To combat mis/information we must change how we think about politics

Increasingly, issues are more important than parties

This is the next instalment of my accidental series about the way in which right-wing populists—if not outright fascists or authoritarians of various shades—are using modern technologies to corrupt political communication and undermine democracy.

I am heading towards a piece that will talk about how we might respond to such manipulation, but for now, I am just trying to set out the problem.

The central argument of the first instalment was that the division we see online speaks to deeper divisions within society that can only be solved by moving democracy away from the market, the neoliberal model of service delivery, along with a reinvigorated practice of community deliberation. You won’t go close to solving the problems of a corrupted public sphere without a society that is broadly equal and in which people are financially stable and feel that their voice will be heard.

Mis/disinformation is the by-product of a highly unequal society.

The governing thought of this instalment is that we …