An essential component of populist rhetoric is telling the people what they want to hear. Many politicians throughout history have attracted mass followings by simply reinforcing people’s selfish beliefs and prejudices – including their misconceptions.
Donald J. Trump, along with his supportive right-wing media, is a master at this type of manipulation.
Creating an enemy
It is important for the populist politician to give his supporters a perceived “enemy.” Trump has given his supporters a number of them: immigrants, Muslims, Black people, strong women, Democrats, the mainstream media, reporters, judges, jury members, etc.
This tactic is effective because the audience for this rhetoric hears their own prejudices and insecurities expressed in the demagogue’s words. The Republican Trump supporter may or may not actually be openly racist, but he IS uncomfortable around black or brown people, and at least suspicious about immigrants.
He doesn’t really know how government works, but it is convenient to blame somebody – so why not the Democrats – for all of the frustrations in his life. And that constant, loud, back and forth of conflicting opinions on television is confusing. Instead of trying to figure out who is telling the truth, why not just tune out the mainstream media completely?
Appeal to vanity
Right-wing populism meets people where they are – confused, angry, and disgruntled – and makes them feel superior. It reinforces all their selfish, prideful, self-congratulatory, images of themselves. THEY are the true American patriots. THEY are immune to the “Fake News.” THEY have the Truth and support the True American political Messiah!
Left-wing populist propaganda ALSO appeals to people’s vanities. Liberals want to see themselves as generous, understanding, and compassionate. In any conflict, we want to be on the side of the perceived underdog. If a tree is being cut down somewhere, we just know that some big, bad corporation is undoubtedly to blame.
As with the right, facts and history, even cause and effect, do not matter to the left as long as their cherished values are massaged and they are given an enemy to hate. The left can be just as easily manipulated by appealing to their outrage as the right can be. The big outrage button on the left that propagandists like to push is labeled “Injustice.”
Feeling superior
Those on the left must, at all costs, see ourselves as being “compassionate.” We are potentially capable of sacrificing anything – reason, truth, political and geopolitical allies, even American democracy in the next election – as long as we can tell ourselves we are standing for “Justice.”
It is sad to see that many American college students are just as ignorant, vain, and easy to manipulate as those who attend Trump rallies.
Hitler used this technique, also, as do all dictators. Prejudices are usually the result of insecurities and fears. Too often they result in loss of freedoms and peace. It is ironic that lack of knowledge, a poor understanding of facts and history, even cause and effect, take place all-too-often in educational institutions that are places for research of in-depth understanding. Intellectual hubris is one cause of the current division and unrest. I submit that the student who learns best – no matter the age – is the one who seeks to gather facts before spouting demands.
In my field as a technical writer in the CAE field, I once heard a high level engineer talk about how “hierarchy is a strategy for dealing with complexity.” And I also recall Nibley talking about how the “very helplessness that causes people to turn to experts also makes it impossible for them to judge just how expert they really are.” Hence we get Trumpian advice to inject bleach to combat Covid and his more wonderful demonstration of his mastery the science of magnetism and water. As Tevye sings, that people suppose that “if you are rich you really know.”
And that also leads to Brett Maverick quoting his old Pappy as saying, “You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, and those are pretty good odds.”
Which also leads to the Perry Scheme for Cognitive and Ethical Growth. Of the Nine Positions,
POSITION 2 – Multiplicity Prelegitimate. (Resisting snake)
Now the person moves to accept that there is diversity, but they still think there are TRUE authorities who are right, that the others are confused by complexities or are just frauds. They think they are with the true authorities and are right while all others are wrong. They accept that their good authorities present problems so they can learn to reach right answers independently.
Much further along is
POSITION 9. Commitments in Relativism further developed.
The person now has a developed sense of irony and can more easily embrace other’s viewpoints. He can accept life as just that “life”, just the way IT is! Now he holds the commitments he makes in a condition of “PROVISIONAL ULTIMACY”, meaning that for him what he chooses to be truth IS his truth, and he acts as if it is ultimate truth, but there is still a “provision” for change. He has no illusions about having “arrived” permanently on top of some heap, he is ready and knows he will have to retrace his journey over and over, but he has hope that he will do it each time more wisely. He is aware that he is developing his IDENTITY through Commitment. He can affirm the inseparable nature of the knower and the known–meaning he knows he as knower contributes to what he calls known. He helps weld a community by sharing realization of aloneness and gains strength and intimacy through this shared vulnerability. He has discarded obedience in favor of his own agency, and he continues to select, judge, and build.
I find it interesting in that the path through the line positions is not inevitable progress, includes the possibility of regression. In response to the challenges at POSITION 5, one response is:
“If the person RETREATS, rage takes over and he loses agency to make sense. He survives by avoiding complexity and ambivalence and regresses to Dualism, position 2, (multiplicity prelegitimate). He becomes moralistic righteous and has “righteous” hatred for otherness. He complains childlike and demands of authority figures to just tell him what they want.”
Not only does that seem very MAGA, but I notice that one notable quality of POSITION 9 is that in in contrast it is inherently and remarkably Woke. I once wrote a long essay (“Sophic Box and Mantic Vista” in Interpreter) showing how Jesus and Joseph Smith both try to lead us to POSITION 9. Amalekiah, and his like, have other plans. “as soon as Amalickiah had obtained the kingdom he began to inspire the hearts of the Lamanites against the people of Nephi; yea, he did appoint men to speak unto the Lamanites from their towers, against the Nephites.” Nibley commented that he “saturated the airwaves” with hate speech.