Mounk makes the case here for classical liberal values, untainted by what he sees as the distorting effect of identity politics. It’s convenient to treat people as members of their identity groups, according to their racial characteristics, gender, etc. But this is only ever going to be a rule of thumb, an approximation to what we really want. For example, affirmative action policies are probably better than nothing, but we shouldn’t just then sit back and think our job is done. We don’t really want to give people benefits based purely on their identity groups; instead we want to base it on each person’s individual needs. This is much harder of course! We should recognise that identity group-based policies are just a rough-and-ready first attempt; they are not the best solution.
There’s a lot of good sense in this book. Mounk takes a moderate view on most issues that avoids the polarisation that seems to be everywhere these days. He’s pretty hard-line on free speech though. He seems to take the view that absolutely all kinds of speech should be allowed, even potentially damaging speech like outrageous libel or incitement to violence. I think there are arguments for this extreme view, but he doesn’t really make them; he points out all the dire consequences of restricting free speech, without really exploring the downsides of unrestricted speech.
I feel that Mounk mischaracterises Stanley Fish’s view, summarised in the title of his book There’s No Such Thing As Free Speech, that speech is never fully free because some kinds of speech would never be tolerated. These would include vicious libel, damaging lies and incitement. So Fish is not saying that free speech should not exist; he’s saying that it could not exist. But Mounk misinterprets this and puts Fish in the bucket of anti-free speechers.
Overall I like this book. At least it goes one step beyond the “affirmative action is the answer” / ”affirmative action is evil” arguments that politicians and the media seem to focus on. Black and white arguments (ha ha) might win votes sometimes but they don’t reflect the real world.