{"id":2065,"date":"2026-05-01T01:07:13","date_gmt":"2026-05-01T01:07:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/?page_id=2065"},"modified":"2026-05-20T17:33:22","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T17:33:22","slug":"america-talking","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/america-talking\/","title":{"rendered":"America Talking"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright wp-image-2067 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/talking2.png?resize=300%2C300&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/talking2.png?resize=300%2C300&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/talking2.png?resize=1024%2C1024&amp;ssl=1 1024w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/talking2.png?resize=150%2C150&amp;ssl=1 150w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/talking2.png?resize=768%2C768&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/talking2.png?resize=624%2C624&amp;ssl=1 624w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/talking2.png?resize=176%2C176&amp;ssl=1 176w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/talking2.png?resize=60%2C60&amp;ssl=1 60w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/talking2.png?w=1200&amp;ssl=1 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/>This is my idea for a new social network that encourages conversation across the political divide. I release it freely to anyone who&#8217;d like to try creating it. I&#8217;ll describe it first in terms of the user experience and then in a more top-down technical way.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Conservatives believe that the crucial issue of the age is <i>Libert\u00e9<\/i>, while progressives believe it\u2019s <i>\u00c9galit\u00e9<\/i>. What if it turns out to have really been <i>Fraternit\u00e9<\/i>?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>The User Experience<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>The way most users will come to <em>America Talking<\/em> is by being invited by one of their friends to join a discussion group.<\/li>\n<li>Upon joining, they&#8217;ll be asked to identify as progressive or conservative.<\/li>\n<li>They&#8217;ll find that the discussion group they were invited into consists of both progressives and conservatives.<\/li>\n<li>The group will be subscribed to one or more channels, each of which represents the output of a given team of content providers.\n<ul>\n<li>Each channel will also turn out to have a progressive\/conservative balance, and all their content will involve some kind of conversation between the two sides.<\/li>\n<li>Whenever a channel the group is subscribed to posts new content, everyone in the discussion group will see it in their feeds, and they&#8217;ll be able to post comments on it that only other members of the discussion group will see.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>The user will discover that conversation within these groups is much more civil and productive than on any other social network.<\/li>\n<li>As the new user continues on the site, they discover other channels they&#8217;re interested in, and they can:\n<ul>\n<li>Try to persuade their existing group to subscribe to it as well.<\/li>\n<li>Ask to join another discussion group subscribed to it.<\/li>\n<li>Or create their own new discussion group to subscribe to it.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><strong>Design Goals<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>America Talking<\/em> will be designed to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Minimize the server load.<\/li>\n<li>Minimize the moderation burden.<\/li>\n<li>Incentivize balanced content<sup class=\"modern-footnotes-footnote \" data-mfn=\"1\" data-mfn-post-scope=\"000000000000088e0000000000000000_2065\"><a href=\"javascript:void(0)\"  role=\"button\" aria-pressed=\"false\" aria-describedby=\"mfn-content-000000000000088e0000000000000000_2065-1\">1<\/a><\/sup><span id=\"mfn-content-000000000000088e0000000000000000_2065-1\" role=\"tooltip\" class=\"modern-footnotes-footnote__note\" tabindex=\"0\" data-mfn=\"1\">&#8220;Balanced&#8221; doesn&#8217;t necessarily mean &#8220;moderate.&#8221; It can also mean two equally extreme viewpoints. <\/span>\u00a0and civil discourse.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Implementation Details<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Content &#8211; <\/strong>Content providers will create and host their content elsewhere, and then simply link to that content from their channels on <em>America Talking<\/em>. This will:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Reduce the server load for <em>America Talking.<\/em><\/li>\n<li>Eliminate the need to deal with DMCA strikes and such, as they&#8217;ll continue to be handled by the hosting platforms.<\/li>\n<li>Make it easier for existing content creators to join the site. They can keep on producing and hosting their content where they&#8217;re currently making their money, and <em>America Talking<\/em> can serve as a side channel to attract more viewers.<\/li>\n<li>Allow content creators to continue producing unbalanced content. They can keep on doing whatever they&#8217;re doing, but whenever they produce something they think would fit <em>America Talking&#8217;s<\/em> ethos, they can add it to their channel there.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Discussion Groups<\/strong> &#8211; The only way a user can view content is from within a discussion group that&#8217;s subscribed to it, and their comments are only seen by fellow group members. This will:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Eliminate the need for site-wide moderation, since only the small discussion group sees anything a member posts. Moderation will be the responsibility of the moderator(s) of each group.<\/li>\n<li>Encourage more civil discourse, because users won&#8217;t be talking to strangers but fellow group members, many of whom they might know IRL. Local-only visibility means no screaming into the aether at an abstract Enemy.<\/li>\n<li>Allow users the freedom to seek moderation policies they&#8217;re comfortable with. If you don&#8217;t like how a discussion group is run, switch to another one or create a new one of your own.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Discussion groups could also be given a separate &#8220;Social&#8221; channel where they can post off-topic personal items like they might ordinarily do to any other social network. This would further strengthen the bonds between group members, encouraging more civility.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Incentivizes for Balance<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The following mechanisms will incentivize balance:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Every discussion group will receive a rating indicating how balanced it is.<\/li>\n<li>Every content provider will receive a rating indicating how balanced its subscribers are.<\/li>\n<li>Every user will receive a rating indicating how balanced their discussion groups are.<\/li>\n<li>A recommendation system will prioritize the higher rated channels.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The Killer App<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>My hope is that <em>America Talking<\/em> will enable the creation of content that could not get off the ground without a network that rewards balance with eyeballs, and that one of these channels will prove to be the &#8220;killer app&#8221; that puts the site on the map. Some possibilities:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Discussion between well-known figures of the Left and Right.\n<ul>\n<li>Rachel Maddow and Tucker Carlson?<\/li>\n<li>Bernie Sanders and Elon Musk?<\/li>\n<li>George Clooney and Dean Cain?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Or between well-known organizations.\n<ul>\n<li>Heritage Foundation and ACLU?<\/li>\n<li>Fox and MSNBC?<\/li>\n<li>NRA and Everytown for Gun Safety?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Dueling comedians?<\/li>\n<li>Game shows with progressive and conservative contestants testing their knowledge of history and Constitutional law?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Monetization<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>This is question I haven&#8217;t figured out, but:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>If there are ads, advertisers should not be allowed to target users based on political affiliation. (i.e. incentivize them to offer products and services attractive to both sides.)<\/li>\n<li>If there&#8217;s a model where users pay and content providers get shares, base the shares at least in part on balance ratings.<\/li>\n<li>It would be great if organizations who share the America Talking ideals funded it as a non-profit. Due to the design that reduces server and moderation loads, it might not be as costly as many other social networks.\n<ul>\n<li>Common Cause?<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/braverangels.org\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Braver Angels<\/a>?<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/nicd.arizona.edu\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The National Institute for Civil Discourse<\/a>?<\/li>\n<li>Or maybe an existing social network like Bluesky?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>__________________________________<\/p>\n<p>This is one of my two tech ideas for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/bridging-the-blue-red-divide\/\">bridging the political divide<\/a>. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/call-a-democrat-republican\/\">Here&#8217;s the other one<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is my idea for a new social network that encourages conversation across the political divide. I release it freely to anyone who&#8217;d like to try creating it. I&#8217;ll describe it first in terms of the user experience and then in a more top-down technical way. Conservatives believe that the&#8230; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/america-talking\/\">Read more &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2067,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2065","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2065"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2065\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2096,"href":"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2065\/revisions\/2096"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.authorfreeman.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}