1. Thread on populism and the trucker convoy incoming!
My conversations over the last two weeks have gone something like this:
“Amar, what's this thing?
“A populist movement”
“But what do they believe?”
“It’s a populist movement”
“What do they want?”
“It’s a populist movement"
2. This leads me to believe that a quick primer on populism might be useful.
I should note that everything I know about populism comes from research done by Cristobal Rovira Kaltwasser, the late Magaret Canovan, @CasMudde and others. You should read their stuff.
3. From the beginning of the convoy, I’ve been calling it a kind of “maturing” of populism in Canada. We’ve seen this before, but the scale is quite different this time.
4. Some people see populist movements as basically crude, immature, confused, and disorganized. And you are probably right. Others see it as a way for people who feel excluded from society to engage in politics. And you are probably right.
5. I generally take Cas Mudde’s definition of populism: a thin-centered ideology that considers society to be ultimately separated into two homogeneous and antagonistic camps, “the pure people” versus “the corrupt elite"
6. Defining it as “thin-centered” is actually quite key for explaining why we see populist movements arise on all sides of the ideological spectrum, whether it is the Occupy movement on the left, or the Tea Party movement on the right
7. Populism by itself rarely answers political questions - it the broader ideologies that it is attached to that does the answering.
With the trucker convoy, it is far-right extremism of the organizers, general exhaustion with covid, and the collapse of trust and conspiracism.
8. Populism has two core concepts: “the people” and “the elite”
The people: (a) there is a view that the people are sovereign, and should have a great say in governing. This is why they are often against representative government.
9. They believe that representatives speak to the people during elections, and then basically forget about their concerns.
This is why during election cycles, you have candidates take swigs of beer at the bar and visiting factories. Think Sarah Palin hockey mom, etc.
10. “The people” also includes the notion of (b) the common people: the sense that we may be less educated, and blue collar, but we are the “true” Canadians/Americans, etc.
11. In making this case, they often adopt some of the markers that they are being denigrated with and use them as symbols of pride.
12. There is also an anti-pluralist element: they alone are the true voice of the ppl.
When people keep shouting “true Canadian”, to people like me – a refugee to this country – it feels like they just mean white Canadian, and a very specific kind of white Canadian at that.
13. There is also (c) the notion of producerism: championing the so-called producers of society – those that “truly” keep the economy going - while making fun of the white color and the educated as lazy or immoral.
14. This is naturally very vibrant in the trucker protest, with chants like “if you got it, a truck brought it” and so on
15. Finally, the people rhetoric is also characterized by (d) a threatened nationalism – that something at the core what makes our country great is being eroded by elites: think MAGA, but also the upside down Canadian flags, etc.
16. The second core concept is “the elite”. This includes politicians, the economic elite, the media, academics, etc.
All these are one homogenous group, working against the interests of “the people”.
17. It is in this hatred of the elite that there is often an opening for conspiracy theories, as you can imagine. It is a very short Uber ride from “elite” discourse to “tiny cabal of evil doers”, usually Jews, New World Order, and so on.
18. Conspiracies also turn everything mundane into something cosmic – minor policy disagreements are elevated to battles of good versus evil, with the elite against the people.
19. “The elite” then are usually homogenized into one blob which moves sinisterly and in unison – keeping “the sheep” in line. This leads to a lot of liberation rhetoric – quite obvious if you listen to any trucker livestreams –that they are “doing this for you and your children”
20/20. Thanks most recently to Trump, there is a vibrant populist march already underway in the US, which is about to get another boost with the convoys. Something to watch closely.
Anyway, hope that was useful!
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