Jeremiah Johnson on Why Social Media Promotes Extremism

Jeremiah Johnson is a staff writer at The Argument and a co-founder of the Center for New Liberalism. He is known for his commentary on social media; specifically, the effect that social media appears to be having on American politics in an age when liberalism seems to be under attack.

In this episode, I got a chance to speak with him about which specific mediums of communication incentivize productive disagreement, whether social media is truly biased against liberals, and the effect that the online world might be having on social trust in the present day.

Show Notes

"Social media is populist and polarising; AI may be the opposite" by John Burn-Murdoch, The Financial Times

"The end of the gatekeepers" by John Burn-Murdoch, The Financial Times

"Can liberalism survive the algorithm?" by Jeremiah Johnson, The Argument

"Heterodox Research Roundup, June 2026" by Erin B. Shaw, Shiri Spitz Siddiqi, Dylan Selterman, and Phong P. Truong

Stephen Colbert Roasts Bush at 2006 White House Correspondents Dinner

"Young people are rich and miserable" by Jeremiah Johnson, The Argument

"Weekly Scroll: Freaks and Gatekeepers" by Jeremiah Johnson, Infinite Scroll