We hear on every side the claim that democracy is in crisis because a regime of post-truth has emerged, reinforced by social media bubbles or echo-chambers that serve merely to intensify already-existing viewpoints. The argument, put forward most recently by Timothy Snyder has rarely been critically examined, and has instead degenerated into a banal talking point. Upon closer examination, it contains a crypto-authoritarian politics which goes some way to explain the demotic enthusiasm behind much of the populist right, and especially of Donald Trump.
To begin with, it is important to clear up the language. The connection between truth and representative government, most compellingly stated by John Stuart Mill, was historically a justification for liberalism, not democracy. The rule of the demos has in reality no intrinsic relationship to truth, nor does it require any particular institutional form. It can just as well be embodied in a personal or single-party dictatorship as in an elected body.
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