On desire and truth - Yuval Noah Harari in NYT:

'To make matters even worse, we are now seeing the rise of populist regimes that first gain power by inciting hatred against foreigners and minorities, and then systematically attack any institution that might limit their power. Their primary targets are exactly those institutions that protect the truth: the media, the courts and the academy. Populist regimes fear the truth because it doesn’t obey them, so they claim it doesn’t exist. The typical populist leader flatters people by telling them that the only thing that matters is their desires. Experts who point out inconvenient truths are rebranded as traitors who oppose the will of the people.

To safeguard the future of democracy, we must keep truth independent of desire. It is not enough to declare loyalty to the abstract ideal of truth. The key is institutions. However imperfect, only institutions can turn ideals into social practices.

No matter in which country you live, if you want to preserve democracy, vote for politicians who respect the institutions that investigate and publish the truth. Vote for a party that tells people that they have the right to elect whatever government they like, but they cannot elect whatever truth they like.'

Read the article here.

This is an important distinction, you may desire that your penis is the largest in the world, that your enemies will be sent to Mars before March 1 or that you are the best person that ever existed, and you are entitled to these desires, but these desires are not the truth. Rarely will a desire equal the truth.
But somehow many people have come to the conclusion that the right to desire what you want is the same as the right to declare that your desire is the truth.
Indeed, this misunderstanding is the source of disasters, unhappiness, and blood lust.