The tyranny of the Twitterati

In Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville identified ‘the tyranny of the majority’ as the main shortcoming of democratic societies. His fear was that the principle of majority rule could cross over from the political arena to the realm of ideas. After all, if being able to command the most votes is the main source of political authority, what’s to stop it becoming the main source of intellectual authority? Tocqueville wasn’t worried about people being oppressed physically in democratic societies. Rather, it was their independence of mind that was at risk — and this ‘mild despotism’ was, in some ways, even more pernicious than the overt despotism of European monarchies.

Was Tocqueville being unduly alarmist? Today, diversity of opinions and ideas is one of the great distinguishing characteristics of democratic societies. Even where one viewpoint clearly predominates — such as a belief in socialised medicine — there’s usually an active minority that isn’t afraid to voice its dissent.

But if Tocqueville was wrong about the tendency of individuals to be tyrannised by the majority across whole societies, he was right about it happening within the various groups that make up democratic societies. People will disagree about whether those on the left are more susceptible to herd opinion than those on the right, but what is beyond dispute is that left-wing activists are more effective at enforcing a party line.

The manner in which the left has hijacked Twitter is a case in point. Take the recent fate suffered by Carla Bruni, the former first lady of France. Last week, she gave an interview to French Vogue in which she expressed mild scepticism about the continuing relevance of feminism in the 21st century. ‘We don’t need to be feminists in my generation,’ she said.