The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
why aren't all 31 resolved? a statement only gets an assessment when the public record can support or contradict it. opinions and what-ifs never can, and 0 checkable ones are still open, waiting for their date. predictions held up or didn't; assertions are supported or contradicted. on every card: ▮▮▮▮▮ certainty · ▮▮▮▮▮ debate potential. speakers are clickable
Haidt: Immigrants from non-English speaking countries have better work ethic
“Immigrants who are from non-English speaking countries. That's right. They have a better work ethic.”
Haidt: Rapid tech changes threaten the survival of American liberal democracy
“The changes that are coming to us because of tech are so earth-shattering and so fast that they are changing the basic conditions of America's liberal democracy in ways that I think it may not survive.”
Haidt compares shift to algorithmic social media to shift from heroin to fentanyl
“Just as like the move from heroin to fentanyl kills lots and lots of people, because fentanyl is so incredibly concentrated, the move from television to algorithm-driven social media, where It's not just like mass marketed, we think this show, you know, Nielse…”
Haidt: Social media is wildly inappropriate for minors
“Social media is wildly inappropriate for minors. It's full of extreme sex, violence you know, men from all over the world reaching out to you because they want sex.”
Haidt: Gen Z is less ambitious, successful, happy, and competent
“They're less ambitious, they're less successful, they're less happy, they're less competent.”
Haidt: Tolerating campus intimidation caused massive brand destruction of elite higher ed
“So that was the precedent that was set, and that, I believe, was the beginning of one of the greatest brand destructions in American history. Higher ed used to have one of the greatest brands in the world. Elite higher ed was the envy of the world. Now it's a …”
Haidt: The political left is beyond hope after years of trying to advise them
“I spent so many years trying to help the left using moral psychology so that they would stop losing elections, and I finally decided they're beyond hope.”
Haidt: Progressive revolutions have an almost perfect record of disaster
“Progressive revolutions have an almost perfect record of disaster. I mean, it always descends into, Chaos and economic chaos and cruelty.”
Haidt: Most NYU students using TikTok wish it was never invented
“How many of you use TikTok or one of those programs at least once a week? The great, not everybody, but the great majority of hands go up. How many of you wish that it was never invented? The great majority of hands go up.”
Haidt: Millennials had in-person childhoods on flip phones unlike Gen Z
“The difference between the millennials and Gen Z is that the millennials went through puberty on flip phones and they actually, and they used those phones to meet up with each other, and they saw each other, and they got together in person, they made eye conta…”
Haidt: Believing the three 'great untruths' makes young people anxious and depressed
“The central idea of the coddling was that there are three great untruths, ideas that are so bad that if any young person believes all three, they're almost certain to be depressed, anxious not amount to much in life.”
Haidt: Social media super-empowers political extremes while silencing the center
“And so the far left becomes super empowered, the far right becomes super empowered, and the center left and the center right go silent, and that's what I think is, you know, that's, I think, a real disaster for our country,”
Haidt: Far-left progressive activists are illiberal and focus on tearing down top
“The progressive activists, which is the group on the furthest left, they were never liberal. In fact, they're really illiberal. They're not even about bringing up the bottom. They're much more focused on pulling down the top.”
Haidt: The Republican Party has been gutted of its moderates
“The Republican Party has been gutted of its moderates.”
Haidt: Children mostly overcome phone and video game withdrawal within a week
“You take away the video games, you take away the phones, and for, you know, Anna Lemke says it's, you know, two or three weeks to overcome, ah, withdrawal symptoms for, especially for more serious drugs, but in my experience, it's more like, it's like a few da…”
Haidt: Never send children to summer camps that permit smartphones
“And never send your child to a camp that allows kids to keep phones on them.”
Haidt: Heavy video game usage prevents boys from developing social skills
“And these are boys who are spending You know, three, 4:05 hours a day on video games for years and years and years. They don't develop social skills. They don't develop dating skills.”
Haidt: Admissions and hiring will prioritize signs of independent childhood resilience
“College admissions and hiring is not just gonna go for the high GPA and the full resume of extracurricular activities. They're gonna go for signs of being a free range kid. They're going to go for signs that you traveled alone, you traveled on your own for thr…”
Haidt: TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Reels are uniquely horrible
“TikTok and then YouTube shorts are the ones copying it you know, Instagram reels. They're uniquely horrible.”
Haidt: Adolescents would trade future years of life for immediate social status
“Adolescents are, they, you know, they would gladly do something that knocked a few years off of their life at the end of their life if they could be more popular today.”
Haidt: Young people seek success through social media followers over value creation
“Where I speak to young people, they come to ask me for advice on how to be successful, and some of them have not even thought about what they can do that would be of worth to anyone. All they're focused on is how to get more followers.”
Haidt: Businesses began rolling back progressive initiatives by 2022
“Businesses have to actually make money, and so by 20, 22, a lot of businesses were rolling it back. They're saying, whoa, this stuff is terrible. This is not making life better for members of minorities. This is actually just turning everyone against everyone.…”
Haidt: Personality traits and political leanings are partly heritable
“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…”
Haidt: Conservatism in every era is a reaction to left-wing excesses
“Conservatism in every era is a reaction to the excesses of the left.”
Haidt: Gen Z employees will choose direct feedback over gentle treatment
“And I guarantee you, the great majority are gonna pick option one, because they do want to grow.”
Haidt: Liberal democracy needs progressives and conservatives like a gas pedal and brake
“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... So that's great, like, you have a car with a gas pedal and a brake, like, yo…”
Haidt: Delaying kids' smartphone access requires collective action and positive alternatives
“It's hard to hold the line on, on your own. It's much easier if you have three of you holding the line, but it's even better if it's not holding a line, it's offering a more positive vision of childhood.”
Haidt: 5% to 12% of boys become problematic video game users
“About five, depending on how you measure it, about five to 12% of the boys do get, do become problematic users of video games.”
Haidt: Brian Armstrong and Coinbase were first to enforce workplace mission focus
“Major, major kudos to Coinbase. They were the first one, Armstrong, he was the first one to really put that out there.”
Haidt: Early-to-mid teens brain rewires from back to front
“But it's especially early puberty, the early teens, the mid-teens, that is the period where your brain is literally rewiring. It is literally from back to front, changing over from the child form to the adult form, which is much more competent, but much less f…”