The Moral Landscape of the Left: Its Taboos and Sacred Ideas | Dr. Eric Kaufmann
Host Sean Rasmussen speaks with Dr. Eric Kaufmann about his new book, The Third Awokening, which is a deep dive into the politics of the left. Eric’s breadth of knowledge and unique perspective on what drives left-liberalism make this episode a must-listen for anyone who wants to understand the past, present, and future leftist politics in Canada and abroad.
About the Guest
Dr. Eric Kaufmann is professor of politics and Director of the Centre for Heterodox Social Science at the University of Buckingham. He is also Adjunct Fellow at the Manhattan Institute. In addition to his academic work, he has written for the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Times of London, Newsweek, National Review, New Statesman, Financial Times, and other outlets. His new book, The Third Awokening , is a deep dive into political polarization and the culture wars.
Eric Kaufmann’s official website: https://www.sneps.net/
Topics and time markers
| # | Name | Start |
| M1 | Welcoming Eric | 1:14.939 |
| M2 | Explain the Third Awokening | 1:20.942 |
| M3 | A continuation of what happened in the past, not a deviation | 1:49.663 |
| M4 | Left liberalism emerging from early 20th century | 3:33.714 |
| M5 | Expressive individualism and anti-tradition | 3:57.489 |
| M6 | Mid 60s anti-racism taboo | 4:41.867 |
| M7 | Why is society so vulnerable to taboo | 5:42.589 |
| M8 | Left liberalism initially sought a fairer deal for catholics and jews against wasps | 6:57.521 |
| M9 | 60s cultural power shifted to blacks | 7:21.311 |
| M10 | Cultural power moves from right to left as well | 8:16.198 |
| M11 | It wasn’t designed — not a conspiracy | 8:22.163 |
| M12 | An emotional regime | 8:43.539 |
| M13 | Folk ideology of what is important | 9:01.663 |
| M14 | The topography of the moral emotions | 9:17.051 |
| M15 | sentiments were weaponized | 9:27.320 |
| M16 | Woke is not going away | 9:38.112 |
| M17 | Is this a class thing? | 9:51.412 |
| M18 | Prestige ideals | 10:50.675 |
| M19 | Class isn’t the driver | 11:26.302 |
| M20 | Why has white guilt been so enduring? | 13:04.343 |
| M21 | myths and symbols > principles | 13:14.887 |
| M22 | Why it’s not postmodernism or marxism | 13:23.388 |
| M23 | The elephant and the rider | 13:39.155 |
| M24 | Look at the stories, movies, etc… | 14:06.752 |
| M25 | Plot lines: | 14:24.577 |
| M26 | The white saviour figure | 14:33.711 |
| M27 | If these are the sacred values, where are the guardrails? | 15:36.531 |
| M28 | Is it coming from ‘on high?’ | 16:08.209 |
| M29 | Emergent and social learning | 16:45.156 |
| M30 | Big ideas aren’t the drivers for most woke people | 17:20.910 |
| M31 | The Trans innovation | 18:15.607 |
| M32 | Research into academic writing | 18:39.514 |
| M33 | Sacred meaning of movements | 19:12.245 |
| M34 | Majorities bad, minorities good | 20:13.399 |
| M35 | Self-hating majorities | 20:41.735 |
| M36 | How can democracy work if you neglect the majority | 23:00.987 |
| M37 | Elites have a lot of leeway to do what they want | 23:39.490 |
| M38 | Canada – 2/3 against woke | 24:03.363 |
| M39 | Opening for populists | 24:52.245 |
| M40 | The data on younger people’s attitudes | 25:28.646 |
| M41 | Jk Rowling | 25:45.266 |
| M42 | Demographics in academia | 26:14.318 |
| M43 | Much less tolerant young population in general | 26:36.637 |
| M44 | Why intolerance might get worse in coming years…. | 26:52.141 |
| M45 | Will increase polarization going forward | 27:26.602 |
| M46 | Gender differences in woke | 27:35.237 |
