Populism is a reactionary movement. It doesn’t just spring up out of nowhere - it comes to be specifically if and when there’s a relatively common perception among the people that the government no longer serves their interests.
The solution then is simple and straightforward, at least in principle - all it takes is for the government to institute the necessary reforms to win back the trust and support of the people.
The problem comes because all too many politicians don’t have the necessary empathy, integrity and/or determination to actually do that.
Yup. I don’t even get what “populism” is when mentioned in media. Isn’t that-- democracy?
I’m a leftist but even I understand when people come into the embrace of the far-right, because the mainstream parties neglected the people’s everyday concerns.
People who are hungry, people who are out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.
People are also using “populism” here to be a solely negative political movement associated with the right wing, but it’s just a matter of people thinking the people running society aren’t doing a good job for the majority. Not sure if that’s intentional or not, but it’s a value-neutral political expression. Anywhere you say “populism” you should generally be able to substitute “anti-establishmentism” and it’ll be roughly correct, but doing so in a lot of these comments doesn’t make sense. The establishment isn’t inherently good, though I can see why the head of the largest religious establishment in the world might consider challenges to it bad.
Yup. I don’t even get what “populism” is when mentioned in media. Isn’t that-- democracy?
Populism is demagogy, it’s repeating people’s complaints back to them, to amplify them and place yourself as an apparent leader, but without actually bringing any solution - and when it does, it’s immediately far right “beat everyone out”. Democracy is actually creating policy and voting on it, which by definition implies people disagreeing in that vote. Populism is rounding up everyone with the same mind, excluding everyone else (not voting on anything) and trying to crush opposition with numbers and no policy. It’s the antithesis to democracy.
Edit - it might depend on the region of the world, I don’t think I’ve seen a lot of left wingers be called populists. Originally it just means the opposition between the people and the elite, so that would match what you say, and apparently some left parties are trying to return to that definition for some reason, but it seems the Pope is taking the other version that has become much more common.
Neoliberal types definitely called Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren “populist”. Trying to equate it with rightwing demagoguery seems like it’s a deliberate poisoning of the term by people who are aligned with the very status quo power structure that populism attacks. In a choice between the status quo establishment and racist rightwing populism, of course the status quo is better, but the rightwing populism is a problem exactly because the establishment is so distrusted for their lack of responsiveness to people’s needs.
Plenty things in economies are a matter of opinion, not facts. They’re then subject to political choices. For example whether to tax the top more or to increase the retirement age. Too often however matters of opinion similar to this are presented as facts by one side in order to invalidate the other possibilities as non-factual.
The point isn’t whether it works or not - the point is why it comes to be in the first place - why and how people reach a point at which they embrace it.
And that’s when they come to see that their government is failing them - most often, when it’s serving its own interests and the interests of a wealthy few rather than the interests of the people at large.
And here’s a tip - you can’t combat it by deriding the people who embrace it. If anything, that just makes them double down on it, since, to them, that’s just further evidence that you’re an elitist piece of shit who doesn’t care about them or their needs, so they’re going to turn to these other people over here who (say they) do.
Again, there’s one and only one way to counter populism - governmental reform. The problem is that people see that the government isn’t doing enough to serve their needs. The solution is for the government to do more to serve their needs.
And here’s a tip - you can’t combat it by deriding the people who embrace it. If anything, that just makes them double down on it, since, to them, that’s just further evidence that you’re an elitist piece of shit who doesn’t care about them or their needs, so they’re going to turn to these other people over here who (say they) do.
Too often the ones who blame the working class for not understanding that (some) populist solutions don’t work, have been conditioned to support economic and/or political views that further the interests of the wealthy few, while themselves being a part of the working class, while not realizing it. For example the working person who advocates for centrist policies which keep distributing money from them to the top, because “the left’s” idea to tax the rich “doesn’t work.”
Again, there’s one and only one way to counter populism - governmental reform. The problem is that people see that the government isn’t doing enough to serve their needs. The solution is for the government to do more to serve their needs.
While this is true, I’m not sure if it’s possible or likely to come about through the electoral process in places where democracy has been captured by the upper class. That’s probably not the case in France, yet, but it very much is in the US. I think in such cases the process can only start at the labor level where labor takes a bigger chunk of the profits through labor action. Thus reducing the money flowing into democratic and regulatory capture. Thus making more money available to elect or “buy” politicians that represent that payer - labor. In other words - the majority.
