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In the last 30 years religion has radicalized American politics and seriously harmed the perception of science, says journalist and author Kurt Andersen. This can be directly tied to the rise of the Christian Right in the 20th century. To see this, you only have to look at the response to the same question posed to Republican presidential candidates over three election cycles, from 2008 to 2016: “Do you believe in Darwinian biological evolution?”

From climate change to Creationism and outright conspiracy theories, Andersen points to how the Republican party has come to increasingly incorporate fantasy and wishful untruths into its approach to social, economic, and foreign policy—and it’s turning America into an anti-science spectacle. Kurt Andersen is the author of Fantasyland: How America Went Haywire (link leads to AMAZON.com).

This video is four years old now, it’s still relevant – and we are in deep trouble…

In the decade since Facebook went public, social media platforms have transformed American society. To understand where the world is today we have to understand what happened the last ten years. Today we have two videos adressing the problem.

First Jonathan Haidt speaks with Hari Sreenivasan about what went wrong and how social media could become less corrosive. Jonathan is a social psychologist, professor, and author whose research examines the intuitive foundations of morality, and how morality varies across cultures—including the cultures of progressive, conservatives, and libertarians. He is the author of The Happiness Hypothesis, and of The New York Times bestsellers The Righteous Mind, and The Coddling of the American Mind, which he co-authored with Greg Lukianoff.

Second, FAIR Perspectives chat with Jonathan about his recent Atlantic article “Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid,” social media and its effects on our discourse and culture, the need for a shared story, the importance of dissent, the distinctions between liberalism and conservatism, the global impact of America’s descent into what he calls “structural stupidity,” and what measures we can take to improve it.

The Foundation Against Intolerance and Racism (FAIR) is a nonpartisan organization dedicated to advancing civil rights and liberties for all Americans, and promoting a common culture based on fairness, understanding and humanity.