131: Anti-Elitism is the Rational Response to a Broken System

The story of our time is not just the collapse of expertise but the weaponization of it. Across politics, media, and technology, we see decision-making concentrated in the hands of so-called experts who craft policies that serve themselves and their peers while the broader public is left alienated, cynical, and powerless. The result? A democratic order that is functionally illegible to the people it supposedly serves, and a vacuum of legitimacy that authoritarianism rushes to fill.

At the heart of this crisis is a paradox: the more complex our systems become, the more they demand specialized knowledge to navigate. Yet the more expertise-driven governance becomes, the less democratic it is. This isn’t just a crisis of policy; it’s a crisis of participation. When political power is reduced to technocratic decision-making, ordinary people disengage. And when they disengage, they become resentful.

This resentment isn’t just emotional—it’s logical. After all, what good is democracy if the average citizen is unable to meaningfully influence it? Why participate in a system that treats you as a passive observer rather than an active participant?

The Failure of the News Industry

The same dynamic plays out in media. Once, the role of the press was to inform the public and hold power to account. Today, the media landscape is so fragmented, manipulated, and compromised that meaningful civic participation requires an entirely new skill set. To be an informed citizen, you must also act as a journalist, deciphering credible sources, and sorting through competing narratives. Which is to say we must be citizen journalists if we are to be citizens.

The average person can no longer rely on institutions to filter or frame information. News organizations have become captive to political and economic interests, their credibility eroded by both real corruption and relentless attacks from bad actors. Social media has accelerated this collapse, turning public discourse into a chaotic battlefield where narratives are shaped by algorithms and engagement metrics rather than accuracy or civic value.

This leads to a brutal conclusion: if you want to be informed, you have to take matters into your own hands. The future belongs to the citizen-journalist, a hybrid individual capable of navigating the information war, defending themselves from manipulation, and engaging with power on their own terms.

Hack or Be Hacked

The same logic applies to technology. The digital world is now the primary battleground for political and economic power. Every day, governments, corporations, and bad actors attempt to manipulate, surveil, and exploit us. And yet, most people remain functionally illiterate in digital terms.

If you don’t want to be a victim of disinformation, you must become a media analyst.
If you don’t want to be politically disenfranchised, you must become a citizen-journalist.
If you don’t want to be hacked, you must become a hacker.

This is the new reality: survival in the modern world requires skills that were once the domain of professionals. The ability to investigate, verify, secure, and resist. The notion of citizenship as a passive state is dead; the era of the hacker is here.

Rebuilding Authority from Below

This isn’t an argument for rejecting expertise. Rather, it’s an argument for reclaiming it. Expertise must be democratized, not hoarded. Institutions must be made accountable, not worshipped. The only way out of our legitimacy crisis is through mass participation—an active, engaged public that doesn’t just consume information but creates and critiques it.

The rise of anti-elitism isn’t a rejection of knowledge. It’s a rejection of exclusion. The task ahead isn’t to restore trust in failing institutions but to build new ones that are transparent, participatory, and resilient.

The future of authority won’t be found in the halls of power. It will be built in the minds of those willing to take up the mantle of the citizen-journalist-hacker, fighting not just for the right to be heard but for the ability to think, act, and resist on their own terms.

The latest episode of Red-Tory is out and addresses some of this and more: