We liberals believed in parliamentary democracy; we trusted facts and what we called “rational” arguments

  I went into journalism that year partly because I wanted to join the analytical apparatus — including academics, assorted wonks and NGOs — that helped guide mighty western governments towards wise policy choices. 

Back then, global poverty was falling. Racism and sexism seemed so 20th century. A new “international community” would make war obsolete. The rational policymakers who had fixed the ozone layer were going to sort out this new thing called “global warming”.

Now, after a second, resounding victory, Trumpists are mocking us as out-of-touch elitists who didn’t see it coming. But they’re wrong. Most liberals did see this coming.

 The tools and assumptions that we were taught seem not wrong (to us at least) but irrelevant. 

Journalism has begun to feel like an enjoyable paid hobby which serves no apparent social purpose. Assembling facts and arguments has probably been a waste of a career. 

British lawyer and writer David Allen Green concludes: 

“There is no point, in and of itself, showing a candidate to be a liar, fraudster, insurrectionist and/or [arguably] a fascist if people do not actually care if that candidate is a liar, fraudster, insurrectionist and/or a fascist.”

Simon Kuper Financial Times14 November 2024

https://www.ft.com/content/b7134905-3b6f-4aee-98a9-71bab6f9b29a

Simon Kuper - en av mina Gurus

https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2021/01/simon-kuper-en-av-mina-gurus.html

Tillbaka till Rolfs länktips 14 November 2024

https://englundmacro.blogspot.com/2024/11/rolfs-lanktips-14-november-2024.html