Prediction Not checkable as stated
Haidt: American democracy is likely to fail catastrophically within two decades
“I think that American democracy is likely to fail catastrophically at some point in the next decade or two decades. It's very hard to predict the future, but I think we are, the way we're headed is a very, very bad direction.”
Opinion
Haidt: Mandatory diversity training does not work and makes things worse
“Mandatory diversity training you know, all these things we did in response to protesters that don't work or that make things worse.”
Insight
Haidt: Social media intimidation by vocal minorities degrades group intelligence
“A small number of young people use social media, not to make arguments, not to respond to arguments, but to destroy anyone who contradicts their sacred values. And that's what makes a group stupid.”
Insight
Haidt: Social media intimidation prevents university leaders from defending academic values
“Social media gave everybody a dart gun, and as a result, Because most people don't want to shoot anybody, but the far left, the far right, trolls, a few groups of people shoot moderates in their institutions, and they shoot the leaders of the institutions. So …”
Assertion Supported
Haidt: Studies show majorities across all demographic groups dislike wokeness
“The hidden tribe study and others find that majorities of everybody hate wokeness, black, white, male, female, even majority of Democrats don't like wokeness.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Haidt: Democrats are likely to get wiped out electorally
“But the Democrats aren't, are likely to get wiped out because Most people really hate what the cultural left is doing in their schools, their companies and their country.”
Opinion
Haidt: Tech platforms cannot stop foreign disinformation without intelligence agency coordination
“Yes, of course they took some easy steps, but there is no way they can get a handle on this. This has to be, and I think they call it for this. This has to be a sort of a government-wide partnership between Coordinated between the CIA, the FBI, NSA, Facebook, …”
Opinion
Haidt: Condition Section 230 liability protection on basic platform responsibilities
“I would like us to consider that the federal government mandate That if you want the benefit of level of, you want the benefit of section two 30 protection and this incredible freedom from lawsuits that only you and the gun lobby have because of lobbying, you …”
Insight
Haidt: Structural stupidity occurs even when individual members are not stupid
“Just as you can have structural racism, even if nobody is a racist, you can have structural stupidity, even if no one is stupid.”
Opinion
Haidt: Progressive activists are mostly young, white, and rely on intimidation
“The group furthest left, the progressive activists, that's the second whitest of all the groups. It's actually very interesting. This is mostly young white people who have a kind of politics in which, again, they don't learn to make arguments. They don't persu…”
Insight
Haidt: Social media toxicity began with 2009 virality mechanics, not 2004 networking
“Social media was not at all toxic in 2004, you know, when the Facebook came out and in my space, and if you're sharing photos of your dog, there's no problem. It really was the move to the newsfeed and then especially The implementation of the retweet button, …”
Opinion
Haidt: Performative social platforms destroy youth mental health and damage democracy
“We're talking about a small number of platforms where people do the labor. They create the content in exchange for prestige. That's what I think is, is destroying a generation in terms of mental health. And that's what I think is most damaging to democracies.”
Opinion
Haidt: Internet trolls are almost exclusively men
“There are two other groups that use this very effectively. One is trolls and these are men. They're almost always men. I've never heard of a female troll who enjoy harassing, burning things down, causing trouble.”
Opinion
Haidt: Republican Party has purged almost all of its moderates
“The Republican party is the stupid party. They shoot their moderates. They don't have any more moderates other than Liz Cheney and a couple, you know, but they used to have more than three and now they down to whatever, just a couple. The Republican Party is a…”
Opinion
Haidt: humanID and Worldcoin could work for social media authentication
“Human ID.org and world coin, those are two that would work for level two authentication.”
Opinion
Haidt: Twitter is the worst platform for reputational attacks and social shaming
“Twitter in particular, Twitter is the worst here, but it's also on Facebook and Slack and other channels.”
Opinion
Haidt: Democratic Party is functional because moderates usually win debates
“It's not the Democratic Party that's stupid. The Democratic Party Has moderates and the far left and guess who wins? Usually the moderates. So the democratic party is a functional party. They have debates. The moderates usually win.”
Opinion
Haidt: China will probably be more competent at online influence than Russia
“The Chinese have much more focused interests. Of course they want us to think well of China. They want to suppress anyone who criticizes China. And they're probably in the long run a lot more competent and capable and persistent than the Russians.”
Opinion
Haidt: Instagram will not enforce underage bans because kids would switch to TikTok
“They won't do anything about it because if they do keep kids off below 13, then the kids will just go to TikTok. So, you know, I understand why Instagram doesn't do much about underage use but it's a trap.”
Assertion Supported
Haidt: IQ is rising over decades in the US and globally
“Americans are getting smarter over the decades. IQ is rising in our country and around the world. It's not that Americans are getting stupid.”
Assertion Supported
Haidt: No US government agency has regulatory jurisdiction over social media
“There is no government agency that has jurisdiction over social media. It doesn't go out over the airwaves. So it's not FCC.”
Jonathan Haidt