(2017-01-27) How To Culture Jam A Populist In Four Easy Steps

Andrés Miguel Rondón: How to Culture Jam a Populist in Four Easy Steps: in one way, Donald Trump and Hugo Chávez are identical: they are masters of Populism.

The recipe is universal. Find a wound common to many, someone to blame for it and a good story to tell

A fictionalized account of your misery. A promise to make sense of your hurt. It is them. It’s been them all along.

1. Don’t forget who the enemy is. (OutGroup)

if you’re not among the victims, you’re among the culprits

Your focus has to be on erase the cartoon you’ve been drawn into. Scrambling it. Undermining it.

2. Show no contempt

don’t feed polarization, disarm it.

3. Don’t try to force him out

The people on the other side, and crucially Independents, will rebel against you if you look like you’re losing your mind. Worst of all, you will have proved yourself to be the very thing you’re claiming to be fighting against: an enemy of democracy

4. Find a counter-argument. (No, not the one you think.)

The problem is tribal. Your challenge is to prove that you belong in the same tribe as them: that you are American in exactly the same way they are.

it took our leaders ten years to figure out they needed to actually go to the slums and to the countryside. And not for a speech, or a rally, but for game of dominoes or to dance salsa – to show they were Venezuelans too

this is not populism by other means. It is the only way of establishing your standing

It’s way easier to get this wrong than to get this right, and the chances are the people getting it wrong will drown out those getting it right.