What Does Populism Actually Mean? - TLDR News

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Over recent years there's been a lot of talk about populism around the world. People have accused people like Trump, Erdogan and Johnson of being populist and we're now looking at what they actually do. What does it mean to be populist, what actually is populism? That's what we discuss in today's video.
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[@johnhobbes2268]

Livin´ in a cave the last years... ah that would have been beautiful.

[@Ergogre]

Sadly, caves are no longer affordable to most Millenni-trolls.

[@cinderball1135]

A millennial hideout cave? I'm in. I'll bring the tofu steaks. Really. It can't be worse than this mess. Just make sure the cave is well above sea level. ;)

[@johnhobbes2268]

@@cinderball1135 I'm not sure how millennial friendly my cave will be. Since the survivability of millennials is reliant on w-lan, which would contradict the purpose of the cave.

[@captainmaim]

We need a long antenna for the cell phone repeater/wifi to work underground. If our cave isn't sufficiently above seal level, we can build a wave-action electrical generator to power a UPS battery system and pumps/seawall door... these problems can all be solved by things delivered by amazon drones. The question is: are we fleeing technology or humans? I propose we lock the humans out and form an ad-hoc ethnostate defined as "whomever we like and their children, provided the children aren't assholes."

[@markrosstomlin]

Yeah...Caves are all run by Air BnB now mate. You have to book them ages in advance.

[@creepyisnotbad5719]

I sincerely hope you'll make TLDR News EUROPE in the future

[@Boomerrage32]

Isn't that kinda what this channel is? Although with the UK first.

[@tsuchan]

@@Boomerrage32 Alas that the channel treats UK and Europe as effectively different places; although understandable why it has done so. Was that a populist editorial decision, or just one of commercial reality?

[@MDP1702]

@@Boomerrage32 Not really. The main reason why Europe is featured here now is because of brexit and the UK's relationship with the EU. However as soon as brexit is done, they'll most likely focus more on just british politics. I hope not, but they aren't really focusing on the EU if the topic has no direct correlation with the UK.

[@Boomerrage32]

@@MDP1702 If that's the case, I'd much rather have a TLDR News EU. The problem is that the US is one country, and the EU is several. There might just be more work in covering Europe as a whole.

[@varana]

@@Boomerrage32 There is also a significant language barrier. While there are English news available for many countries, they will get nowhere near as comprehensive and accurate a picture if they don't know a bit of the language of the countries they cover. It might still work but will be considerably harder.

[@ChristianIce]

In Europe, we mostly use the word to define demagoguery. In USA, they mostly use it in a positive sense, like "doing what the people want". That's my experience arguing with people from both places. P.S. whether it is link to a nationalist, socialist, democratic or whatever kind of propaganda, it's not relevant. The actual distinction is using it in a positive or negative way.

[@prophetsnake]

Yeah, new rule, Brits don't get to criticise anyone for at least two more generations.

[@thebeststooge]

As a USA citizen a nationalist AND a populist are good things.

[@prophetsnake]

@@thebeststooge No they are not. And learn to string a sentence together, by the way. With English skills like that, Trump is likely to deport you.

[@C05597641]

Populism is just effective democracy when it's good. Populism is bad when people promise what they cant deliver.

[@perer005]

@@thebeststooge But US citizens are aware of what too much nationalism and populism resulted in during the 20th century, right?

[@SuperSmashDolls]

Popular democracy: Make the people sovereign Liberal democracy: Protect the people from sovereigns The former sounds more reasonable until you realize what the word "sovereign" means.

[@leonsong3284]

It would be reasonable until you realize the fact that all people are born with greed, that’s why law exists to protect everyone’s rights

[@matiasrisso5917]

Can you make a video on the EU-Mercosur trade agreement?

[@G60J60F80]

Yes! Please!

[@terilyte3152]

+

[@joaquinandreu8530]

Easy: Germany used Spain to get access to the South American market.

[@FOLIPE]

And they'll probably end up embargoing south american commodities export using health and environmental hazards as excuses. Perfect plan.

