Thread by @gelliottmorris

One of the hardest parts about writing a book about trusting the will of the people to guide our gov right now is that about 25-30% of the public has basically been brainwashed by an anti-fact media ecosystem and radicalized by bad-faith opinion leaders.

So... why trust people?

The answer is at once obvious and a hard pill to swallow: The vast majority of Americans still see Jan 6 for what it (verifiably) was: a violent mob of Trump supporters trying to kill oppo leaders and overthrow the government. So we can still trust the majority. But we also have

to acknowledge that a ~fourth of Americans aren't adding to the wisdom of the public, bc they aren't getting information that would lead them to rationalize or otherwise deliberate about what government could do for them. The hard truth is that we can't always trust the people.

So, as long as you're being true to voter psychology, you encounter a tough paradox when arguing in favor of a more poll-informed, democratic society: you also have to argue for good leadership, which sometimes means acknowledging the public is wrong about stuff.

Polarization and media echo chambers make all of this worse, and a problem that most pollsters who thought about democratic theory a half-century ago didn't (maybe even "couldn't") consider. It's a tough problem to solve and a hard argument to make.

The only way to resolve this in 1 tweet (for more I guess you'll have to read my book😉) is to say that a good democratic government relies on good-faith leadership from political elites, opinion leaders _and_ information leaders. Rather obvious... but a core truth for democracy.

In summary, good luck America