I read the Times' magazine cover story discussing democracy, and it has the same central flaw that that editorial about cancel culture had. Implicit in both is the notion that we're "polarized" because the red and the blue have different *opinions.* 1/
That is, everybody is acting in good faith, but MAGA and the GOP just happen to have different "values" than Dems. This is bullshit. Missing from both articles is the word "lie." The MAGA mob believes what it does because it has been, and continues to be, lied to every day. 2/
Trump told 30,000 lies in office. Fox News broadcasts lies every night. It's not that "the sides can't agree on the facts." It's that one side has been had its emotions riled by lies--deliberately told by pols, careerist cynics, and hired hands to secure power. 3/
All the "whither democracy" handwringing in the world will be useless until those on the right, who claim to want to protect democracy, acknowledge this. Which is not to say that the institutions and sponsors who pay their salaries will let them. 4/4
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