The Pope, in an obvious veiled swipe at Donald J. Trump warned that populism is evil.
INDEPENDENT – Pope Francis has warned in an interview with a German newspaper of the dangers of rising populism in western democracies.
The pope told Die Zeit on Thursday “populism is evil and ends badly as the past century showed.”
On this find ourselves in complete agreement with the Pope.
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Les
Retired from manufacturing management in 2012. Currently an active semi retired NASM Certified Personal Trainer.
Exercise, philosophy, politics, government, science, and family occupies my non working and sleeping hours.
Destroying the rancid acrimony that exists between conservatives and liberals, an acrimony destroying the very fabric of our society, is the ends to which this site dedicates itself.
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Right-wing populism is evil. Left-wing populism is not. It is a shame that DJT is giving populism a bad name. An Al Jazeera article notes that “Although both apply the same principle – bringing together a crowd around a political idea in order to shape an “us” against a “them” – the concepts used to define these groups are radically different. This is also evident in the emotions each side uses to mobilize voters: fear of the foreigner on the right and hope for a better future on the left. The former is rooted in hatred and indifference, and the latter in justice and equality“.
I am a fan of neither right wing or left wing populism.
Well, “populism” is just another way of saying “appealing to the most common denominators.” If you have a society with a very low base-line for commonalities – a lot of racism, crime, drug abuse, anti-intellectualism, constant war, a stagnant and struggling working class, a shrinking middle class – populism can very dangerous. It leads to majoritarian extremes. It’s like Voltaire’s ol’ expression about only a good king making a good government – you need a good people to recognize such a king in the first place. Americans have some serious introspection ahead of us. We’ve done something really crazy this time. We keep making mistakes and refusing to acknowledge them, because our culture has so debased, is so pridefully and willfully ignorant and automatically “patriotic,” we are unable to ever admit our failures and mistakes and shortcomings. These are not the building blocks of socialism or communism, but of fascism. Populism, in America today and for many decades now, has been in dangerous right-wing hands. And Donald Trump, Donald Trump, is the President of the United States. If you predicted that to me twenty years ago, I’d have laughed myself silly. There is no question we are a people in decline, and right-wing populism is a powerful driving force in that decline.
JMJ
Well, “populism” is just another way of saying “appealing to the most common denominators.” If you have a society with a very low base-line for commonalities – a lot of racism, crime, drug abuse, anti-intellectualism, constant war, a stagnant and struggling working class, a shrinking middle class – populism can very dangerous. It leads to majoritarian extremes. It’s like Voltaire’s ol’ expression about only a good king making a good government – you need a good people to recognize such a king in the first place. Americans have some serious introspection ahead of us. We’ve done something really crazy this time. We keep making mistakes and refusing to acknowledge them, because our culture has so debased, is so pridefully and willfully ignorant and automatically “patriotic,” we are unable to ever admit our failures and mistakes and shortcomings. These are not the building blocks of socialism or communism, but of fascism. Populism, in America today and for many decades now, has been in dangerous right-wing hands. And Donald Trump, Donald Trump, is the President of the United States. If you predicted that to me twenty years ago, I’d have laughed myself silly. There is no question we are a people in decline, and right-wing populism is a powerful driving force in that decline.
JMJ