READ Barry Brownstein's Article: https://www.aier.org/article/to-live-for-grievances-risks-liberty/

LISTEN to Liberty Curious: https://www.aier.org/podcasts/

SUBSCRIBE to Barry's Substack: https://mindsetshifts.substack.com/

Why are so many in our generation brainwashed to see the world in a terrible way? And what is it about their mindset that makes them so susceptible to this kind of manipulation?

In his recent article for AIER, Barry Brownstein writes, "Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay wrote in their book Cynical Theories, the contemporary social justice movement “is a worldview that centers social and cultural grievances and aims to make everything into a zero-sum political struggle revolving around identity markers like race, sex, gender, sexuality, and many others.”

On this episode of Liberty Curious, I was joined by Barry Brownstein, professor emeritus of Economics and Leadership, to discuss how our personal grievances are a threat to liberty.

“In his 1976 lecture, “Socialism and Science,” Hayek argued that socialism requires a “government with unlimited powers” to give groups with grievances what they think “they are entitled to.”

Barry explains that our individual mindset has a ripple effect that shapes the society around us. When we build our identities around our personal grievances, we play into the hands of illiberal politicians and ideologies that promise to solve all of our problems for us, at the cost of our inner and outer liberty.

0:00 - intro

1:21 - holding onto grievances

6:30 - socialism mindset

9:01 - far-left & far-right grievances

12:01 - mindset in Russian Revolution vs American Revolution

14:02 - if the State doesn't fix your life

15:33 - self-concept against something

19:42 - identity politics and victim mentality

25:40 - neo-marxism & social justice

28:51 - hatred that lasts for centuries

33:50 - Hayek: the road to serfdom

36:39 - politicians exploit grievances

39:40 - a mindset shift

43:30 - ready-made ideology

45:26 - the power of choice

49:40 - is there still hope?