Echo chambers, polarization and “post-truth” politics are destroying rational debate. Can democracy survive? The solution, it’s often claimed, is to reaffirm our commitment to Truth, Reason and Objective Reality, as bulwarks against disinformation spread by figures like Donald Trump. But it’s a fantasy to think this might work, argues Chris Voparil. Instead, we must focus on rebuilding emotional bonds with those with whom we disagree, to create the right environment for productive debate and the emergence of agreement.
Democracy in crisis
Political discourse, in the U.S. and elsewhere, is in a state of acute disrepair approaching utter dysfunction. Tribalism has become the norm and is further entrenched daily. Divides between political opponents have grown so wide as to render group identities unbridgeable chasms that none dare cross. And a post-truth or post-fact milieu has ushered in Orwellian dynamics where each side not only lays claim to “alternative facts,” but 2 + 2 = 5 has been made believable. Many remain mired in the quicksand of echo chambers and epistemic bubbles, seemingly uninterested in rescue.
Distressingly, this situation has made a mockery of public reason and the idea that rational deliberation, with enough time and space, could achieve consensus and govern democratic life. Does this spell the end of deliberative democracy?
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We must rethink long-entrenched assumptions about the connection between fact and belief, and about truth and reason
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