@eliothiggins.bsky.social of
@Bellingcat with a clear analysis and warning:
The conditions that have led to what’s happening in the US today exist in democracies around the world. They are an inevitable outcome of our collective failure to adapt to fundamental changes in the information ecosystem on which our democracies were originally built.
We built 20th-century democracies on the assumption that truth could be verified, public discourse could be deliberated, and those in power could be held accountable. But the system those assumptions relied on, gatekeepers, shared facts, institutional trust, are in decline, and deservedly so.
In its place: an algorithmic chaos where every citizen is a broadcaster, every feed a battleground, and every truth contestable. We didn’t design for this. We didn’t adapt in time. And now the cracks are widening
If we continue down this path, ignoring the collapse of shared reality, failing to rebuild the systems that stabilise truth, we will see democratic norms erode from the inside out. Not in a single catastrophic moment, but in a thousand small compromises.
What follows won’t look like an obvious dystopia. It will look like normality hollowed out: Parliaments still sit. Elections still happen. But truth becomes optional, reason performative, and power untouchable.
People won’t trust courts or parties. They won’t believe evidence. They’ll be certain their side is right, no matter what reality says. That’s not disagreement. That’s epistemic fracture. And once it sets in, it’s nearly impossible to reverse.
This is not just an American story. It’s a preview. And the question for every other democracy is simple: Do you adapt now, or do nothing and slide into authoritarianism?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D-FVjonlGOY
