In this episode of New Ideal Live, Elan Journo and Onkar Ghate discuss the cultural significance of two seemingly unrelated events: the bipartisan congressional hearings on online child safety and the conservative backlash to Taylor Swift’s relationship with Travis Kelce. They argue that the attacks on Mark Zuckerberg and on Swift's successful businesses reveal a tribal mentality that hates the good for being the good.

Among the topics covered:

The true purpose of the online child safety hearing;

The Senate Committee’s shameful intimidation of Zuckerberg;

How Section 230 is used to hold tech companies liable for users' criminal behavior;

Why the senators' threats to control businesses are anti-law and anti-American;

How Republicans use anti-intellectual tactics to pass authoritarian controls;

How the hatred against Taylor Swift is driven by the same anti-success mentality;

The tribal misogyny aimed at Swift;

Why conspiracy fantasies seek political pandering, not the truth;

How Ayn Rand’s “Age of Envy” can help combat today’s tribal trends.

Mentioned in this podcast are Rand’s essays “The Age of Envy” (found in The Return of the Primitive: The Anti-Industrial Revolution) and “Selfishness Without a Self.”

The podcast was recorded on February 7, 2024. Listen to the discussion below. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here.

https://youtu.be/5xrACXUAv3g

Podcast audio: