How To Kill a Democracy
Published in Le Journal de Montréal
(Canada) on 14 November 2020
by Joseph Facal (link to original)
(Canada) on 14 November 2020
by Joseph Facal (link to original)
Translated from
by Emily Sedgwick.
Edited by Olivia Parker.
Beaten by more than 5 million votes, Donald Trump is unable to show any shred of concrete proof of massive fraud.
His lawsuits fail one after another.
Then, is it over?
No.
Understand
Is it surprising? Not really.
We have spent four years waiting for Trump to act in a “presidential” manner.
The moment never arrived.
Is it surprising that so many people are encouraging him to hang on? Yes and no.
Basically you have two categories of people who still support him.
First, his inner circle: William Barr, Mike Pompeo, Kevin McCarthy, Peter Navarro, Mike Pence, etc.
Not ignorant numbskulls. Education is one thing. Moral decency is another.
But there is also calculation. Trump ascended like a guru over tens of millions of people just as angry as he was.
He sicced his hounds on anyone in Republican circles who contradicted him.
Those close to him therefore support him out of fear, but also, in some cases, because they have their own ambitions and hopes of gaining part of Trump’s hordes.
What about the millions of ordinary Americans who drink up his words, who believe his theories about "Pizzagate" pedophilia, who think that “Q” is the occult leader of a glorious resistance to tyranny?
I understood better when I watched the fabulous documentary “The Social Dilemma” on Netflix. Go watch it right away.
You have to ask yourself: How can these people be so out of touch with reality?
In fact, these people look at us and say the same thing: How can things so evident to them not be seen by us?
The algorithms of the social network that offer us texts and images based on our former choices reinforce our predispositions.
Each person is enclosed in his own reality.
This does not mean that there is not one objective reality. Of course there is.
But these people do not want that reality. They want a story, even if it is delusional, that will comfort them by bringing some semblance of order to the chaos.
The social networks, which began with good intentions, have backfired on us and have unraveled the social fabric.
How can we have a dialogue if we can’t even agree anymore about what is real?
This delirium infects the Republican Party to the extent that it will do anything to undermine Joe Biden’s legitimacy.
Its leaders will block everything in the Senate, they will let the rumor spread that his victory is fraudulent and they will not disavow the craziest theories.
Having become mainstream, this extremism will even become the heart of the Republican strategy.
The more Trump and the Republicans try to lend credence to the idea that Biden “stole” the election, the more this will further justify their strident partisanship.
Any electoral defeat will be the result of a plot; therefore, it will not be honest.
Attack
Trump’s disclosure yesterday about the vaccine muddies the issue, denies reality and makes the situation even more tense.
We are no longer in a normal partisan contest.
It is an outright attack on American democracy, the oldest and most stable democracy in the West.
Conclusion: Democracies are infinitely more fragile than we ever thought.
His lawsuits fail one after another.
Then, is it over?
No.
Understand
Is it surprising? Not really.
We have spent four years waiting for Trump to act in a “presidential” manner.
The moment never arrived.
Is it surprising that so many people are encouraging him to hang on? Yes and no.
Basically you have two categories of people who still support him.
First, his inner circle: William Barr, Mike Pompeo, Kevin McCarthy, Peter Navarro, Mike Pence, etc.
Not ignorant numbskulls. Education is one thing. Moral decency is another.
But there is also calculation. Trump ascended like a guru over tens of millions of people just as angry as he was.
He sicced his hounds on anyone in Republican circles who contradicted him.
Those close to him therefore support him out of fear, but also, in some cases, because they have their own ambitions and hopes of gaining part of Trump’s hordes.
What about the millions of ordinary Americans who drink up his words, who believe his theories about "Pizzagate" pedophilia, who think that “Q” is the occult leader of a glorious resistance to tyranny?
I understood better when I watched the fabulous documentary “The Social Dilemma” on Netflix. Go watch it right away.
You have to ask yourself: How can these people be so out of touch with reality?
In fact, these people look at us and say the same thing: How can things so evident to them not be seen by us?
The algorithms of the social network that offer us texts and images based on our former choices reinforce our predispositions.
Each person is enclosed in his own reality.
This does not mean that there is not one objective reality. Of course there is.
But these people do not want that reality. They want a story, even if it is delusional, that will comfort them by bringing some semblance of order to the chaos.
The social networks, which began with good intentions, have backfired on us and have unraveled the social fabric.
How can we have a dialogue if we can’t even agree anymore about what is real?
This delirium infects the Republican Party to the extent that it will do anything to undermine Joe Biden’s legitimacy.
Its leaders will block everything in the Senate, they will let the rumor spread that his victory is fraudulent and they will not disavow the craziest theories.
Having become mainstream, this extremism will even become the heart of the Republican strategy.
The more Trump and the Republicans try to lend credence to the idea that Biden “stole” the election, the more this will further justify their strident partisanship.
Any electoral defeat will be the result of a plot; therefore, it will not be honest.
Attack
Trump’s disclosure yesterday about the vaccine muddies the issue, denies reality and makes the situation even more tense.
We are no longer in a normal partisan contest.
It is an outright attack on American democracy, the oldest and most stable democracy in the West.
Conclusion: Democracies are infinitely more fragile than we ever thought.
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