[@exodud5016]

@@joaquinandreu8530 now, to be fair, France's longest border is with Brazil, and most of our regions in the carraibans will earn a lot from having easier access to their market. So I think we might have a bit to do with it too

[@cynic2201]

I love how you completely ignore Corbyn being an overt left wing populist.

[@Jordan-ub5kw]

“Here at TLDR we try to maintain a non-biased viewpoint” that is why we completely ignored half the political spectrum and ignored places where populist politicians came to power and fought for their constituents which gave a very misconstrued appearance of populism

[@222000seb]

Speaking of Erdoğan, would you also be interested in explaining the importence of the recent defeat of his party in the Istanbul Municipal election? As a Turk born and raised in the U.K. i would love to see some content about my homeland from you guys!

[@kinga6347]

I would link the recent loss of the municipality to the candidate put forward rather then people not supporting the government as it still has a majority nationwide. There were better options the AKP could have put but they didn't. If they had, the AKP wouldn't have lost Istanbul.

[@asdfghyter]

Kristian Rebel No, both are. You can feel a belonging to more than one country.

[@222000seb]

@@asdfghyter Exactly. Also since my dad's Turkish i have a Turkish cizenship too, so in a way both are my home ^^

[@FOLIPE]

@@kinga6347 Istanbul isn't the whole of Turkey, so support to something can vary between those two.

[@kinga6347]

@@FOLIPE yeah you are right but i still see the candidate as the main reason for AKP not winning.

[@MusikCassette]

a good comedian ones said: calling out a politiciann for being populistic is like calling out an athlete for being sweaty.

[@fargoflagrant7796]

that seems to imply that there's no way of doing politics without resorting to populism which is simply untrue

[@jordan---martins]

Cheeky outro track?!

[@faydaway]

8:09 - what about the democracy index? Its pretty well respected as an indicator for democracy.

[@samuelthornton9179]

then used a different form of measurement, but the democracy index agrees with it. always best to use a few sources rather than just one

[@zaedin1]

Man, I might need to grab my popcorn to view this comment section.

[@AnimatedEejit]

Popcorn? Try a hazmat suit.

[@SpeedBird6780]

Hope that popcorn is sweet and not made out of salt. XD

[@zengara11]

MY BODY IS READY!!!!!

[@mrbrainbob5320]

@@SpeedBird6780 popcorn is buttered and salty not sweet

[@SpeedBird6780]

@@mrbrainbob5320 I litterally translated that from another language.

[@micheltresseras]

absolutely love this educative video format, please make more

[@Haoshoku]

Amazing Video, thanks so much for your effort in Production!

[@myutwo33]

Can you do a similar video on what facism is?

[@tygonmaster]

Facism: The most misused word in the world....well next to communism. Both are wildly only ever talked about in the pejorative sense and videos like this focused on them I think would do wonders to help some people stop seeing terms for what they are instead of how they feel about them. Then again, people like to be ignorant, so....who knows.

[@myutwo33]

tygonmaster completely agree on communism/socialism. I’ve developed a useful habit of refusing to engage in an internet debate about communism/socialism unless the other person defines what those terms mean to them first.

[@user-ei7ed6zy9k]

Someone right of Karl Marx (according to the left)

[@thegrandmuftiofwakanda]

Every straight white male in the universe, apparently.

[@Vienna3080]

Big Daddy Toyota Corola No one has ever said that but nice strawmann fallacy

[@declanquigg6343]

Thank you for the balance. I find myself struggling to find media outlets without an agenda. I think this will be the quality that sustains your business. First time I have actually considered becoming a patron.

[@PavaniGanga]

Thanks. I truly value the education/clarification. Godspeed.

[@ThePandorads9]

Brilliant work as usual. Very clear and to the point

[@Thewinner312]

What still confuses me is the practical difference of 'populist parties' to other parties. So in theory they are more driven by what the public wants and what's 'popular', but then isn't every party populist? Every party needs to do what's popular among their constituency, otherwise they would not be elected. Even more confusing to me is the argument that they supposedly claim 'to see the people as the sovereign and the elite as bad'. If anything that sounds like a left-wing/labour party to me, especially being 'anti-elite'. To me it sounds like populism is just a word made up by a certain political group, to have a common terminology that describes all their political enemies, but doesn't actually mean anything.

