 Defining Liberalism
21:50 Information Warfare
42:17 Summarizing the Argument
55:09 Could the Thesis be Wrong?
1:11:12 Information Leviathans
1:34:13 The Role of Blockchains
1:38:22 Closing & Disclaimers
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RESOURCES
Vitalik Buterin
https://x.com/VitalikButerin
Noah Smith
https://x.com/Noahpinion
Noahpinion Blog
https://www.noahpinion.blog/
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The Chinese government and the Russian government have a lot of resources devoted to pushing their message out there and the US government doesn't |
| 0:07.2 | Right? liberalism doesn't. US government sits back and says you know from an olympian remove and it's like, |
| 0:13.0 | I am the overall mighty hegemon of information, |
| 0:16.0 | and so I'm going to let all these tiny little actors play it out, |
| 0:19.0 | you know, and then one of those tiny little actors |
| 0:22.0 | is the government of China, a country four times |
| 0:24.5 | the size of the United States with, you know, arguably a explore the case for authoritarianism. |
| 0:41.0 | What did I just say? |
| 0:42.0 | What? |
| 0:43.0 | Get into that. |
| 0:44.0 | This is Ryan John Adams. |
| 0:45.0 | I'm here with David Hoffman and we're here to help you become more |
| 0:48.0 | bankless. |
| 0:49.0 | Now, I want to make it clear before we get into this episode, |
| 0:51.0 | both of our guests today do not want |
| 0:53.8 | authoritarianism to win 21st century. Okay? Quite the opposite. Quite the opposite. |
| 0:58.0 | I think both have dedicated their lives in various ways to pursuing |
| 1:01.1 | anti-authoritarian ideas and in Vitalics case technologies. |
| 1:05.0 | So today's episode is more of a steel man. |
| 1:08.0 | The question is, if totalitarianism outcompet free societies |
| 1:12.0 | and wins the 21st centuries. How might it win? |
| 1:15.0 | And what if the information anarchy of the internet spells the downfall of liberalism? |
... |
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