Moral Exclusion | Ep 5

Who counts as someone whose suffering matters? That question — deceptively simple — sits at the center of one of the most important concepts in social psychology: moral exclusion. In this episode, Adrian unpacks the theoretical architecture behind moral exclusion, from Susan Opotow's foundational framework to Bandura's mechanisms of moral disengagement, and applies it to the current political moment — specifically the MAGA movement's systematic targeting of immigrants and transgender people. This isn't comfortable listening. It's not supposed to be. But it is precise. And once you see the mechanism, you can't unsee it.If this kind of work is useful to you, you can support the show at buymeacoffee.com/thelongdebrief. It goes directly toward keeping this going — and toward that hardware upgrade.