[@NovaWasp]

In my mind, the difference is that 'populist parties' operate to rile people into a mob mentality or lowest-common-denominator thinking, where the majority must get their way at the expense of the minority groups, the law, human rights etc. but in 'liberal parties', they operate within the established system to benefit the maximum number of people and are voted in to represent everyone but largely to benefit those who they think need the benefit the most (left - young/working class/poor or right - older/wealthier people). Eg. We're all white christians, let's go and oppress the someone of another religion because they're not like us and we're the majority, vs a liberal left-wing ideology - let's try to save the environment for future generations by listening to the experts on various solutions and we'll find a practical way to implement them so it will benefit the maximum about of people and will negatively impact as few people as possible. To ease your 2nd confusion, I think there's a difference between anti-elite and anti-expert where 'the left' is concerned. People with power and influence (the elite) want to hold onto it and contain it to as few people as possible eg. a strict monarchy or an oligarchy, to benefit themselves at the expense of the majority. For example, there was once an English Minister for Scotland who had never been to Scotland and had little regard for how his decisions would affect local communities or their wishes but got the job because of his political connections rather than by merit. But an expert, in this example, would be a representative of a Scottish community that had a better understanding of how the funding could be spend in their area to benefit their people. Generally, going to 'the left' means that you want power to be distributed to more representative bodies for the benefit of more people eg. more devolved power to local councils who know what their community needs. Hope that helps.

[@jpblack2148]

Populism is dangerous for the reasons you said. I watch Years and Years and OMG IT IS AMAZING

[@IQneg]

Congrats on the visual aids, an asset to comprehension of what turned out to be quite a complex matter. I don’t know more but I do understand it better. If that was your aim, well done.

[@wupsje1]

Hey there! I recently joined your patreon because this channel is currently the only way I follow any news and it deserves my support. I have a personal request too; I would appreciate it a lot if you could increase the contrast in the main light blue/white colourscheme you use on screen. For me it can be hard to read words because the colour of the letters and background are so similar. I'm looking forward to seeing this week in parliament return!

[@khaibitdevzero6004]

Hey guys, I have been watching your channel since the start of the whole Brexit omnishambles and I was wondering what you lot would do once it is resolved or died down. I really enjoyed this video (props for using Mudde). I think you could do alot worse than make a series on some of the fundamental definitions behind politics. The term 'liberal' / 'liberalism is especially confusing due to it's wide variety of different meanings, perhaps you could do something on that. Really enjoy your stuff btw, good luck with getting the studio.. =)

[@SigridKroon]

Hey, I just want to say you're doing a great job and help me understand what's going on. Only problem is Im from Australia. I saw you were starting doing a US channel, and I wanted to suggest something. Australia is in dire need of a news presence on KZbin and good news and political coverage. I know most of us are UK's ex-con descendants but it would be great to have your style of information on what goes on here

[@emiliowd]

Loving that outro, possibly better as an intro? (instead of the 3 second silence?)

[@baggaz167]

Thanks for introducing me to the word, 'technocracy', TL;DR, I've been trying to explain my political beliefs to people and it sounds like what I believe in is a democratic system in which MPs are voted for, but cabinet positions are appointed in a technocratic way. Michael Gove moving from Education Secretary to Environmental Secretary just proves MPs don't actually have to know anything about the positions they are responsible for, which, to me, is asinine in the extreme. I want to see a professional economist being elected to be a Conservative/Labour/whichever party treasurer, they should not be appointed by Prime Ministers picking favourites with MPs who have only a basic grasp of economics.

[@liamcollins9183]

You should watch an old 80s British comedy called Yes Minister, which often protrays the Minister, Jim Hacker, being ran around in circles by his Permanent Secretary, Sir Humphrey Appleby, the most senior civil servant in his department. The show suggests that its often the established apolitical civil service who really run things, rather than the minister.

