What is Populism?
An indefinite political brand worth fighting over
Since Brexit and the election of Donald Trump the term “populist” has been in vogue as a lazy catchall for the sort of people-pleasing leaders who use right-wing authoritarianism and nativism demagoguery to prey on conservative voters. Most media establishments have bowed to this groupthink definition, using it as a launching pad to enter perfunctory discussions of contemporary U.S. or European politics. For example, last year the BBC published a video pejoratively describing populism as a government or movement where a charismatic leader makes outlandish promises to the masses, vowing to take on the mainstream political establishment by wielding the will of the people.
Besides being transparently self-serving (the BBC being part of the small ‘c’ conservative media, political, and economic establishment), this understanding loses sight of what populism really is, and what it means for the 21st Century. It neatly describes populism as the pernicious form of demagoguery and xenophobia we see today, without investigating the source of national anxieties that cause its rise. It’s a head-fake for the future, and conservative critics waiting for the “return of normalcy” or reversion to the mean will be sorely disappointed to find that as issues currently fueling the global economic and political quagmire that manifests in right wing autocrats will become more and more profound. Echoing Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s remarks, the election of Donald Trump is a symptom of larger problems — not the problem itself.
Jan-Werner Müller gives us a more accurate way to think about political populism. In his pithy volume What is Populism? Müller describes the issue of populism as rooted in democracy itself. Populism is driven by introspective anxiety created by the question of who ultimately makes up “the people” in “rule by the people.” While certainly a consideration of physical operational and function — literally who pulls the levels in a voting booth — the concern also functions at the level of political consciousness, social representation, and national sovereignty (i.e. who dictates the political agenda, who drives the national conversation, who the nation sees in its self conception). It’s fundamentally a matter of identity, especially in an age of global multiculturalism and immigration. When does a new arrival to a country become one of “the people?”
But the realm of politics is only one frame in which populism can operate. In their book The Ambivalent Internet: Mischief, Oddity, and Antagonism Online, Whitney Phillips and Ryan M. Milner discuss at length how memetic content on the internet functions similarly to other analog, folkloric forms of media and articulation and can be used to to both pro- and anti-social ends. Fundamental to the folkloric expression is ambivalence, a way in which memetic content sits between hurtful and hilarious, rational and affectionate, in and out, populist and corporatist.
This nugget, unfortunately unexplored by the Phillips and Milner, that memetic content and identity formation can be organized around the tension between populism and corporatism, alludes to an economic form of populism. Economic populism is equally concerned with identity as political populism, but instead of anxiety over national sovereignty and self-image, it centers instead on consumerism, self and social identity, and the shadowy asexual reproduction of corporate brand and culture.
As identity (group and individual) is increasingly mediated by where and what we purchase with our money — but also, importantly, our time — the stamp of corporate interest becomes harder and harder to avoid. We live in a post-industrial hyper-consumerist world where nearly all avenues for personal expression, identity, and ethics are filtered through corporate allegiance (“I use Lyft over Uber,” “I’m an REI member,” “I work for Patagonia, a company with values”). At the same time, multinational corporations thrive by perpetuating their image by converting citizens into loyal customers, brand ambassadors, and IG Influencers. Economic populism is a reaction to the increasingly inescapable and stifling reality that, in a consumer society, identity is mass produced, commoditized, and bought and sold on a market just like oil and frozen pork bellies.
Folkloric memetic digital communication gives “populists” the chance to carve a space for identify formation protected from the reach of a corporatist dystopia. The rise of the “alt right” on technology platforms like YouTube, Reddit, Twitter, 4chan, and Gab make it abundantly clear that anti-social, anti-elite, and anti-institutional communities can be activated and cultivated online without corporate sign-off. While white nationalists are an obvious example, other communities find solace online as well. The point is simply that the internet creates a space for folks to develop culture unmediated by corporatism or consumerism.
But what Phillips and Milner continually make clear is memetic digital culture is inherently ambivalent, meaning that the same space that can be used to champion the demolition of global elite institutions that instruct citizens on how to think and what to buy can also be used to erect communities that endorse and reinforce corporate culture while exacerbating anxieties around the constitution of success and whether or not you ‘pass the bar.” Gwyneth Paltrow’s goop and the rest of the online wellness industry, #Hustle, #Grind, #ThankGodItsMonday and other workaholic hashtags, and the Taco Bell Twitter account all come to mind. In fact even the profit-maximizing ambition of digital content platform companies like Facebook and Google and their compulsion to sanitize controversial content belies the illusion that the internet is a purely authentic place to be.
Institutional players and media organizations continue to conceive of populism as merely a demagogic or authoritarian threat. But 21st century populism will continue to grow unrecognized and unabated, feeding on the struggle between social, political, and national identity formation and self perception. In fact, the situation continues to become more dire, as more and more global wealth and power continues to be concentrated in the hands the few and globalism continues to push people, cultures, languages, and ideas across the world at an ever increasing pace, 21st century economic and political populism continues to metastasize and grow.
