The challenge of disagreeing better

Damaging the tender space in which real discussion happens

Everything worthwhile is done with other people

—Mariame Kaba

Towards the end of the Morrison Government’s term in office I would often get distressed at media coverage—social and mainstream—of the prime minister’s latest antics. The sheer level of manipulation and misinformation we were being force fed, either directly, by the government itself, or via its mouthpieces in the media, sent me into something like a panic.

I don’t think I was alone.

After last week, I am having similar feelings about the Voice campaign, and I’ve been thinking about what’s going on.

The willingness of journalists and politicians to lie to our faces, confident they will never be held to account—and then the powerlessness we can feel as this happens day after day—is the sort of thing that destroys a democracy.

That’s one thing.

But the problem goes beyond mere lying. There is something wickedly wrong with the way our politics is mediated, the way in which it forces us—or guide us—to particular forms of engagement a…