The USC Open Dialogue Project held a conversation between USC President Beong-Soo Kim and New York Times opinion writers Frank Bruni and Bret Stephens about democracy and the midterm elections at Ginsburg Hall Monday.
Prior to the panel discussion, Bruni and Stephens, who hold a weekly New York Times-published dialogue on current affairs, sat down with USC student journalists to discuss why open conversation is important.
“[Stephens and I] are here in the name of open dialogue, in the name of free inquiry, in the name of constructive conversations, which is what we try to model in the Times,” Bruni said. “It’s a real thrill and a real opportunity for all of us to be here after [the midterms].”
Bruni discussed the dangers of arguing on the internet and not having face-to-face conversations with people who have different opinions. He said that one reason for this is that online interactions are impersonal, and make people seem like “abstractions” to one another.
“It’s really easy to hate people who you only know in caricature,” he said.
Stephens also criticized social media, and said that both he and Bruni avoid interacting with it much because of how partisan it can be.
“Social media’s algorithms are constructed for outrage, and we’re not constructed for outrage,” Stephens said. “We’re not providing that clickbait-y fodder for people to get angry about and to be their worst selves about.”
Despite the polarization online, Stephens said that there is still an appetite for civility and “normal dialogue” in today’s political climate.
“People want this more than you would know, simply by inhabiting a purely digital life,” Stephens said.
Both writers also spoke to the importance of journalism in a polarized political environment and reflected on what the midterm election results could mean for the future of democracy in America. Stephens said that the election made him more optimistic about the strength of democracy in the United States.
“I think what it says is that the reports on the death of democracy were badly exaggerated,” Stephens said. “Reasonably, thoughtful people were genuinely alarmed that we were slipping into an authoritarian age.”
Bruni said he was one of those people who believed the country was slipping into authoritarianism — and while he warned against drawing too many conclusions from just one election, he said the election results bring hope amid a “polluted” information ecosystem.
“It turns out that people can actually still understand what is happening to them in their societies, even through all of that corruption, even through the slop, the AI, the deepfakes, all of that,” he said.
Throughout it all, Stephens said that universities are important in promoting diverse conversations that can help strengthen democracy.
“Safe spaces for thought, not safe spaces from thought,” he said. “That’s what a great school should do.”
Edited by Jadon Frank