Episode 127: The Pro-Truth Pledge and Building a Movement for Truth (with Tim Ward)
|
Author and communications expert Tim Ward joins co-hosts Andrew Kliman and Gabriel Donnelly to discusswhat it means to stand up for truth in politics. The discussants considered how the Harris campaign handled the issue of post-truth politics, how Trump will continue to erode truth, and cognitive biases that help fuel the power of post-truth lies. Much of the discussion considered how a positive movement for truth, in the face of post-truth’s encroachments, would actually look like and what such a movement would prioritize. To that end, the Pro-Truth Pledge was considered. Tim Ward is the coauthor with Gleb Tsipursky of Pro Truth: A Practical Plan for Putting Truth Back Into Politics, formerly sat on the executive board of the Pro-Truth Pledge, and blogs at Medium. The Pro-Truth Pledge can be read and signed at its website. Plus current-events segment: the co-hosts discuss the recent protests in Georgia after the cessation of talks for the country to join the European Union. Radio Free Humanity is a podcast covering news, politics and philosophy from a Marxist-Humanist perspective. |
An interesting discussion. I thought Tim Ward’s point about moderators/regulators on social media was rather important, because you have all kinds of people who see themselves as free speech advocates – that completely oppose any regulation or moderation on principle as censorious and suppressive. I think this gets to the heart of what debate and free speech are for – it is not simply the ability for anybody to express whatever they want, it is rather to advance ideas through understanding. Anybody who is not engaged in that process, is operating in bad faith in discussion, enjoying trolling or provocation for its own sake.