The other reason why criticism of democracy usually fails to be compelling to smart people outside of Telegram is that there is no solid definition of what is and isn't a democracy. As I have pointed out before, the collective definitions of democracy held by both the right and the left are far too broad and nebulous. By these broad definitions of democracy, modern Russia under Putin could be considered a democracy because the Russian people still vote. Of course, it doesn't really matter in their case; but voting is still a function of Russian politics, thus it falls within the broad definition that people have been using around here.

You can't properly criticize something that isn’t at first properly defined.