A couple of things that I’ve read recently have got me thinking about the idea of consensus collapse; “everybody knows” and agrees on a limited set of facts, resisting or questioning those facts gets you punished, until suddenly one day that’s not true anymore and no one believes it and never did.
The main thing that got me thinking about this was the rise of anti-immigration protests in Ireland, which is an iteration of sudden consensus collapse that you see quite frequently in Irish life. The other examples that come to mind are the collapse of the Church, and Ireland’s swing toward full independece at the start of the 20th Century.
What causes a consensus to grow and die, and what is it about Ireland specifically that has caused multiple consensuses to grip so powerfully and collapse so suddenly?
