Quote of the Day (Catherine Rampell, on ‘Data Trutherism’ and Democracy’s Decline)

“The problem with elevating yourself by tearing down the existing authoritative institutions is that once you succeed, you’ve established a road map for others to tear you down, too. There will always be someone waiting in the wings with an even juicier conspiracy theory, an even zanier hidden truth, an even more intricate data-unskewing method — and there’s no longer any authority left to debunk any of it.

“This is how a democracy crumbles: not with a bang, but with data trutherism.”— Catherine Rampell, “When the Facts Don’t Matter, How Can Democracy Survive?,” The Washington Post, Oct. 17, 2016