About this episode

Helen Pluckrose discusses the challenges facing liberalism and the importance of defending free speech and individual liberty against authoritarianism from both the left and right.

Helen Pluckrose joins me to discuss how liberalism was lost and why free speech, individual liberty and viewpoint diversity need to be defended from both the authoritarian left and the authoritarian right. Helen explains why liberalism does not mean “left wing”, why it is better understood as the opposite of authoritarianism, and how critical social justice, identity politics and language policing have changed the way people think, speak and behave. We discuss woke ideology, DEI, equality vs equity, trans rights, queer theory, free speech, institutional capture and why suppressing ideas usually makes them more powerful. We also get into whether Britain needs a liberal revolution, how the anti-woke movement can become authoritarian itself, and why the future may depend on liberals on the left and right defending freedom within their own tribes. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - TIMESTAMPS: 00:00:00 - What Liberalism Really Means 00:00:48 - How Did We Lose the 90s? 00:03:13 - Phones, Algorithms and Anxiety 00:08:11 - What Has Changed? 00:11:16 - Woke and Language Policing 00:13:57 - Liberalism vs Authoritarianism…

People in this episode

Host: Peter McCormack

Guest: Helen Pluckrose

Topics covered

• liberalism
• free speech
• authoritarianism
• identity politics
• woke ideology
• individual liberty

Keywords

• liberalism
• free speech
• authoritarianism
• identity politics
• woke ideology
• DEI
• trans rights
• queer theory

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: DEI, woke ideology, queer theory, anti-woke movement

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