And when all the barriers to equality, formal and informal, have been removed; when everyone is equal; when elites are despised and full license is established to do “whatever one wants,” you arrive at what might be called late-stage democracy. There is no kowtowing to authority here, let alone to political experience or expertise.

Um, when everyone is equal, the governing institutions that serve the citizens are able to serve the interests of the public at large, rather than those of the elites. No "kowtowing to authority" is necessary when political experience and expertise is used in service of the greater good. Or, at least, that is how egalitarian democracies are supposed to work FFS…

…oh, Christ, there's more?

Patriarchy is also dismantled: “We almost forgot to mention the extent of the law of equality and of freedom in the relations of women with men and men with women.” Family hierarchies are inverted: “A father habituates himself to be like his child and fear his sons, and a son habituates himself to be like his father and to have no shame before or fear of his parents.” In classrooms, “as the teacher … is frightened of the pupils and fawns on them, so the students make light of their teachers.” Animals are regarded as equal to humans; the rich mingle freely with the poor in the streets and try to blend in. The foreigner is equal to the citizen.

And it is when a democracy has ripened as fully as this, Plato argues, that a would-be tyrant will often seize his moment.

Dismantling the patriarchy brought us Donald Trump? Why, that makes perfect sense!!!

/Oh, for fuck's sake