Episode Details

In December, Elon Musk posted on X, "The Blank Slate fallacy is the root of much evil."

What is the Blank Slate? Do liberals really believe that all human beings are equal — fungible, indistinguishable, replaceable?

Here's a history of tabula rasa, and why this false anthropology is to blame for intolerable policies like mass migration and hate speech laws.

Watch this video on YouTube: https://youtu.be/lSpE8bvaFo8

For more on the post-war consensus: https://connortomlinson.substack.com/p/are-zoomers-really-the-groyper-generation

Works cited:
- John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding
- John Locke, Two Treatises of Government
- Yoram Hazony, Conservatism: A Rediscovery
- Patrick Deneen, Why Liberalism Failed
- Jean Jacques Rousseau, Discourse on Inequality
- Jean Jacques Rousseau, The Social Contract
- Emily B. Finley, The Ideology of Democratism
- Clare Jambers, Sex, Culture, and Justice: The Limits of Choice
- R.R. Reno, Return of the Strong Gods
- John Gray, 'Why I am not a post-liberal': https://www.newstatesman.com/ideas/2025/10/how-to-save-british-liberalism

Follow me on X:
https://x.com/Con_Tomlinson

Listen to Tomlinson Talks on podcast platforms:
Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/2lVAFqUZQQTQW8XiNhODP0
Apple Podcasts - https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/tomlinson-talks/id1811957060
Amazon Music / Audible - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/be9537ec-b746-4a5c-9d79-40f8d0a87f19