How to read rejection, even "scoldings"

2026-07-13 19:18:00, Opinione Ardi Stefa

I have been carefully reading the comments under the posts of MPs from both political camps for some time now.

It's a more interesting read than their posts themselves.

Citizens' comments have changed radically. They are no longer comments with praise and dithyrambs. What is immediately noticeable is that people no longer tolerate their hypocrisy or moralizing. Whenever they appear as preachers of ethics, as puritans, as civilized and open-minded people, commentators go all out, reminding them of their words, actions, and double standards. Now, in the comments, you no longer find fear, flattery, or submission. You find anger, irony, contempt, and an open desire to unmask them, even to insult them, whenever they appear as moralists, puritans, or preachers of citizenship.

I initially noticed this in the comments under the posts of opposition MPs.

It is now also in the comments of posts by MPs and senior officials of the majority.

In fact, this is the bill of their arrogance. For years, they turned the Assembly into a spectacle of insults, labels, and vulgarity. Instead of argument, they chose insults. Instead of constructive debate, lynching. Instead of ethics, propaganda. They even called anyone who did not think and speak as they did a crow, a raven, an owl, scum...

Then they were surprised why citizens no longer trust them and they are so disrespectful that they are forced to block even comments.

Politicians complain that public language has been degraded. But who degraded it first? Who normalized vulgarity, labeling, contempt, and hatred as a political instrument? Themselves. Society, sooner or later, reflects the language of its elite. When the elite falls, so does the level of public debate.

In fact, the MPs who feel insulted are only experiencing the reflection of the political culture they have built themselves. They have sown contempt and are reaping disrespect.

But authority is not maintained by fear or coercion; it exists only as long as people recognize it as legitimate. When authority loses its dignity, it remains only power stripped of respect. This is exactly what we are seeing today in social networks and protests. MPs may still have a mandate, but they are losing what is much more important: moral authority.

Naturally, this is an inevitable consequence of the degradation of public language. Because when politics corrupts language, language corrupts politics. And when the vocabulary of the people's representatives is filled with banality, slander, and arrogance, they no longer have the right to complain about the language returned to them by citizens.

Because they have never truly understood the term "circulation of elites." They have not understood that no elite is eternal. And that when it loses its ability to lead, when it falls into complacency, arrogance, and moral degradation, the process of replacing it begins. Society does not immediately overthrow the elite, but first deprives it of legitimacy, respect, and moral authority. This is precisely the phase we seem to be living in.

Angry and ironic comments are not just outbursts of emotion; they are signs of a deep crisis of political representation.

Comments are no longer just comments. They also show something else, the fear that is disappearing. Citizens are no longer afraid to speak to them face to face, even through a comment on social networks. Citizens' comments, even offensive ones, are a daily referendum on the level of political representation. And the result is overwhelming. Citizens are not just judging individuals; they are rejecting an entire political class that has lost touch with society.

And, to put it bluntly, they do them good. For years they spoke with contempt towards citizens, fellow MPs, intellectual critics, thinking that their mandate made them untouchable. Today, citizens are returning the favor. Not because they hate politics, but because they are tired of half-MPs, half-memorabilists, and half-representatives who demand respect without deserving it.

Perhaps this is the first sign that society has begun to hold accountable those who have long considered themselves above it.

And political elites do well to listen to society. Even when citizens insult them!