The above interview is probably one of the the better, honest discussions I’ve seen in awhile regarding the nature of current politics.
It echoes my “everything is ideology” ranting, but Jonathon Gottschall takes it a step further: our ideology-making at the macro/political level amounts to nothing more than immersive storytelling.
Ideology, even ideological storytelling, can sometimes unite societies, but persistent vilification of fellow citizens will ultimately tear it down. With the internet, the “gatekeepers” of knowledge are gone, so it’s up to us to be skeptical…and humble…about the narratives we tell ourselves.
That’s really the only option we have.
So now comes the hard part of apologizing to those we vilified, and then the even harder part of forgiving those that vilified us.
I recommend watching the entire interview. If you have a right-wing or conservative perspective, you might think they’re dunking on you at the beginning, but they eventually turn that skepticism on their conversation and themselves.
The Internet Ruined Everything 
I listened to this podcast, and it was an interesting discussion that gave me a lot to think about. I like the point they made that shaming or criticizing people is rarely, if ever, a productive way to try to change peoples’ minds.
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That’s absolutely true. But what I like about this interview is that author is essentially throwing a grenade onto the whole of western political science. With the “guardians” of knowledge being obsolete thanks to the internet, the myth making that once bind societies is no longer possible.
I don’t feel the same doom and gloom about the future of human civilization as the author does, the human mind is far more malleable than what we give it credit for. But I think his assertions are correct: we’re on the cusp of a new paradigm in regards to political understanding.
There’s just gonna be a lot of heartache between now and then which is why it’s important to not vilify one another
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