Democracy will not die at the hands of a general, nor will it be buried by a classic coup d'état. There will be no tanks in the streets, no abrupt shutdown of parliaments, no immediate suspension of constitutions. Twenty-first-century democracy dies in a much more subtle, sophisticated, and therefore far more dangerous way: it dies at the hands of its own citizens, who are convinced they are defending it.

In today’s global landscape, human tragedies are often narrated selectively. Lives from “distant” countries are usually left out of media and political focus, as philosopher Judith Butler pointed out when reflecting on the unequal attribution of “grievability” to victims. Only those who fit the dominant framework—“Western,” Christian, or strategically useful lives—are presented as worthy of compassion, while other deaths remain silenced.