Usually agree. But nowhere do you mention that your "vacuum" (argue it exists as depicted, but let's roll) is hyper-exploited using media 'Wunderwaffe' by hostile State actors who've properly got their anti-democratic act together, aided & abetted by myriad-motivated bad-faith internal actors...
...and our liberal democratic values and how they cope under extreme hostility & duress are so far found severely wanting. You said something about counterpublic. If that means 'illuminatepublic' to 'counterthreats' as a matter of existential urgency, I'm all for it.
You're absolutely right that hostile states and bad-faith internal actors exploit the vacuum, but my argument is that the vacuum itself is the structural problem. It's what allows disinformation, authoritarianism, and anti-democratic coordination to thrive.
We can't just fight back with better counterpropaganda. We need to rebuild the civic, deliberative, and institutional infrastructure that made liberal democracy resilient in the first place, and right now, that’s what’s been hollowed out.
O.K. but you're ignoring the role of cosmopolitan elites - liberals, academics etc i.e. the "good guys" - who have promoted abstract rights over solidarity, the singular over the general (Reckwitz), and the worldview of frequent fliers over those rooted in local communities and traditions (Calhoun).
I don’t disagree that cosmopolitan liberal actors contributed to the hollowing. Rights abstracted from solidarity, and expertise detached from place, helped weaken the civic foundations they claimed to defend.
I’m not calling for a restoration of their version of liberalism. I’m arguing for something deeper: rebuilding embedded, participatory civic infrastructure rooted in community, accountability, and deliberation, not just technocratic values or elite universals.
If anything, the failure you describe is part of the same structural problem: when democracy becomes detached from lived experience, communal ties, and institutional belonging, it collapses into simulation. Reconnection is the point.
And COVID exacerbated this. I remember the very first call to action after Trump 2.0 was for people to organize IRL. It was a little scary but now I organize a weekly Tesla Takedown, creating community and showing passersby’s this is not normal. Our TT is a dance party which make it all the better💃
Do you find bringing people together in real-world spaces more effective than purely online activities?
Absolutely! People see us and want to do something themselves. I’m connected w/ many of the Visibility brigades in DC DMV. Hundreds of everyday people showing up to stand on street corners w/ signs, becoming active bystanders (ICE), organizing neighbors. Are you aware of One Million Rising campaign?
Populations have been encouraged to think of themselves as consumers of democracy rather than as participants. They have collaborated in their own disempowerment. One problem is that the scale of national politics is too great for genuine participation.
But democracy by very nature is detached from "lived experience", & some halcyon idyll of liberal democracy is far more mythical than rebuildable. E.g. Why do I, dragged up on a northern post-industrial council estate (& patently not elite), mostly concur politically with elite London technocrats?
I'd argue at every point of liberal existence we need to be vigilant to its systemic threats & alive to the endless & necessary fights to defend it.
Please keep talking about this. Democracy is compact by a group educated in the meaning and intent of the compact.
I (genuinely) worry liberal democracy doesn't have the 'minerals' in this moment of determined, concerted, (rich), ruthless & brutal threats to its internal fabric. No matter its civic infrastructure, we liberals need a ruthless streak when pushed this hard. How we play this dichotomy will be key.