[@waplington]

Tune at the end slaps

[@jamiefenner123]

Without a doubt the best political news source and education not just on KZbin but in general tldr news has put a modern twist on political engagements making politics less confusing for the younger generations

[@dafyddgiddins9861]

Brilliant video, I really appreciated having the difference between Popular Democracy and Liberal Democracy Explained so clearly. It provides the perfect comeback to the "will of the people" argument.

[@gillesmeura3416]

I recommend looking up videos by Timothy Snyder, especially the ones about the current trend linking populism and oligarchy, and also the concept of sado-populism that he introduces.

[@Graham_Wideman]

Interesting recommendation. Thanks!

[@adampeterson705]

Your awesome, good work

[@alexbeardmore3588]

LOVE the outro!

[@codwhores6776]

Populism can vary depending upon the other factors which make the party function as a whole. As you said, populism is combined with other parts to create a full-blown ideology, and as such populist ideology can be seen all across the political spectrum. Fundamentally, it is the other factors which make an ideology of the party which influence how authoritarian a populist party/group is. For example, the centre populist party Movimento 5 stelle in Italy has advocated for direct democracy, which does not nessecarily cause authoritarianism; in fact, many people see it as limiting authoritarian powers by giving the people more say in their political system. Ultimately, it requires other parts of an ideology to determine how authoritarian something is, as can happen with liberal democracy too. The best example I can think of would be the question around hate speech, which has the goal of protecting minorities from harassment, but infringes upon freedom of speech and as such is considered authoritarian.

[@zax1998LU]

A g20 sumarry would be cool. Very political.

[@archierch0463]

G7 too and UN and even the EU too. I’m getting obsessed 😂

[@Jenson334]

The link to TLDRNewsUS in your description isn't working as a link.

[@tygonmaster]

The link closed its borders. :^)

[@ab6208]

Great video. Keep it up :)

[@alasdairwatson712]

Thanks for the enlightening explanation. Regarding “Years and Years”, it was entertaining, although the end of the last episode seemed to mutate from speculative to science fiction and was somewhat puzzling, as if angling for a second series. What was very noticeable is the way the BBC obeyed a requirement of identity politics: that a role should. Be played by a person having the characteristics of that role. A young gay white man was played by a young gay white man; a white woman with spina bifida was played by a white woman with spina bifida; and a psychopathic, power-hungry woman was played by Emma Thompson.

[@gadyariv2456]

when I hear Populism I think of Peron and Evita...but that's because of the Madonna song that was played all the time on the radio when I was a kid.

[@apopompi]

Man, I wish there was a TLDRNewsMexico. However, around here you also have a bigger problem sorrounding the sources. I have the feeling it would be extra hard to discern fact from demagogia

[@thomasmusso1147]

An interesting overview .. thank you. I don't neccessarily agree with some of your interpretations .. but then, it depends where one sits in the Spectrum. Too much of anything (albeit how 'good' it deemed at the time) is not necessarily healthy in the long run. The 'checks and balances' created when the Pendulum swings in the in the opposite direction helps us 'bumble' our way through existence. Perhaps not good for some (or most) at one set point in time but then Evolution is a long term process with no quick fixes.

[@Hyebze]

that outro though.. awww yeaaaa

[@lucaswilliams3806]

Was really hoping for some historical insight linking the Populares party of Rome to modern politics

[@sbiebaut7289]

While it is a very interesting overview of populism, and the book you mentioned is certainly worth your time, it might be worthwhile to divide the multiple characteristics you mentioned. at the end, you described popular democracy as favouring against freedom of the press, rule of law, and majority dictatorship, however, I question whether these are truly characteristics of 'popular democracy'. As I understood it, popular democracy is for a completely free and uncensored press (like Denmark has). These characteristics seem more in line with an authoritarian ruler. no doubt that Erdogan is a populist, but also a nationalist and an authoritarian ruler. Syriza in Greece is/was a populist party where part of their discourse was against the ruling elite and solutions sometimes felt opportunistic and aimed at pleasing the people. However, these were everything but authoritarian and very much in favour of the rule of law, freedom of the press and otherwise the Tennants of liberal democracy.

