A lot of what passes for “populism” in the current discourse is the most toxic form of elitism: Using your power and platform to feed people lies, and then dishonestly claiming that you’re merely channeling their grievances when they’re foolish enough to believe you.
Millions of Republicans didn’t just spontaneously and organically decide to believe a bunch of ludicrous nonsense about stolen ballots and rigged voting machines. They believe it because the most powerful man in the world & a bunch of millionaires with TV shows told them to.
That’s not to deny there’s a strong demand-side component to this — people believe this stuff with no evidence or ridiculous evidence because they *want* to believe it — but the difference between the fringe theories and the mass delusions is elite endorsement.
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