Article Summary: The dark recesses of the internet have breached containment and conquered mainstream discourse, largely driven by the hand of far right trolls. Now everything is cloaked in a sort of “post-ironic fatalism” where everything is satire, snark, for the lulz, or buried in several layers of self-referential meta-memes. If it exists, it exists only to be memes into oblivion. Obviously, this is suboptimal for a functioning democracy.
Posted by TrixoftheTrade
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This reminds me of another Atlantic article, on how democracy relies on the seriousness of it’s people:
“Seriousness is the greatest requisite for a stable democracy, because it allows us to think beyond the moment and to accept the weight of duty and communal responsibility. The many other civic virtues—prudence, engagement, respect, tolerance—proceed from seriousness. And only seriousness produces the mindset that forces us to accept the central tenet of democracy: We are adults who are masters of our own fates instead of irresponsible and powerless children. Authoritarian regimes are less serious than democracies. It may seem strange to say that, because the day-to-day existence in such places is so grim. But authoritarianism relies on fatalism, which is one of the most pernicious forms of unseriousness. When nothing is in our control, nothing really matters.”