Does Social Media Favour Populism and Demagoguery?
In a word, yes. But I don’t want to talk about Trump. I want to talk about a different kind of populism. Left wing people have populism too. Bernie Sanders is very far from what I consider a demagogue, but I’m sure to some he is. I went and saw him speak in New York last year. It was the one of the few times I decided to make a serious effort to show political support for something.
It was very impressive. Because of a connection a friend of mine had, we were able to be in the first few rows of people watching him speak. The line ups of thousands of people trying to get into Washington Square Park reminded me of music festivals I’d been to in the past. There was the same air of excitement, with less bathing suits and MDMA.
A variety of speakers came out before Bernie did. They included celebrities like Spike Lee and Rosario Dawson, along with other local politicians. All gave very passionate and inspiring speeches. And then Bernie came out. He reiterated all the ideals and plans I had seen him speak of so many times on social media. It was wonderful to see in person. The audience was completely captivated by his every word. People were crying. When he was done, people rushed frantically towards the gate, screaming as he and Jane walked around shaking hands. I felt like I was at a Justin Bieber concert or something. I watched a professor from my school giddy with excitement after having touched Bernie’s hand for half a second. And I was just as excited for him.
Later I thought more critically about why I had gone down to see him. I had never seen such a popular politician speak to so many ideals that resonated with me. But I’m not American. I’m Canadian. While the ruler of the United States has great impact on the world and certainly on its northern neighbour, I so rarely see Canadians giving so much attention to our own politics as we do to America’s.
To my knowledge, Bernie Sanders became popular largely because of social media. His “radical” views spoke to the concerns of ordinary people. That is the epitome of populism. His messages were targeted towards lower and middle class people who were fed up with major class divisions, a poor economy, and systemic inequity. How could you not get behind that message? That was supposed to be Trump’s message too. Except that Bernie spun it from what my left leaning politics believes is a rational, fair, and genuine way.
When Bernie was sabotaged (as many believe) by the DNC from getting the nomination, Hilary’s camp suddenly had to pick up that populist mantle. And unfortunately it didn’t work for a wide variety of reasons. Among those reasons is the notion of sincerity. It didn’t seem like she really meant it. Probably because she didn’t.
But back to Canadians. Our social media feeds are so dominated with American media sources, it is easy to neglect to involve ourselves with the problems in our own backyard. There was a brief moment around the last election in which Justin Trudeau was all over my feeds. He was speaking also to left wing populist ideals; Things like gender equality in cabinet and legalizing marijuana, all while oozing the charisma and sex appeal that was the antithesis of Harper. However, his popularity waned and so too did the interest of my internet social circle.
During the time in which everyone in the left social media sphere was declaring their devotion to helping Standing Rock, I noticed something. Not one of these people mentioned the pipeline battles going on in British Columbia, my home province. Not one person in my social media circle took a moment to say, “Hey, let’s also use our signatures and dollars to support these battles going on here in Canada”. While all of this attention was being paid to an American pipeline, two controversial pipelines were passed in our own country. Trudeau’s support for pipelines was one of his policies that was always a red flag for me. However, his other populist messages were what dominated his coverage in social media; much like how Bernie’s less liberal views on guns were easily glossed over.
Social media definitely supports populism. And depending where you are on the political spectrum, you will find someone who spins your ideal populist narrative. But more so than that, social media supports popularity. And I think that is just as problematic. Because while our attention is captured by demagogues and #trending topics, more subtle but very real issues slip past us.
