Short Read: Ancient Democracy For An Online World

David Stasavage & Nathan Schneider | 11 minutes

Has the internet spelled the end of democracy?

When most people ask this question, they are thinking about what the internet does to the politics of governments: the Cambridge Analytica scandal and QAnon, the app-driven election campaigns of populist strongmen like Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil and Rodrigo Duterte in the Philippines, #fakenews, #deepstate and so forth. There are lots of good reasons to worry that the answer might be yes.

But what if we ask the inverse question? What is the fate of democracy on the internet itself?

Snippets

Marriage isn’t the honeymoon in Thailand—it’s day four of vacation #56 that you take together. Marriage is not celebrating the closing of the deal on the first house—it’s having dinner in that house for the 4,386th time.

And it’s certainly not Valentine’s Day.

- Tim Urban, How to Pick Your Life Partner, Part 2

You know, sometimes I think I am one of the most misunderstood footballers on the planet. People don’t really understand what happened to me. They have the story all wrong.

It’s very simple, honestly.

In the span of nine days, I went from the happiest day of my life, to the worst day of my life.

- Adriano, Adriano Has A Story to Tell

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