[@DTWTheWanderingMuzungu]

Like the new outro at the end.

[@mr.rambler6461]

I don't often agree with KZbinrs ask for gain on Patreon, however TLDR News has helped me understand the fine details of Brexit and politics in an easy manner. I fully agree with this channel mention Patreon. 😊 Thank you TLDR News!

[@joseph_wei]

Liberal democracy is built to protect the rich, who mainly demands two things: strong rule of law and strong property rights, both are to protect their wealth and safety, the first one is to protect them from criminals, the second one is to protect them from the government. That is why free press is so important because they are corporate owned and their main function is to put the government in check. I think the main reason why people grown up in liberal democracies are generally suspicious of their governments is because of the programming from corporate media. Separation of power and corporate funded elections basically hand control to wealthy elites and to avoid an idealist can't be controlled by political parties in control of the government. Populism is real democracy, but elites don't like it, that is why there is a negative connotation associated with it when talked about by the media, after all media are corporate owned and reflect the view of ruling corporate elites.

[@francoisrd]

Except that true democracies don't work if you're a minority in any way. If a group containing 60% of people voted to exclude the group with the other 40% of people from voting, in a real democracy, that would be no problem. The rule of law can be undermined. You just have to define the minority group as some sort of "other" that, because of that characteristic, lack individual sovereignty and can't vote. Once they can't vote, the majority can then take control and strip away the rights of the minority group one by one. Because of this, the checks and balances of a liberal democracy are very important, and more so than the will of the majority. This is especially true since people fall for propaganda all the time. The real problem is that money corrupts liberal democracies. Corporations should not have the ability to donate to campaigns, nor should they be allowed to lobby or otherwise give preferential treatment to candidates. That's how corporations install their puppets.

[@gilbertfalling493]

So I'm being asked to pay for the definition of a word as you see it used globally. Glad I don't have the time to sort it out on my own. Thank you.

[@liam-398]

I would recommend doing some research into roman politics.especially the populares. There are quite clear ideas on what is and what isnt.

[@kylebroussard2362]

I was on board for a while and then you went WAY overboard wow.

[@gre3nishsinx0Rgold4]

I kinda like this.. it's different yet feels the same, a good change of pace.

[@MegaGouch]

Based on the descriptions given in the video, it's hard to say that any one Political party/Politician is 100% one way or another, many of them have policies and ideals that can be placed in either camp. But over arching all of that, the key thing to remember is that it's the Political environment or Opposition that allow these "populist' movements to begin. South Part portrayed the US elections perfectly, the choice between a Giant Douche and a Turd Sandwich. It's the absence of any good alternatives that allows the groups/people to form. Take Brexit for example, the majority of Anti EU sentiments had been growing for decades, the Politicians either overlooked them or it suited their world view that they ignored what a large group of people wanted. Many of the major issues (mass imigration and the resulting issues) had been going on for decades, with the average Joe on the street having their lives negatively effected while the political elite and big business were benefiting. It should be no surprise that it eventually came to a head and Brexit ensued. I have family who voted to Leave, many of whom were alive before the UK joined the EU, the UK they see today is not the UK they grew up in, their children and grand children don't have the same opportunities they did, and rightly or wrongly they attribute the blame to the EU. In reality the UK parliament could and should have mitigated a lot of the risks and prevented Brexit. And now it's the same politicians who have turned Brexit into the stage show it has become, none of them are interested in the good of the country and willing to put differences aside for the best outcome. They all have their own agendas that they are trying to push, so just veto any discussion that comes up. Ultimately the UK could end up with a far far worse deal than they had before and be in a worse decision and again it will come down to the UK parliament itself. All it will take is a Trump like figure to start saying the right things and the UK will be like a USA 2.0.

