Get the Book

Grandstanding: The Use and Abuse of Moral Talk by Justin Tosi and Brandon Warmke https://geni.us/1yLXXcC

About the Book

People used to hold out great hope for a public square in which individuals put petty disputes aside and engage in rational discussion about important issues. Unfortunately, public discourse today—especially on the internet—is full of adults behaving like poorly socialized children, acting out to show off for people they want to impress. In short, they engage in moral grandstanding, or the use of moral talk for self-promotion. Drawing from work in psychology, economics, and political science, this book develops an explanation of why people grandstand when they talk about morality and politics. Using the tools of moral philosophy, it argues that grandstanding is not just annoying, but morally bad. And finally, it explains what we can do to encourage people to support a public square worth participating in, by avoiding grandstanding.

Among the topics covered:

• Why people grandstand and self-promote
• Effects of polarizing discourse on social media
• Why moderates check out of discussions
• Reasons for optimism

Follow the Authors

Justin Tosi on Twitter (@JustinTosi)

Brandon Warmke on Twitter (@BrandonWarmke)

Stay Connected

ibnabeeomar.com Newsletter - What Muslim Leaders Read Sign up for the email list at  and get your copy of the 40 hadith on social media ebook

Social Media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube

To support this podcast and related projects, please consider contributing at Patreon.

Subscribe to the Podcast

Apple Podcasts: http://bit.ly/ibnabeeomar_apple

Google play: http://bit.ly/ibnabeeomar_google

Spotify: http://bit.ly/ibnabeeomar_spotify