I don’t think the problem is democracy. The problem is our access to reliable information that shows us things we need to know. Traditional news media is struggling but still does what it can (with obvious exceptions), on a much smaller scale than in the past. But social media is being used as a propaganda tool with spectacular success and most people have no idea. Every person who hates politics is getting bombarded with what seems like just a funny meme about this crazy old man who may be a pedophile, and suddenly after a few of those they pick up (without even noticing it) the smears the Republican Party wants to attach to Biden—while still feeling like they aren’t getting into politics. Between the funny dogs and cute babies you scroll through on your feed during a work break, your feelings about issues you haven’t even looked into are being nudged, constantly.

I’m not even sure a healthy enough democracy would resist this much better—you’d need elected politicians who are very capable of digging into tech issues and understanding them enough to start regulating social media platforms for how they choose to present content and their advertising standards.