“Interview with Kelsey Piper on Self-Censorship and the Vibe Shift” by Zack_M_Davis

On 17 July 2025, I sat down with Kelsey Piper to chat about politics and social epistemology. You can listen to the audio file, or read the transcript below, which has been edited for clarity.

Post-Election Candor and the Costs of Silencing

ZMD: Hi, I'm Zack M. Davis, here today with journalist Kelsey Piper to talk about how political pressures shape our speech and therefore our world-models: what gets said, what gets left unsaid, and how that changes over time. In particular, we had an election not too long ago, which had various impacts on our information environment that I'd like to try to make sense of with you.

KP: Yeah, I think the thing you initially reached out to me about was a Tweet that I sent a little while after the election, which was kind of lighthearted.

ZMD: I actually have that here. [...]

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Outline:

(00:25) Post-Election Candor and the Costs of Silencing

(05:47) The Hidden Neoliberal-Progressive Conflict (from 5:33)

(12:02) Navigating the Attention Economy of Lies (from 11:50)

(17:13) Wokeness in Retreat? (from 17:25)

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First published:

August 7th, 2025

Source:

https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/FaGaNhXhFEtXkfyud/interview-with-kelsey-piper-on-self-censorship-and-the-vibe

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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.