IMHO the problem of populism is not as centrally a threat to democracy as the article states. The more central problem as it recently manifests is called "same

IMHO the problem of populism is not as centrally a threat to democracy as the article states. The more central problem as it recently manifests is called "same images, different movies". People read about the same events in two publications, and make two completely opposing interpretations, and go out there to defend their interpretation. It doesn't occur to them they might be wrong once in a while, as we all are. On this front, the article makes rather skewed distinctions between the advantages and disadvantages between social media and legacy media outlets, as well. Only because legacy media outlets supplied you with a narrative doesn't make them any more trustworthy than the cleaning liquid merchants you can see on TV in between broadcasts. If you publicly chip away on people's trust in the most basic premises about governments, you're nothing short of a fool. Reining immigration is a good thing, because integration of immigrants is a lot of work which costs money, therefore cannot be practiced at infinite scale, and racism is not something that happens exclusively to white people. I swear I can wear a hoodie with my bleak, sewer-dwelling European face and not exactly look trustworthy to you, just as well. To argue that had anything to do with the skin color namely makes whoever came up with this example very much a racist instead. I'm filing this article under "dangerous nonsense", therefore. We should invite populists of both sides of the aisle to debate issues with one another so that maybe, we might not think as ill of one another and courageously carry democracy into the next centuries, so that we can learn to deal with attacks on basic western principles like this one. Wait, I suggested we required courage. We're doomed.