Populism is the anti-elitism trending around the world. Populism, by its very nature, lies outside of politics and is antithetical towards democracy, though it also relies on numbers. Populists think a group of people who consider themselves special: “elites,” “the swamp,” etc., run everything for their own benefit, and must be overthrown. Populists accuse the political, economic, cultural, and media establishment of placing their own interests, and the interests of large corporations, foreign countries & immigrants, above the interests of "the people.” Because populism rejects the idea of elites telling them what to do, it’s compatible with liberty, which makes the two groups allies on that point.
For their part, elites apply the term “populism” to any movement outside the political mainstream, and try to discredit populism by conflating it with demagoguery, particularly Fascism, but also describing populism as “far left,” “far right,” or “extremist.” Since most politicians, scholars & intellectuals consider themselves elites, they want the term “populism” to be abandoned, not used in public discourse, whistling past the graveyard, but wishful-thinking won’t make the elite-hating masses go away. In fact, the 2017 Cambridge Dictionary declared “populism” Word of the Year.
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