Like all things Fukuyama, that article was nonsense. He hedged enough to really pin him down so he seems to have learned something after the end of history. New communication technology can certainly disrupt the existing order. Probably the GOAT was the printing press but an argument can be made TV, radio and even the invention of writing. Writing was invented by accountants, not poets and dramatically increased control by TPTB. The Internet increases velocity but Mark Twain didn't need it to observe that a lie can gallop around the world before the truth gets its boots on. Fukuyama like all Establishment thinkers longs for the era of the gatekeepers-Establishment gatekeepers. Conspiracy theories are not the currency of the Internet or populism. They have always been with us. Read the Bible or Shakespeare or Dumas.
Fukuyama doesn’t really present much of a “take” on items 1-8 as he simply hand waves them away. He completely ignores the extent to which our institutions have completely set their credibility on fire over the past 10-20 years. From Iraq’s WMDs, to the trans-insanity, to the multiple lies told to us during COVID. The blame for the current uptick in vaccine resistance relies entirely with a medical community that oversold the efficacy of the COVID vaccine (a godsend for high risk patients especially against the initial strain) and a government that forced it on people.
He doesn’t really define what he met by “populism” or “trumpism” and leaves it to the reader to just understand they are bad. Generally speaking “populism” defined as the government giving the public what it wants should be the default state of affairs in any democratic society. The mainstream parties of the West failed to do that. That is why the public turned against them. The extent to which today is different from 68 or 80 is that Nixon and Reagan both stepped in to meet the public where they were at. He also fails to acknowledge the extent to which the left attacked both presidents as strongly as they are attacking Trump. He also completely fails to acknowledge the extent to which votes for Trump and/or European populists are based on a lesser of two evils calculation rather than actual support.
The internet is at best an amplifier, but so was the printing press and that certainly worked out for the better.
Like all things Fukuyama, that article was nonsense. He hedged enough to really pin him down so he seems to have learned something after the end of history. New communication technology can certainly disrupt the existing order. Probably the GOAT was the printing press but an argument can be made TV, radio and even the invention of writing. Writing was invented by accountants, not poets and dramatically increased control by TPTB. The Internet increases velocity but Mark Twain didn't need it to observe that a lie can gallop around the world before the truth gets its boots on. Fukuyama like all Establishment thinkers longs for the era of the gatekeepers-Establishment gatekeepers. Conspiracy theories are not the currency of the Internet or populism. They have always been with us. Read the Bible or Shakespeare or Dumas.
It’s cute how he tries to frame conspiracy theories as a purely “right wing” phenomenon.
One of the prominent conspiracy theories of the past was about Louis XIV and was advanced by that notorious right wing anti-intellectual, Voltaire.
Fukuyama doesn’t really present much of a “take” on items 1-8 as he simply hand waves them away. He completely ignores the extent to which our institutions have completely set their credibility on fire over the past 10-20 years. From Iraq’s WMDs, to the trans-insanity, to the multiple lies told to us during COVID. The blame for the current uptick in vaccine resistance relies entirely with a medical community that oversold the efficacy of the COVID vaccine (a godsend for high risk patients especially against the initial strain) and a government that forced it on people.
He doesn’t really define what he met by “populism” or “trumpism” and leaves it to the reader to just understand they are bad. Generally speaking “populism” defined as the government giving the public what it wants should be the default state of affairs in any democratic society. The mainstream parties of the West failed to do that. That is why the public turned against them. The extent to which today is different from 68 or 80 is that Nixon and Reagan both stepped in to meet the public where they were at. He also fails to acknowledge the extent to which the left attacked both presidents as strongly as they are attacking Trump. He also completely fails to acknowledge the extent to which votes for Trump and/or European populists are based on a lesser of two evils calculation rather than actual support.
The internet is at best an amplifier, but so was the printing press and that certainly worked out for the better.