The Paradox of Democracy Quotes

“which do we prefer, the uncertainty of democratic freedom, or the predictability of authoritarianism?”
― Zac Gershberg, The Paradox of Democracy - Free Speech, Open Media, and Perilous Persuasion

“The news business also plays a role in this new political climate and desperately needs to reassess how it operates. One benefit of the Trump era is that he exposed how incompatible the twentieth-century model of journalism is in the digital age. As president, he thrived on opposition, and the mainstream press consistently played into his hands, feverishly chasing every lie and half-truth he uttered or tweeted. In a real sense, Trump hacked the press by exploiting journalistic conventions and offering continual pseudo-events designed to hijack news cycles and dominate coverage. The communications scholar Whitney Phillips calls this the “oxygen of amplification.”13”
― Zac Gershberg, The Paradox of Democracy - Free Speech, Open Media, and Perilous Persuasion

“We live in what Kuran calls two intolerant communities: one composed of “identitarians,” who are concerned with issues like racial and gender equality, and “nativists,” those preoccupied by the threats of immigration and cultural change. These communities live in different worlds, desire different things, and share almost nothing in common.”
― Zac Gershberg, The Paradox of Democracy - Free Speech, Open Media, and Perilous Persuasion

“Autocracies offer the virtue of stability at the cost of freedom, necessitating arbitrary rule.”
― Zac Gershberg, The Paradox of Democracy - Free Speech, Open Media, and Perilous Persuasion

“One of the many casualties of our market-driven economy is the idea that an education ought to be more than preparation for the labor market.”
― Zac Gershberg, The Paradox of Democracy - Free Speech, Open Media, and Perilous Persuasion

“The national socialist revolution is bringing about the total transformation of our German existence,” he had told them shortly before the vote, adding, “The Fuhrer alone is the present and future German reality and law.”
― Zac Gershberg, The Paradox of Democracy - Free Speech, Open Media, and Perilous Persuasion

“Sport doesn’t breed character any more than democracy does; both simply reveal it.”
― Zac Gershberg, The Paradox of Democracy - Free Speech, Open Media, and Perilous Persuasion

“the press will never escape accusations of liberal bias so long as its reporting fails to endorse “conservative” causes.”
― Zac Gershberg, The Paradox of Democracy - Free Speech, Open Media, and Perilous Persuasion

“To cut down on costs, these local affiliates ran video news releases (VNRs) to fill up time. They tended to be national stories lacking relevance to the local communities for which they were aired.”
― Zac Gershberg, The Paradox of Democracy - Free Speech, Open Media, and Perilous Persuasion

“fascism can only emerge from, and within, democracy itself. “Crucial to the whole process,” the historian Richard J. Evans has written, “was the very way in which democracy’s enemies exploited the democratic constitution and democratic political culture for their own ends.”7”
― Zac Gershberg, The Paradox of Democracy - Free Speech, Open Media, and Perilous Persuasion

“Truncated arguments could be supported by nationalist newspapers slinging images, slogans, and headlines that wrapped themselves in the glory of the flag.”
― Zac Gershberg, The Paradox of Democracy - Free Speech, Open Media, and Perilous Persuasion

“Ancient Athens is often held up as a model of democracy, but the reality is more complicated than that. The city purged two of its greatest intellectual lights, denied citizenship to women, maintained a system of slavery and pederasty, and botched multiple war efforts. And yet Athens helps clarify what democracy is and what it isn’t.”
― Zac Gershberg, The Paradox of Democracy - Free Speech, Open Media, and Perilous Persuasion

“sophistry, a form of deceptive, crowd-pleasing speech, overwhelmed both societies and hastened their collapse.”
― Zac Gershberg, The Paradox of Democracy - Free Speech, Open Media, and Perilous Persuasion

“This biblical tale from Genesis captures the conditions in which we find ourselves. We dream the dream of perfect communication through novel technologies, like the Tower of Babel, but the goal of universal harmony eludes us. Great structures are erected, and the distance of geographic space collapses through media invention and innovation. Yet no matter how hard we try, discord persists. We are forever divided.”
― Zac Gershberg, The Paradox of Democracy - Free Speech, Open Media, and Perilous Persuasion