Welcome to The Argument
Join us. We're libbing out.
The Argument has many fathers.
First, and foremost, Amartya Sen’s The Argumentative Indian. While the Western liberal tradition is central to the development of modern liberalism, one of my favorite contributions from Sen is his work showing just how human the demand for liberty, democracy and equality is. The Greeks may have invented democracy, but democratic traditions can be found in every corner of the world. Sen traces India’s argumentative tradition and history of public reasoning. In Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, he recounts local meetings where, “all men were free to voice their opinions and equal in their value as citizens.”
The Argument was also born out of my long-held belief that direct engagement between people who disagree can be a generative and entertaining project. Too much analysis and criticism is writers talking past each other and a preference for subtweeting, allusion and you-know-what-I-mean. Not here.
Illiberal media is playing on easy mode. When the New York Post runs a piece about a murderous band of migrants running through midtown, that activates the part of your brain that hates and fears others. When a right-wing podcaster interviews men and women in the street about “gold diggers” and “height preferences,” that foregrounds any negative experiences we’ve had with the opposite gender.
There’s no liberal version of this. But we’ve still got to win the attention war. Here’s our plan: argument! We will convene not just self-described political liberals, but socialists, moderates, libertarians and center-right conservatives. I won’t agree with everyone we publish, and I doubt they all agree with everything I have said, but we will only publish people who seek truth from facts and who are excited to engage directly with their opponent’s ideas.
With a paid subscription to The Argument, you’ll get one flagship column every day from our crack writing team (Jerusalem Demsas, Jordan Weissmann, Kelsey Piper and Lakshya Jain) on one of our core coverage areas:
The Politics and Economics of Growth
Abundance — housing, energy and infrastructure
Immigration and labor‑market dynamics
The welfare state, justice and democracy
How policies encouraging economic growth interact with democratic institutions
Technology and Society
Governance of rapidly advancing technology such as artificial intelligence
How public policy and civil society can shape innovation
Sectoral analysis of the impact of new technologies in fields such as health care or education
Gender and Families
What 21st‑century egalitarianism should look like
Data‑driven, comparative analyses of gender, racial and class disparities
The role of policymakers, institutions, and individuals in ensuring freedom of gender expression
You’ll also receive regular columns from our all-star columnists (
, , , , Rachael Bedard and Robinson Meyer) and occasional columns from our brilliant contributors: Adam Harris, Armin Thomas, Arnab Datta, , David Schleicher, Eric Goldwyn, Harrison Lavelle, , Joel Wertheimer, , , Leon Sit, Maia Mindel, Max McCall, Mike Konczal, Nick Bagley, Paul Williams, Holly Jean Buck and Zachary Liscow (with more to be announced).And finally, paid subscribers will have access to our original, in-house issue polling. Lakshya Jain, our director of political data, has already fielded our first set of questions. Much issue polling is conducted by activist groups and corporations that have a vested interest in the outcome. Our vested interest is finding out what people really believe. In order to guard against our biases, we’ve recruited a cross-ideological advisory committee to review our polls for bias before we field them, so people across the political spectrum can trust our results.1
So, I suppose I’ve given you a few reasons for why The Argument exists, but now I’ll give you the one that might be the truest of all: I believe in putting my words, arguments and beliefs out into the world, even though I am rarely sure what they will do, who they will find, inflame or persuade.
I do this, not out of a naive belief that the free marketplace of ideas will ensure that the best ideas will win out, but out of the knowledge that the only way for good ideas to win is if we refuse to stop repeating them.
You will not agree with everything in these pages. I know I won’t. And I’m sure a great many people will hate this project and what I have to say. But that’s the privilege of getting to argue: Other people will respond.
Tomorrow morning, we will publish my first essay. Subscribe here to get it directly in your inbox.
I’ll leave you with a nineteenth-century Bengali poem that Sen references in his book:
"Just consider how terrible the day of your death will be. Others will go on speaking, and you will not be able to argue back."
Geronimo,
Jerusalem
Each reviewer’s name will be listed on any poll they review. While we are thankful for their assistance, they are not responsible for the ultimate language choices made by The Argument. All errors are our own.
Excited to read this! Less excited about the green/yellow background, which is hard for this mid-lifer to read :)
I’ll be honest I didn’t want to drop more cold hard cash on another substack but with this kind of weapons grade Lib, probably would’ve paid double for it.