The diagnosis is old:
The biggest disgrace of democracy is that it brings out the numerical strength of the idiots, who are the majority in humanity.
I try to imagine what Nelson Rodrigues would say if he were present in our days of internet and social networks. In the main democracies of the world, freedom of expression is no longer absolute: there are forbidden opinions, there is censorship. The mass of idiots annihilates everything that displeases it to listen. There has never been such ease for hatred to organize itself and find means of action. The digital mobs revolt, commit themselves to the prior judgment and fatally deprive some of the right to speak. They easily destroy careers, reputations, and work immeasurably for the total ruin of the objects of their hatred. The capital yields, because it is averse to polemics and shudders at the thought of the detriment of its image. And democracy does nothing but validate their fury, since it is the regime in which the majority implies the right, denotes reason. Social scientists debate: how to stop the action of organized hatred? How can we prevent the prevailing morality, once again, from methodically suffocating dissident demonstrations? Difficult… Many and many will still be honored by the fires of this time. Hate is the most powerful human impulse; it does not give in until it consumes its own obsession. They will continue to hate, to hate, to hate, until democracy ends up hanged by the democrats.
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