Steven Brown
Thread

Democracy

Cross-cutting questions about civic life, accountability, and how a free society works through hard problems.

Three videos that approach democratic life from very different angles — a polarized policy question handled with philosophical care, the question of UAP disclosure as a problem of public accountability, and the opportunities (and dangers) AI brings to civic flourishing. Short on purpose; democracy work also shows up across the other two threads.

Recommended sequence

  1. Video · Oct 2020

    I am Pro-Life. I Vote Pro-Choice.

    Probably the best thing on the channel for seeing how to do philosophy in public on a topic where everyone has already dug in. The argument: "pro-life" and "pro-choice" each smuggle two distinct claims — one about ethics, one about politics — and once you separate them, it is coherent (he argues, attractive) to be pro-life in one's ethics and pro-choice in one's politics. He is the father of seven; he votes against the bans anyway.

  2. Video · Apr 2024

    It’s Irrational to Ignore UFOs (David Grusch is a Big Deal)

    Reframes the David Grusch testimony as a problem of public reasoning rather than tabloid weirdness. The argument: this is now a situation where you have to be a "conspiracy theorist" one way or the other — either Grusch and a growing roster of senior officials are conspiring, or someone else is conspiring to make them look credible — so the only honest question is which conspiracy actually fits the evidence. The closing turn — voting reform, UBI, indigenous rights — sketches where the civic stakes go from there.

    Also in: Non-Human Intelligence

  3. Video · Jan 2026

    AI and Global Flourishing

    A 16-minute optimistic roadmap that takes the dark scenarios seriously: oligarchy with tech CEOs treated as heads of state, algorithmic bias in care-rationing decisions, AI-generated images of the Maduro arrest already eroding what counts as evidence. The democratic upside — universal basic income, planetary-scale democratic reform, AI-assisted polling that follows up with "why do you think that?" — is the through-line.

    Also in: AI