| M47 | Gender gap in political correctness | 28:29.398 |
| M48 | The ideology gap | 28:45.564 |
| M49 | Prejudice | 29:19.978 |
| M50 | Would you date a trump supporter | 29:52.541 |
| M51 | Political discrimination in hiring | 31:07.310 |
| M52 | The acceptable prejudice | 31:24.911 |
| M53 | Political prejudice in academia | 31:51.204 |
| M54 | Go woke – get laid | 33:16.725 |
| M55 | Peer pressure | 33:51.521 |
| M56 | Preference falsification | 34:36.787 |
| M57 | McCarthy periods less self-censorship | 34:48.314 |
| M58 | Deculturation | 35:09.519 |
| M59 | Definition of woke | 35:32.862 |
| M60 | Annoys classical liberals | 36:14.110 |
| M61 | Deculturation really annoys conservatives | 37:54.363 |
| M62 | The left is fragmented on deculturation | 38:51.292 |
| M63 | The political salience of deculturation | 39:14.296 |
| M64 | The gap between elites and the population | 39:32.254 |
| M65 | Culture war still doesn’t have much pickup in Canada | 40:24.976 |
| M66 | The elite has a lot of room to “innovate” without being held to account | 40:50.964 |
| M67 | DEI and other euphemisms | 41:14.770 |
| M68 | Conservative politicians need to learn how to raise these issues | 41:53.444 |
| M69 | The importance of images | 42:08.776 |
| M70 | Scotland’s gender recognition act | 42:22.909 |
| M71 | Canada has a huge gap between elites and the rest | 43:23.750 |
| M72 | Canada has an unbalanced media | 43:37.182 |
| M73 | Mass graves hoax | 44:09.360 |
| M74 | Pollievre | 45:01.670 |
| M75 | Elite level conformity | 45:33.152 |
| M76 | The Hub quote | 46:03.473 |
| M77 | Left liberal extremism in Canada | 46:14.902 |
| M78 | Canada’s Multicultural liberal identity | 47:05.751 |
| M79 | Ignorance of pre60s past in Canada | 47:22.414 |
| M80 | Canada’s political left identity | 47:51.455 |
| M81 | On culture, there is no check | 48:10.203 |
| M82 | Be nice | 48:49.213 |
| M83 | Downstream effects of woke | 49:11.956 |
| M84 | Immigration – can’t morally justify restrictions | 49:29.015 |
| M85 | Educational standards | 49:54.709 |
| M86 | The inability of left-liberalism to control its cultural extremism | 51:10.554 |
| M87 | Criminalizing speech | 52:01.845 |
| M88 | Bill C63 | 52:30.090 |
| M89 | Highlight? | 52:37.899 |
| M90 | Yascha Mounk | 53:12.215 |
| M91 | We need govt intervention | 53:54.288 |
| M92 | Moral north star of centre left | 54:32.496 |
| M93 | DEI statements | 54:57.848 |
| M94 | Emotional attachments | 55:50.071 |
| M95 | The only mechanisms that will work to reform the left | 55:58.898 |
| M96 | Embarrassing the left in the press | 56:14.778 |
| M97 | Why k-12 education is so important | 58:47.019 |
| M98 | Chanel Pfahl | 59:15.078 |
| M99 | Republican pressure groups | 59:58.448 |
| M100 | Atomized mainstream population | 1:00:30.737 |
| M101 | Politics is much more important as a source of meaning on the left | 1:01:32.677 |
| M102 | The right needs to organize | 1:02:53.344 |
| M103 | The Federalist society | 1:03:15.236 |
| M104 | Get your appointees in | 1:04:01.048 |
| M105 | It’s not ideal to politicize, but it is needed | 1:04:12.345 |
| M106 | Cuts and school choice won’t many any difference | 1:05:06.230 |
| M107 | Katharine Birbalsingh – The strictest headmistress | 1:05:49.312 |
| M108 | The cultural left is more interested in symbolism that solving problems | 1:06:15.445 |
| M109 | Narratives are resistant to facts | 1:09:42.606 |
| M110 | Where can people go to find out more…. | 1:11:26.282 |
For more information about Viewpoints visit https://viewpointspodcast.ca
