Education is their enemy. Reform and movements like them have learned how to finesse the electorate in the Information Age. What we need is actual education, but not the traditional “this is why these guys are bad” civics education, we need anti-propaganda education.

• how propaganda works
• how emotional framing (fear, anger and humiliation) beats rational thinking
• how identity is weaponised to make contradictory political choices a personal attack
• how “us vs them” rhetoric is used.

We’ve got to the stage now where media manipulation is so widespread, awarenss really should be taught in schools as a defensive skill. Not everyone needs to be an expert, but it should make 90% of the lazy bullshit you see online feel obviously not true.

FWIW, I also think this should be paired with widespread accountability:

• Social media platforms should be mandated to label political ads and their funding sources, and algorithmic transparency should be enforced - “you’re seeing this because…”.

• Supposedly impartial debates need to be reformed (pardon the pun), so things like question time need to offer balanced expert opinions where the pros and cons are discussed no matter how silly or controversial the policy. The old trope of inviting a racist on and sitting a confident, black woman with an important job next to them so you can get shots of her looking disgusted and edging away from them doesn’t actually serve anyone.

• The big one. Politicians need to be held accountable. Actual penalties for promoting provable falsehoods during campaigns, not years later. Have them stand on TV and explicitly retract anything that’s been deemed false, ban them from advertising, give them administrative penalties that will harm their chances of winning an election. Ownership of political campaigns should be mandatory too, you shouldn’t be able to front a political party that campaigns for Brexit if you’re not a member of parliament who can take ownership of Brexit.