Know your political terms: sado-populism

[applegrove]

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/mitch-mcconnell-let-states-go-bankrupt-pensions-layoffs-20200426.html%3foutputType=amp

"SNIP.....

“Sado-populism?” This is the theory popularized by the historian Timothy Snyder and others that right-wing populist movements can’t deliver on their political promises (or, in the case of America’s GOP, remain wedded in reality to monied elites) and so they instead deliver pain and retain power by blaming the new suffering on someone else — immigrants, or the undeserving poor, or Democrats, or unions, or some combo. McConnell’s move certainly matches the motive of the fake-spontaneous “open up the economy” protests that have sought to make mostly Democratic governors the coronavirus villain instead of a mostly Republican federal government.

.....SNIP"

Psychopaths do this to their cult members. They create the axiety/fear/grief in their followers or follower-candidates and then blame it on a scapegoat.

[BigmanPigman]

1. I think they are just plain sadists.

Simple as that. Their cult is the other side of their sick relationship...the masochists who always vote against their own best interests with intentions to hurt the other guy (the evil Dems of course). Classic S&M.

[Hortensis]

2. I've read that socially conservative personality traits are so commonly found

in populist movements, right and left, that they could be rolled into the definition.

Guessing that presumably comparatively mild social conservatives tend to migrate to leftist populism like Sanders' movement, instead of Trump's right, because their class-warfare economic passions dominate. On both sides, though, populism's signature antagonism and specifically "dis-agreeable" traits (far end of the "agreeableness" spectrum of the Big Five personality traits system of evaluation) are commonly seen among those prone to destructive protest movements.

All compatible with what the OP's discussing, of course. Antagonism is what we see in them all the time, with pretenses of virtue and "powerful agendas" they're going to run over us with providing excuses for vicious attack behaviors.

[The Magistrate]

3. Indeed, Sir --- Performative Cruelty Is The Essence Of The Thing

The people who vote for this cheap thug spend an un-Godly amount of time imagining cruel acts, carried out by a larger than life hero (such as they imagine they would be if they had their rights and the opportunity), whose cruel acts are necessary to save civilization (defined as 'people like us') from some ghastly sub-human horde, or some scheming tricksters who take horridly unfair advantage of ordinary folks (again, 'people like us'). They take delight in the spectacles of cruelty they are fed by the cheap thug, and these spectacles are why they adore him --- he is just what they imagine they would be, and wish they could be.


"You will not rise to the occasion. You will default to your level of training."


"Defeat of a dangerous enemy is something to be for."

[Haggis for Breakfast]

5. . . . .

[Haggis for Breakfast]

4. I hadn't seen that term since college courses in polysci, applegrove.

YOU are on fire tonight !

[applegrove]

6. I had never seen it. I dropped out of poly sci in university because they

asked me what my 'personal' politics were and i was a ninny and no given to self reflection at the time.

Thanks for the fire comment.

[Haggis for Breakfast]

7. Your posts often catch my interest.

But that, was like text book lingo jumping out at me.

I remember having to explain to EVERYONE I knew, WTF Monty Python was referencing in "The Holy Grail," when Michael Palin starts talking about an "anarcho-syndicalist commune." Actually, he explains it quite well in the dialogue.

[applegrove]

8. I get lots of stuff from political wire. But this sado-populism description

really clarified things for me as words go. (The simpler the better). So i posted it again today. I had no idea how long it had been out there. Thanks for the information.:us wide scope people need you detailed ones. hi:

[ck4829]

9. K&R

[smirkymonkey]

10. K&R