The upcoming era of smart populism

On 9th January, the Institute for Christian Democratic politics and Hanns Seidel Foundation organized a debate on the post-truth era.

Psychologist Dalibor Špok thinks that the presence is characterized by growing importance of emotions at the expense of facts. Sociologist Jan Hartl added that he found the public debate shallow as it is influenced by infotainment. The third guest, political geographer Michael Romancov said that another significant characteristic of our contemporary society is that people – we – refuse to accept responsibility, which he considered highly problematic.

When talking about politics in the post-truth era, Jan Hartl was rather sceptical saying that people are willing to pass politicians´ lies as they think all politicians do politics just for money and with this attitude morality of a society is in decline. On the other hand, Michael Romancov was slightly optimistic stating that he could see there are some politicians who care about the quality of the political environment which they find more important than election results. Dalibor Špok added that according to him in the post-truth era value-driven politicians can be successful, but the values should not only be declared but also demonstrated by them. Jan Hartl agreed to this idea saying that we should demand our politicians to set an example to the people.

The discussion was hosted by Veronika Sedláčková.

Throughout the entire evening the guests and visitors enjoyed music by the Adams Emily duo.