Faking the News

style is a logos - a logic put together by an individual to be read and judged as favorable by a community.

populism requires a constant perception of crisis.

populism creates an antagonism with an Other.

populism is about “the people” - populist rhetors stress a sense of community, and, particularly, a kind of “ideal” community of people in “the heartland.” This is not necessarily a rural righteousness claim (though it can be), but it certainly demarcates “patriots” from “traitors” and “real citizens” from “fake” ones.

Trump’s populism is based on an ethno-nationalist foundation, a key danger in right-wing populism.

The people” may be constituted in any number of ways, but the most common in populism are: (1) the people as a nation (nationalism is particularly common in right-wing populism), (2) the people as a social class (this sort of Marxist/materialist take on community is common in left-wing populism), and (3) the people as politically sovereign (the people as “agents” is common in populism in democratic states). In other words, populism is not necessarily a conservative form of politics or rhetoric, but it can be.

Populism is, fundamentally, a rhetorical claim of representation, a reference to an imagined community of “the people.”

Demagogic argument tries to turn everything into a matter of identity

duplicity can also be exposed by considering the way a demagogue appropriates a term to claim their victimhood. Take Trump’s repeated claim that the investigation of his campaign’s possible collusion with Russia is a “witch hunt.”

demagogue’s assertion of victimhood can often be illustrated by attending closely to the discourse itself for evidence of duplicity