This is what I mean when I say democracy is being done wrong. You can have elections and legal safeguards, but if people can’t know what’s true, engage meaningfully, or challenge power, then democracy is no longer delivering on its core promises.

We live in a system where:

Truth is drowned in disinformation

Deliberation is fragmented and polarised

Accountability is often performative or deflected

So even if rights remain intact on paper, democracy isn’t functioning at the level that matters.

I'd ask all of you and @jcbslide.bsky.social to think about these questions:

Can we know what’s true?

Can we debate and decide fairly?

Can we hold power accountable?

If you answer "no" to those questions, then I'd argue you aren't living in a functional democracy, just a performance of one.

I use the VDA Framework to describe democracy as a system with three essential functions:

Verification - Can we establish what is true?

Deliberation - Can we debate and decide fairly?

Accountability - Can we hold power to account?

If these fail, democracy becomes a hollow performance.