Academic definitions of populism have spawned a media industry resembling personality-test astrology

Evidence

Academia remains the true headquarters of the populism industry. Entire media narratives are based on professorial definitions and analyses; academics are the ones who draw the public’s attention to the “problem with populism” and its “undeniable dark side,” both in rightist and leftist variants. “Populology” was the word coined by the scholar Federico Tarragoni to brand—and criticize—the common sense created by this intersection between academic and media discourses on populism. Examples abound. On the Guardian website, readers are invited to take a quiz to find out “how populist you are,” to then be placed in a quadrant chart somewhere among Pablo Iglesias, Evo Morales, Bernie Sanders, Matteo Salvini, Donald Trump, and Viktor Orbán. Populology here turns into a new astrology: much like the personality tests in weeklies, the expert-run quiz brings out your inner populist through innocent questions such as, “Should politicians always listen closely to the problems of the people?” or, “Are the people you disagree with evil?” — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 48

Categorization

• XREF: Chimes with how scholarly frames (‘Islamophobia’, ‘moral panic’) get simplified into clickable quizzes and parlour games — a recurring pattern in the reader’s critical theory material. — connects to: Academic far-right studies carried American populism discourse into European media — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 66; Academics carried the word populism from America to Europe — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 66; Overly minimal definitions of populism make the label apply to almost all modern politicians — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment: The Left After the…, 49

Broader Connections

• Academic far-right studies carried American populism discourse into European media #expands (0.82) — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 66
• Academics carried the word populism from America to Europe #expands (0.80) — Arthur Borriello and Anton Jäger, The Populist Moment, 66