"Epidemics, like disasters, have a way of revealing underlying truths about the societies they impact..." — Anne Applebaum

In Belarus, the government is a kind of presidential monarchy with no checks, no balances, and no rule of law.

Birtherism surely increased Americans' distrust of politics, though in ways that are hard to pin down. By contrast, when anti-vaxxers persuade parents not to vaccinate children, the result can be sickness and even death.

The anti-European Tories were a fringe group - until they took over their whole party.

The hard truth is that Trump was not exceptional. He was just another amoral Western businessman, one of many whom the ex-KGB elite have promoted and sponsored around the world, with the hope that they might eventually be of some political or commercial use.