En redes la gente dice cosas. Hay gente molesta por los que dicen cosas. Luego otros se molestan por los que se molestaron. Y todos caben. — Luis Carlos Díaz (@LuisCarlos) November 10, 2016 On social media there are people saying things. Then there are people annoyed by those who are saying things. And still others who are annoyed by those who are annoyed. And yet there's room for everybody. If you’re a democrat, social democrat, progressive, neoliberal, leftist or, as we call them here in Peru, a “caviar leftist”, you’re not going to like what I'm going to say. If, in spite of that warning, you choose to continue reading, okay, that’s a first step towards breaking out of your bubble. And that’s a good thing. Over the last few days I’ve been reading in different news media about how horrible the world is going to be now that the election in that faraway land whose fate is nevertheless intertwined with our own was lost by the favorite candidate of those media and the people they write for, and won by the candidate who is practically evil personified. Okay, I know that candidate is far from perfect—the fact that he doesn’t believe in global warming is to me great cause for concern—but he won. Fair and square, as far as we know. If you don’t accept this, maybe it's time for you to review the basic tenets of democracy. You might say to me that the electoral system of the country in question is imperfect, and that some people would like to change it. Fine—then fight for that change, though bear in mind that you didn’t quibble about the same electoral system when your preferred candidate won. I sincerely believe you should examine your ideas about democracy. And while we’re at it, it might do you some good to review the concept of the political alternance as well. Why? Well, is it such a terrible thing that the other half of the country should have the right to to have a government it favors in power? No? Because I’ve been hearing you ranting and raving about “the entrenchment of power”, and I wouldn’t want anyone to accuse you of looking at the splinter in others’ eyes while ignoring the the beam in your own. An anti-Trump protest in New York City in April 2016. PHOTO: mal3k (CC BY 2.0) If you looked at the tweet I used as the epigraph for this article it's possible you've already labelled me part of the second group, one of those who get annoyed at other people on account of what they say. Not really—perhaps I’m more concerned than annoyed, for in my view your proclamations about the coming apocalypse do constitute misinformation. Come on, you seem like a serious guy, who, if I recall correctly, knows his journalism and political science, so you know what I mean. You shouldn’t be walking around, tablet in hand, prophesying the coming of the Four Horsemen, because there’s something called a self-fulfilling prophecy and that seems a little like one of those. And it’s not just me saying that, there are others as well: El sostenido desdén con el que desde el principio de la campaña la clase media cultural trató a Trump en las redes sociales creó su fortaleza. Esa actitud de superioridad banal manifestada en burlas e ironías terminó siendo la fuente de toda la energía comunicacional del empresario […] En el campeonato de burlas y parodias que se llevaron a cabo en apoyo de Hillary y que se multiplicaron por las redes sociales hasta el infinito, nunca consideraron preguntarse seriamente qué estaba encarnando para el electorado ese hombre rudimentario. The unremitting disdain with which middle-class social media users treated Trump from the beginning of the campaign bolstered his power. The trivial superciliousness manifested in jokes and ironic quips only ended up energizing the magnate's performance…. While waging their campaign of jokes and parodies in support of Hillary and propagating them endlessly through social media, they never stopped to ponder the things this crude man embodied for his constituency. So in other words, in case you still don’t understand, it was your misunderstanding of your own fellow voters that brought you to where you are today. Obviously those who waged the losing campaign are in the same situation, or worse. There's much that can be said, but in the end the thing that matters is winning, not losing. And you lost. Yes, I know you have travelled the world, that you have the fought on behalf of the defenseless in distant countries, that you are well qualified. But maybe you don’t quite understand your immediate environment. Perhaps you, as happened to me once, let yourself be dazzled by the big city lights and failed and became blind to other things, to the things hidden in the interstices along the way, hidden in those dark corners where light doesn’t shine.