What is Populism

I'm never allowed to read your Times links, thatbags.

Paywalled, bags.

But, from his opening sentence, why would he claim that the left don't understand populism when we seem to have established on here that it can be used by the left or the right?

I'll see if I can, ww. It's annoying as I'm supposed to be able to share stuff. Grr.

I can't get access bags would it be easy to give a brief run down?

ankers sometimes I lose the will to live looking at your posts.

But then you do like to have every I dotted and every T crossed, Ankers

That is a non answer again.

What is the point of debate and discussion if there are big holes in it or worse.

But it's a completely non-judgemental thread. Or it least, it was until some people started getting weirdly huffy about it; presumably imagining it was an attack on their political position.

And, like magic, this take on populism by Daniel Finkelstein appears in the Times today. Makes some good points.

Because I dont believe it to be true MaizieD. And neither do some other posters by the look of it.

She may have tried, but not at all sure of that either really.

I like the truth.

I have to say that some of the stuff that is written on the politics threads in particular is not the truth

It is not the truth, the whole truth, and struggles to be even half the truth quite a lot of the time.

I often imagine some posters crossing their fingers as they write some of the sentences in the posts, hoping that nobody notices.

If you look back to the op, in whitewave's very first sentence, she herself is only concerning herself with the populist right.

The first sentence in ww's post refers back to a thread about the rise of the populist right. This has led her to look at the issue of populism generally. The thread she referred to could just as easily been about the rise of the populist left. It is populism she was exploring, not its political manifestation on 'the right'. It's not an attack on 'left' or 'right', just an abstract discussion of the phenomenon. Why are you finding this so difficult to understand, Ankers?

But then you do like to have every I dotted and every T crossed, Ankers.

By which I mean that by mentioning one aspect by name I don't notice that she confines her definition only to that aspect and not others.

Then why say it?
Why do it?

No, that doesnt wash.

Not that you can answer on her behalf. You dont know what she was thinking at the time.

But I appreciate your answer.

by asking me one instead, does not work on any level We can see!

By the way, asking me a question after I have asked you or someone else, instead of attempting to answer the one I asked, does not work as a concept. At all.
If someone doesnt want to answer, fine, no problem. But trying to not answer, by ask!

By which I mean that by mentioning one aspect by name I don't notice that she confines her definition only to that aspect and not others.

Yes, so why write your op in the way that you did?

Unless you have changed your mind a lot since Fri 6 Jan? In which case, great.

So ankers did you read my last post?

WW mentions the worrying rise in rightist populism, but there has also been leftist populism for years. Many voters to the left of centre have been working-class and vulnerable to having their less affluent position exploited by exponents of the "blame the bloated plutocrat mill-owners for everything bad" school of politics.

Left/right is completely irrelevant to populism

Agreed.

x post
My last post carries on from my post before.

Which rather makes a mockery of the first paragraph in her most recent post.

Left/right is completely irrelevant to populism. That is typified by lazy cartoon-shorthand depictions of scapegoat groups by Hyde-Park-corner type orators from either end of the political divide and all levels of political activism.

POGS. I think you are right.
If you look back to the op, in whitewave's very first sentence, she herself is only concerning herself with the populist right.

I really can't understand this obsession with left/right in relation to this concept. As a concept it is totally neutral with regard to left/right politics. We have established some characteristics that can be seen in populist politics whether right or left - full stop. They may be right or left it is immaterial to the concept.

The term populism is being used to describe a particular phenomenon and has been brought to public awareness recently, particularly with Trumps election and what is happening in Europe. That is why I wanted to explore the concept. That is all no other agenda - zilch no need for any paranoia

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/25/jeremy-corbyn-populist-democracy-m

labourlist.org/2017/01/from-nowhere-to-everywhere-corbyn-opts-for-populism-but-isnt-tempted-by-trump/

If the Guardian et al can refer to him using the terms populist/populism then I think it is OK to bow to their judgement.