Portugal's Prime Minister Antonio Costa welcomes Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras during the Southern EU Countries Summit at the Belem Cultural Center in Lisbon Portugal, on January 28, 2017. NurPhoto/Press Association. All rights reserved. Much is said of populism these days. Those who practice it do not admit they are doing it; those who do not practice it call for the need to do it (see Chantal Mouffe in openDemocracy).
Quite what populism is, is another matter. If by that we mean a kind of politics that appeals to the masses, that is easy to recite, and that evokes quick emotional responses, then in truth one can understand why some people would like to have that on the left. After all, one can only be puzzled as to why the masses sympathise more with the policies advocated by Trump (which are decidedly against their interests) rather than the policies proposed by Sanders (which would decidedly improve their lot).
Part of the explanation has to do with the way an increasingly sophisticated and technically effective apparatus of marketing manipulates people’s emotions. To call it “media”, as we used to do, only adds to the confusion. Ever since Trump and his colleagues decided to take the post-truth argument seriously and started debunking what used to be called ‘media’, we moved onto a more complex terrain.
