#8 Neil Sinhababu- US Politics in 2020 - a podcast by PJ (Poh Jie)

from 2020-10-02T03:30

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My guest today is Neil Sinhababu, an Associate Professor in the Department of Philosophy at the National University of Singapore. He wrote Humean Nature and Possible Girls and has taught normative ethics and political philosophy. He majored in philosophy as an undergraduate at Harvard University and obtained a PhD in Philosophy at University of Texas at Austin. Please enjoy the show.



Show Notes
  • [0:40] How does Neil view the 2016 US Presidential Election?


  • [3:11] Donald Trump’s history of corruption


  • [4:50] US-Russia relations


  • [6:55] Vladimir Putin and Russia post-Putin


  • [8:33] How will Neil’s actions and thoughts change if he was immersed in Russia’s culture of falsehood?


  • [9:40] Understanding US media system


  • [15:02] Thoughts on tech and legacy media, and the narrative of tech vs legacy media


  • [20:08] Getting a sense of Singapore’s political system


  • [21:58] Politicians risking their seats and arguments for democracy


  • [30:08] US-China relations, institutions, and a stable democratic world government 


  • [37:46] What can unite humans in the absence of an alien invasion?


  • [39:51] How have the US institutions fared in the Covid-19 pandemic? What should the institutions have done instead?


  • [48:02] Thoughts on 2020 Democratic Primary


  • [56:25] Neil’s broad social democratic strategy and his thoughts on billionaires’ impact on the system


  • [1:04:26] Prediction for upcoming 2020 US Presidential Election


  • [1:06:23] Changing the system to prevent undesirable candidates from taking power. Democrats’ knock-out vs Republicans’ submission-hold


  • [1:13:58] Influencing votes in favour of Democratic Party


  • [1:17:20] Does being a philosophy professor bring about the maximum utility?


  • [1:20:00] Media that Neil consumes


  • [1:21:46] How does Neil synthesise information and how does he know the worldview that he has is the right one?



Mentions

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If you like to find out more about me, please find me on my personal website at www.pohjie.com, or connect with me on Twitter (@pohjie_pj).



Outro

Thank you for listening to this episode. If you like this episode, please leave a review on Apple Podcasts and share this episode with 1-3 friends. I started this podcast with the intention of having awesome conversations with interesting people, and having your support means a lot. Thank you.



Music credits

Further episodes of PyJamas Pillow Talk

Further podcasts by PJ (Poh Jie)

Website of PJ (Poh Jie)