Mia Farrow's reposts David Brooks' on Bluesky

[William Seger]

13. It's a pet peeve of mine, but "right-wing populist" is an oxymoron

... at least, by the historic meaning of those terms. A "populist" is (or was) someone who sees politics as a struggle between the common people (the populace) and the elites (the rich and powerful) and promotes the best interests of the populace. A "right-winger" was originally the label given to Frenchmen after the French Revolution who wanted to continue with a monarchy and its privileged class — they just wanted a different king — rather than a democracy.

On the other hand, a right-wing demagogue will typically try to gather political support from the populace by appealing to their fears, prejudices, and resentments, promising to make everything better by returning to an imaginary previous glory, typically including retribution for a scapegoat ethnic group that it claims is harming society, but in reality, they support a stratified a society with an authoritarian leader who supports an oligarchy class. They are overwhelmingly "reactionary" (knee-jerk anti-liberal) which isn't really the same thing as "conservative."

My problem with calling these demagogues populists means we don't have a good word for the original meaning.