The Funeral of Facts

Mehdi Hasan brought law and logic. Twenty far-right conservatives brought slogans and suspicion.

It wasn’t a debate. It was a stress test for democracy, a moral implosion disguised as a conversation.

Mehdi Hasan sat in a room of twenty, prepared to reason. The others came to resist. He brought case law, context, and clarity. They brought energy. Performance. The kind of misplaced confidence that thrives when education is optional and shame is out of fashion.

They hadn’t read the Constitution. Most hadn’t read anything since high school, and it showed. They quoted the Bible as if it were the founding document and dismissed the actual founding document as “just a book.” That wasn’t a mistake; it was a worldview. If the Constitution fails to affirm their opinions, it’s disposable. But if scripture can be weaponised to justify suspicion, hierarchy, exclusion, then suddenly, it’s holy. As one panellist put it plainly: “The Bible is the highest law. The Constitution is just man-made.”

There were contradictions at every turn. Birthright citizenship? Un-American. But also: America is the land of freedom and opportunity. But also: Not for those people. But also: We’re not racist. But also: You’re not really American. One panellist argued, “Just because you’re born here doesn’t mean you’re American. It’s not about the land, it’s about the values.” A sentiment that sounds philosophical until you realise it's a euphemism for racial gatekeeping. Another insisted, “When people cross the border and immediately get benefits, it’s not fair to real Americans,” as though undocumented immigrants are all welfare opportunists and cash in big time as soon as they touch American soil.

And then came the open bigotry: “If Mehdi doesn’t love this country, maybe he should go back to wherever he came from.” Mehdi Hasan, an Oxford-educated journalist born in the UK, a son of Indian parents, a naturalised citizen of the USA and one of the few in the room armed with facts, was told to leave because he didn’t flatter their nationalism.

Another panellist declared, “Women are too emotional to be presidents. That’s just biology.” Bingo - that explains why history books are overflowing with peaceful male rulers. Or why war, colonisation, and genocide are such famously feminine traits. As if that wasn’t enough, someone followed with: “God made man to lead and woman to follow. It’s not oppression, it’s divine order.” Welcome to 2025, where patriarchy still wears a halo. And it doesn’t stop there. A third voice added: “If women want equality so bad, put them on the front lines. But then don’t complain when they get hurt.” Because apparently equality means punishment, not parity.

Religious authoritarianism wasn’t just present, it was pulsing. “If our laws aren’t based on Christian values, then what’s the point of America?” one woman asked. And another: “The Bible is the highest law. The Constitution is just man-made.” When Mehdi reminded them that America is a secular democracy, the response wasn’t an argument; it was suspicion. As if nuance is a threat and knowledge is a foreign invader. And perhaps most chilling of all: “Sharia law is creeping in through immigrants. We need Christian leaders to stop it.” Dog-whistle bigotry so loud, it might as well be a megaphone.

What Mehdi faced was not a panel of conservatives. It was a lineup of confused nationalists, passive authoritarians, and untrained ideologues performing the politics of victimhood with conviction. There were no ideas, just instincts. No frameworks, just feelings. They didn’t want to solve anything. They wanted to win. Loudly.

And this is where we arrive at something darker.

Fascism isn’t rising in America by accident. It’s rising because it’s convenient. It’s rising because complexity is exhausting and accountability is humiliating. It’s rising because for people who were raised on stories of dominance and entitlement, equality feels like persecution.

Fascism is the perfect political system for the emotionally stunted. It requires no growth, no empathy, no literacy. It demands only allegiance and rage. It offers pride without effort. Power without merit. Identity without introspection. It’s lazy man’s politics, with better branding and a prayer graphic on Instagram. One attendee laid it out clearly: “Trump gets things done because he doesn’t care what people think. We need that.”

And for men, especially, it is a luxury ideology. You get to feel strong without being brave. You get to rule without listening. You get to humiliate others and call it order. You get to ignore women until they become useful, and then call it tradition. All you need is a little hate and the right skin tone. Everything else will be provided for you.

So when someone on that panel said Mehdi should be deported, it wasn’t a gaffe. It was the quiet part out loud. The truth is: many of them would happily vote to exile intelligence. Because intelligence threatens what they’ve built, this ecosystem of resentment, half-truths, and righteous ignorance. As one man confidently proclaimed, “Too much freedom is killing this country. Not everyone deserves a voice.”

And Mehdi? He didn’t flinch. When accused of being “too intellectual,” he smiled and clarified the law. When they shouted, he clarified the Constitution. When they contradicted themselves, like the man who demanded freedom for all but also said “people who don’t share Christian values shouldn’t be allowed to make laws”, he held the mirror. Calmly. Unapologetically. And the reflection wasn’t pretty.

This is not about Mehdi Hasan being right. It’s not about the Constitution, immigration, or Christian values. It’s about what happens when a country begins to see critical thinking as aggression, compassion as weakness, and disagreement as betrayal.

It’s about what happens when democracy becomes a costume, something you wear when it flatters you and discard the moment it doesn’t.

We watched a man try to reason with people who mistake volume for validity. We watched facts bounce off the wall of a curated identity. We watched democracy ask, again, to be taken seriously, and get mocked by those who’ve learned it comes with no consequences.

This is how it happens. Not with boots and salutes. But with ring lights, IG Stories, and applause for the loudest guy in the room. The 1930s aren’t coming back in black-and-white. They’re returning in full colour, with better filters and fewer books.

You don’t need a dictator anymore. Just a crowd that’s forgotten how to think, and learned how to cheer. A crowd that no longer trusts science, because “experts always think they know best, but look where that’s got us.”

And while that crowd shouts about freedom, what they really want is control. They want to control how you speak, how you identify, what you can read, and what your children learn. They want a country tailored to their reflection and allergic to everyone else. One panellist said it outright: “The media is the enemy. They brainwash people against real patriots.”

Democracy asks you to live with people you don’t understand. It asks for patience, collaboration, and restraint. It asks you to share a future with people you didn’t choose. That’s the deal. And it’s the exact deal this new movement refuses to accept. They want liberty with no friction. Power without plurality.

The tragedy is, many of them genuinely believe they’re patriots. That's what they’re doing is noble. But loyalty without curiosity isn’t patriotism. It’s tribalism. And tribalism, dressed in red, white, and blue, still burns books.

Mehdi Hasan didn’t lose that debate. He just showed up at a funeral for facts and asked if anyone remembered the body.

Because this wasn’t a debate. It was a eulogy, for dialogue, for shared reality, for the basic idea that truth is something worth arriving at together.

And the people on that stage? They weren’t debating. They were performing the end of something. And smiling while they did it.

If you have the stomach to witness that intellectual car crash for yourself, you can watch the full episode here: