Episode 42: 'Populism' - The Media's Favorite Catch-All Smear for the Left

Citations Needed

With the rise of Trump, Sanders, Corbyn and Brexit, hundreds of pundits, reporters, and talking heads have been warning about the problems of "populism" and its alleged attack on democracy over the past three years. "Populism and immigration pose major threat to global democracy," the Gates Foundation insists. "The Dangerous Rise of Populism - Global Attacks on Human Rights Values," wrote Human Rights Watch in 2017. "Trump's Rise Proves How Dangerous Populism Is for Democracy" NBC says. "Populism is still a threat to Europe," The European University Institute tells us. But what exactly is populism? How is a term that allegedly applies to Hugo Chávez and Bernie Sanders also casually used to describe fascists and far-right forces? Under the thin, ideology-flattening definition of populism, the term is more often than not used as a euphemism for demagogic cults of personality and fascism and as the ultimate horseshoe theory reduction to lump together movements for equity and justice on the Left with those of revanchism, nationalism and explicit racism on the Right. We are joined on this episode by writer and historian Thomas Frank.