08-29-2019, 01:47 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-29-2019, 02:21 PM by Eric the Green.)
(08-27-2019, 09:42 AM)David Horn Wrote:(08-26-2019, 01:00 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: Using the word populism to describe right-wing propaganda and those who fall for it is inappropriate. Populism means restoring power to the people. Right wing "populism" appeals to the fears of the people so that their power can be taken away. It is not populism at all...
You are almost alone in believing that RW populism isn't what it clearly is: populism! In fact, most political scientists who study this believe that the ideological, self-centered version is far and away the most common type, and those characteristics are exactly what attracts believers to tyrants and autocrats of all stripes.
Populism is, by definition, emotional and anti-intellectual. People functioning on emotion tend to be lead by the strong emotions: hate and fear. Love and the other softer emotions don't have the impact, and tend to need intellectual bolstering to be viable.
If people say I'm alone, so be it. It's very common for common opinion to be wrong.
That definition assumes that the common people have no sense, and that populism is appealing to those characteristics of the population. I think that's selling the people short. There is no elite that is any more intellectual or capable of sensible appeals to good policy than the rest of the population.
The intellectuals are if anything more prone to be taken away by emotion. Being consumed by reactive fear is as much or more a brain thing as a gut thing, and intellectuals have zero defense against it. The intellect has no power and is not an organ of love.
But of course, it's the intellectuals who have ownership of the organs of public discourse, so their prejudice against the common people comes out in their use of terms.