Jonathan Haidt

So I'll answer your question as a psychologist, which is one of the amazing discoveries in psychology since the 80s is that almost everything about our personality is partly heritable. And if you have an identical twin separated at birth, you never met. But if you're very much on the left, your twin probably is too. Something about our brains make us predisposed to the right or the left.

So I'll answer your question as a psychologist, which is one of the amazing discoveries in psychology since the 80s is that almost everything about our personality is partly heritable. And if you have an identical twin separated at birth, you never met. But if you're very much on the left, your twin probably is too. Something about our brains make us predisposed to the right or the left.

And it goes back to openness to experience and conscientiousness, a few personality traits. But basically, there's a liberal or progressive sentiment that says, it's captured by this Robert F. Kennedy quote, some men see things as they are and say, why? I dream things that never were and say, why not?

And it goes back to openness to experience and conscientiousness, a few personality traits. But basically, there's a liberal or progressive sentiment that says, it's captured by this Robert F. Kennedy quote, some men see things as they are and say, why? I dream things that never were and say, why not?

So progressives historically are the people who look at existing institutions and say, why don't we change this? Like, why don't we have some other thing which might be more just? So progressives are always pushing for progress, for change. But then the wisdom of the right is to say, you know what?

So progressives historically are the people who look at existing institutions and say, why don't we change this? Like, why don't we have some other thing which might be more just? So progressives are always pushing for progress, for change. But then the wisdom of the right is to say, you know what?

We may not understand our institutions, but if we just go changing them willy-nilly, it's gonna be a disaster because we don't understand what we're doing. In fact, I opened our conversation with that. That's actually something I learned from reading the conservative intellectuals, going back to Edmund Burke. You can't just go messing with institutions and expect it to work out well.

We may not understand our institutions, but if we just go changing them willy-nilly, it's gonna be a disaster because we don't understand what we're doing. In fact, I opened our conversation with that. That's actually something I learned from reading the conservative intellectuals, going back to Edmund Burke. You can't just go messing with institutions and expect it to work out well.

So a good liberal democracy is one in which you have some people pushing for change. You've got other people saying, slow down, like not so fast, like let's be careful about this. And that's William F. Buckley's famous quote about national review is going to stand to thwart history yelling, stop, or at least slow down. So that's great.

So a good liberal democracy is one in which you have some people pushing for change. You've got other people saying, slow down, like not so fast, like let's be careful about this. And that's William F. Buckley's famous quote about national review is going to stand to thwart history yelling, stop, or at least slow down. So that's great.

Like you have a car with a gas pedal and a brake, like you need that. And what happens when there are no conservatives? What happens when there's no one to say, slow down? Progressive revolutions have an almost perfect record of disaster. I mean, it always descends into chaos and economic chaos and cruelty. And what happens when there are no progressives, when it's all conservative?

Like you have a car with a gas pedal and a brake, like you need that. And what happens when there are no conservatives? What happens when there's no one to say, slow down? Progressive revolutions have an almost perfect record of disaster. I mean, it always descends into chaos and economic chaos and cruelty. And what happens when there are no progressives, when it's all conservative?

You tend to get much more repressive, certainly LGBTQ rights. I mean, you get very predictable pathologies on either side.

You tend to get much more repressive, certainly LGBTQ rights. I mean, you get very predictable pathologies on either side.

And part of my analysis, what I think has gone wrong in our country, I'm very focused on what social media has done to society as well as to Gen Z, is there always was a distribution where most people on the left are reasonable left, they're progressives, I'm sorry, they're true liberals.

And part of my analysis, what I think has gone wrong in our country, I'm very focused on what social media has done to society as well as to Gen Z, is there always was a distribution where most people on the left are reasonable left, they're progressives, I'm sorry, they're true liberals.

They believe in a John Stuart Mill vision of a society in which people are maximally free to construct lives that they want to live. That I think is the heart of the liberal vision of a liberal society. And on the right, you have conservatives who generally believe in tradition, family, group loyalty, religion, the things that bind us together and limit bad behavior.

They believe in a John Stuart Mill vision of a society in which people are maximally free to construct lives that they want to live. That I think is the heart of the liberal vision of a liberal society. And on the right, you have conservatives who generally believe in tradition, family, group loyalty, religion, the things that bind us together and limit bad behavior.

This is Thomas Sowell talking about the constrained vision of humanity. So that's all healthy. And then you always have some far left radicals who they become Maoist in one generation, they become Robespierre in another, they chop off heads, prone to violence on the far left. You got a group prone to violence on the far right that are reactionary, that are authoritarian.

This is Thomas Sowell talking about the constrained vision of humanity. So that's all healthy. And then you always have some far left radicals who they become Maoist in one generation, they become Robespierre in another, they chop off heads, prone to violence on the far left. You got a group prone to violence on the far right that are reactionary, that are authoritarian.