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It’s not funny

Not so long ago, we had debated whether it was critical for democracies to have satire political parties and clown politicians. We were back then referring to those politicians who explicitly depict themselves as satirical or funny – not all those other politicians who are sadly yet unintentionally amusing. You know whom we’re referring to, with their extravagant public statements: Trump in the US and his disregard for the truth (when tweeting for instance), Bolsonaro in Brazil and his admiration for deadly dictatorship, Duterte in the Philippines and his self-comparison to Hitler, Salvini in Italy and his xenophobic rhetoric. And those names are merely the names who have been elected into office, not the whole swatch of mainstream and extreme politicians.

Observing them has led Dirk and me to wonder whether, after all, being head of state had perhaps only to do with entertainment – rather than expertise. Entertainment could be equally understood as an ability to communicate or represent publicly what a more expert cabinet actually produces in terms of policies, as Sebastian contends. Or maybe politics should be treated more seriously, as Dirk proposes: time is limited, important decisions need to be made – there’s no time to be wasted on social media in futile arguments.

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Have a great week and stay tuned for our next weekly episode!

Sebastian & Dirk

Picture: CC0, Pixabay