I recall a slew of right wing anti-mask, anti-vaccine, pro-pandemic nutjobs screaming “You’re violating my HIPAA!!!” in stores, restaurants, hotels, and random public spaces. I know the GOP doesn’t care about hypocrisy (fascists revel in exerting power through this), but that’s what they’re doing here.
Listen. Strange men in tall hats is no basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical hat ceremony.
how is the uk’s prisoner rehab program? because i know that policy in the us would never work because our prisons are primarily for punishment and retribution and when people are let out they are left hanging in the wind in a society who treats them less than human waste.
biden won by almost 8 million(?) votes lst time. is that not overwhelming enough? just because most of the votes were concentrated in heavily democratic states will not change the fact that it’s still going to be and always was going to be a battle in swing states, and there is not a ronald reagan 49 state win candidate out there.
how about you future senator schiff not contribute to the biden must step down media ushed bullshit story and do what the rest of the base of the party is doing and back your candidate?
The democrat party uniting behind Biden will solve nothing. The fundamental issue is not a disunited party turning off voters , the issue is Bidens health.
To win the election the democrats need to convince the swing voters and undecided middle ground.
Bidens health issue aren’t going to go away. In fact they can only get worse - people don’t bounce back from age related decline.
Trump lied repeatedly during the debate, yet no one has taken him to task over it because all anyone can talk about is Biden’s health.
Biden won’t just lose the presidency, but will also impact all the down ticket candidates for the senate and house. The real risk here is handing Trump the Whitehouse and congress if nothing is done.
Please stop defending the madness. He needs to be replaced before its too late, for the greater good of the USA and the rest of the world. He was a good president but he is not the candidate for this election. Don’t hand Trump the presidency by allowing such a vulnerable candidate to run.
The issue is that a large portion of the undecided voters, who we need to win over, are stupid. Regardless of how much or little sense something makes, it needs to be electorally sound.
Running the country isn’t the problem, effectively campaigning is. After that debate every time Biden has a senior moment, that’s going to be the story. Gut-based voters will see him as weak. People managing their own elderly relatives will think about how fast they declined. Not to mention their new practices to keep him fresh preclude a heavy campaign schedule he needs to do in order to catch up.
Wouldn’t that be interesting? I know when I got COVID, the one time I got it in the last 4 years, it took me out for 3 straight days. I couldn’t imagine trying to do well in a debate while inundated with all that comes from COVID.
Since the vaccines started becoming standard, infection rates have normalized and the current strains are much less harmful than the first (if vaccinated, if I recall). It’s possible that COVID could mimic similar symptoms to a cold and drastically influence debate performance. It would definitely explain the senility we witnessed.
Bottom line is that Biden is old as fuck, we know, but the dude bikes and exercises while constantly barraged by people shouting he’s “too old” and “should drop out.” I think I would bomb a debate with all that shit, too! Add COVID to the mix and I’d probably want to die rather than debate a serial-liar.
Biden had attended some event without a mask a few days earlier and possibly caught it then. He attended another such event after the debate to spread it to more people.
Mild or no symptoms during acute infection doesn’t seem to mean lower likelihood of “sequelae” i.e. long covid. And now he has Parkinson’s-like symptoms. Well gosh:
Home tests get a lot of false negatives, especially if your case isn’t severe. Vaccination seems to help prevent sequelae, but the vaccines haven’t been keeping up with the virus variants, so there’s that. Repeat infections increase the risks. That’s why I suspect Biden’s condition is due to infections, though of course I can’t know for sure. Trump of course had at least one pretty bad case too.
The main thing I try to do is not get infected, by wearing N95 respirators in public and using HEPA air filtration at home. It’s great if your partner is willing to do the same thing. The Biden admin seems to want us to get infected as long as it keeps us shopping. Unfortunately I don’t have much clue about what to do if you’ve already been infected. I’m mostly about prevention.
For way too much information about airborne transmission, see covidisairborne.org .
Another possibility (mentioned by someone on reddit) is that you had it first and that your partner got it from you. :( It doesn’t matter much by now, but I’m mentioning this because that reddit commented gave me a poke.
Count your blessings. Last time I had it (second time, vaxxed and boostered) it had me bedbound for nearly 3 weeks, 5 weeks until I could manage everyday life again normally. I never felt so sick in my life.
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