Daron Acemoglu on Liberalism, Automation, and the Educated Elite

Daron Acemoglu returns for his second appearance with a new book, What Happened to Liberal Democracy?, which Tyler reads as an attempt to redefine and revitalize liberalism for our times. Where Daron's first visit was about how states and societies contend for the narrow corridor in which liberty survives, this one asks what liberals themselves got wrong, and the answer implicates the educated elite—that is to say, you.

Tyler and Daron discuss what's wrong with social contract theories and Rousseau's general will, whether Acemoglu is more objectivist than Rorty, why he blames left liberalism's own establishment power for its collapse, what standard is left once you refuse to have a book of higher values, nondomination versus noninterference, who counts as working class, why automation alone will not lead to widespread prosperity, how he can call himself a free speech absolutist while wanting to regulate social media, why he worries we've given up on educating Americans, whether teachers' unions need to be reconstituted, what the life expectancy for an educated twenty year old is today, whether open-source models undercut the centralization worry, what pro-worker AI actually means, why the fertility crisis leaves him strangely close to a real business cycle position, whether AI will raise his own already prodigious paper output, why Armenia has disappointed economically, what he wants to learn next, and more.

Read a transcript enhanced with helpful links, or watch the full video on YouTube.

Recorded July 15th, 2026.

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Timestamps:

00:00:00 - Intro

00:08:57 - On the working class vs. the elite

00:13:16 - On automation

00:22:33 - On free speech

00:27:22 - On immigration

00:31:08 - On artificial intelligence

00:50:36 - On Armenia

00:53:22 - On what comes next

00:54:51 - Outro

Image credit: Bryce Vickmark