Jeff Rosen 2018 Aspen Ideas Festival

Brexit votes, Twitter polls, and instant decisions are the opposite of what the Constitution is trying to create.

Jeffrey Rosen President and CEO, National Constitution Center
Aspen Ideas To Go

Is Social Media Threatening the American Idea?

Is Social Media Threatening the American Idea?

Show Notes

Founding Father James Madison would be horrified to see how social media has helped unleash populist passions and accelerate public discourse. Madison and other founders created a representative republic rather than a direct democracy, designed to slow down deliberation so that majorities could rule based on reason rather than passion. But Jeffrey Rosen, president and CEO of the National Constitution Center, says social media technologies have created the very mobs, demagogues, echo chambers, and factions that Madison feared. He speaks with Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of The Atlantic about how social media is threatening the America idea.

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