Privileged Populists

Counter-revolution has long been a tool of propagandists to redirect populist movements from achieving actual liberation for themselves. But what happens when counter-revolutionaries begin to believe their own claims of genuine revolution? What leads to such a phenomenon? And how big a role does mainstream political ideology and policy play in the mass ignorance and revisionism that has now allowed nationalism to influence national elections?

Privileged Populists sets out to answer these questions while aiming to understand the organic emergence of anti-political populism within the context of late-stage capitalism in the West. This book analyses how these elements inform and validate each other as means of appealing to the growing sense of cultural angst and economic unrest within the conservative working class-and unwittingly giving undue credence to some of the most extreme right-wing ideological claims in the process. What results is a journey through the history of revolutionary thought (and how that history has been distorted over time), as well as an anthropological investigation of populism itself as a naturally occurring logic within groups-and how it can be exploited in the absence of substantive mainstream solutions to present-day economic crises.

Auteur

Micah J. Fleck is an anthropologist and neuro researcher whose writings cover various topics including the learning brain, the development of political populism, gender, and societal implications of scientific studies. He holds degrees from Columbia University and Harvard University, USA and is currently senior writer and editor at The Trans Muse Planet. He is also the author of Anthropology for Beginners (2020).

Contenu

Preface
Introduction: Of Realizations and Distortions
Part One: Populism in Theory and Practice

1. Populist Logic and Anti-Politics
2. The Manufactured Antagonist
3. When Populism Meets Ideology
   Part Two: Inducing an Organic False Consciousness
4. From Radical to Classical to Neo: The Great Liberal Transformation
5. The Actual History of Libertarianism
6. Selfishness: Making Noble a Sinister Concept
7. Systematic Deadfalls
   Part Three: How Privileged Populism Prevails
8. When Ideology Meets Reality
9. Ignorance as Intellectualism: Confirmation Bias in the Lecture Hall
10. New Spins on Old, Misguided Hatreds
    Conclusion: Salvaging the Revolutionary Spirit