Society Uncensored | What About Democracy?

How democratic can we claim to be today? Democracy does not simply actualize within electoral proceedings; it concerns people and society and relies on concepts such as freedom, equality, and solidarity. In an era where we see a surge of anti-democratic phenomena and manifestations of intolerance multiply, questions arise about the state of democracy nowadays and how fascism circulates untethered and receives legitimization for its violent expression. Racism, nationalism, religious fundamentalism, sexism, and toxic masculinity remain multiple facets of the very same phenomenon of intolerance. And intolerance can arm the hands of racist violence groups, mobilize self-proclaimed "vigilantes," and articulate itself as extreme hate rhetoric. Accordingly, it can morph into violent disability hate and xenophobia behaviors on the ramp of a ship or lead to the deaths of Roma teenagers under police gunfire.

And what about us? How do we respond to these phenomena that undermine real democracy? How do people act in dreary times? How do witnesses to such displays of violence and hatred take a decisive step forward? How do they cease to be uninvolved bystanders and turn into active agents?

The new discussion of the “Society Uncensored” series, with guest speakers from the fields of journalism, art, science, and academia, opens up a dialogue about the relationship between people and democracy, its evolution, and the crisis it goes through with time. People who do not remain passive observers and do not turn their gaze away, who have experienced a particular form of violence, discuss countering such phenomena. How do we say no to fascistization and the corrosion of democracy?