Interesting thread.

The thing is, democracy is fragile; democratic structures need work to keep them going. Let them wither (or kill them outright) and people forget they were ever there; they forget democracy was even possible. https://twitter.com/russophiliac/status/1391733022278524928">https://twitter.com/russophil...

As a society we& #39;re a long way down this path, I& #39;m afraid. The fixation on elected *leaders*, even on the Left - Starmer contrasted with Corbyn, Burnham hailed as an alternative - is a morbid symptom.

It& #39;s not so much that we don& #39;t value intermediate democratic institutions or even that we don& #39;t think they& #39;re possible; it& #39;s more that the thought of intermediate democratic institutions never comes to mind. It& #39;s a gap in our mental maps, and with time we forget the gap is there.

I& #39;m not convinced that academics and journos are worse than the average bear wrt this, but both groups do tend to be highly confident that they know what& #39;s what; this makes them effective at disseminating conventional knowledge, complete with its gaps and blind spots.

And it is true that any academic or journalist senior enough to have a platform has reached that position through a lot of competition and a lot of emphasis on their own unique good qualities; they aren& #39;t disciplines that encourage collective thinking.

Good thread, anyway (and more optimistic than this one). https://twitter.com/russophiliac/status/1391730489304682497">https://twitter.com/russophil...