[@RezoJaco]

Can you expand a bit on central/eastern Europe EU members? You hardly ever mention them in your examples.

[@gregoryfenn1462]

To be fair Poland and Hungary do get mentioned a lot, and Germany is central a lot to many Brexit discussions in this channel.

[@juanvasquez6535]

the media in the USA tends to use the term derisively (Sanders, Trump) but oft times there are wings of the two parties that use populist rhetoric.

[@MaximusLight]

Commenting from across the pond I think it's important to mention that from what I can tell the reason people are putting more faith in populism is because they generally feel like their voices and opinions aren't being taken into account by the increasing liberal values and more extreme policies that are getting introduced. So in that regard populism may be a reaction to the increasingly liberal political scene and over all culture. I personally do not want or like populism but I have to admit as someone with more traditional views living in Canada I've seen more liberally minded people shutting down conversations that don't line up with liberal ideology consistently and it's led to a breakdown in communication and finding common ground with the more traditional conservative parties and ideologies. I think because of how toxic the political environment is here both in Canada and the States that people have been leaning more towards populism because the they don't see any way to find common ground with the more liberal ideologies and feel they need to force their view like what they perceive is happening to them as they feel the majority is imposing their view on them regardless of their disagreements. (As an aside I think it's worth mentioning that at least here in Canada even the Conservative parties are very socially liberal from an ideological stand point)

[@tsuchan]

I found the Jan-Werner Muller book, "What is populism?" much more useful than "Short Introduction to Populism" which - like this video, to be fair - is extremely theoretical. I mean, what does populism imply about truth vs lies, why does it turn out to be increasingly authoritarian (like Erdoğan's regime in the video)? Why does it seem to be increasingly difficult for countries to retreat from, the further they go down a populist path? I think we can learn a lot about the slippery slope of populism by looking at the countries at different stages of adopting it: Brexit Britain -> Trump's USA, Poland's PiS Party, Orbán's "illiberal democracy" in Hungary, Erdoğan's Turkey, Putin's Russia. Yesterday Trump's friend Putin sneered at liberal democracy in a Financial Times interview. Are Trump and Putin really particularly far apart? The video did touch on populist rhetoric by non-populist leaders like Theresa May. But it would have been interesting to go on to examine whether Corbyn's Labour is actually a populist endeavour. After all, he promises everything to almost everyone, his motto is "For the many, not the few", and the success of his policies rely on the populus not giving them close scrutinity... don't they?

[@sayaks12]

many of the negatives of populism you mentioned seem more of an issue with discursive populism. like, if a person genuinely believed in popular democracy, why would they undermine the people's power to decide? i dont think it makes sense to claim that they genuinely believe that they're the embodiment of the will of the people. it's more likely that they're just using populist rhetoric to appeal to the people. if we treat populism as an actual (thin) ideology, then populist constantly betray their own ideology. also if populism is really a thin ideology, you should talk about how it works in contexts other than just nationalist populism.

[@lordao]

Any chance of a TLDR News Canada? :D

[@0renforge424]

Populism plays on people’s emotions. As such voters don’t vote rationally, they vote based on feelings rather than looking at clearly shown statistics. Furthermore, Separation of powers in the US is an example of Liberal democracy restricting populism. While Trump passed an executive order to build the wall this was deemed unconstitutional by the US Supreme Court.

[@Tychoxi]

Ie. Demagoguery

[@mutleyeng]

naive in the extreme to think the vast majority do anything other than vote on feelings. Even statistics require interpretation, and that interpretation is subject to feelings

[@gordelorth]

Populism is the everyday bread and butter of central and south America politics. and is indeed a wrong ways to do politics because it focus on whats popular and not on what is necessary. Sometimes those overlap but still is a bad way to prioritize.

[@alexpotts6520]

Thing is, democratic politics is a popularity contest. In an argument between what is popular and what is correct, there's only ever going to be one winner.

[@1urie1]

2:00 CLEAR THE LOBBY

[@marcustait79]

How can representative democracy evolve to provide a fairer representation of what is better for everyone in one country or another? While it’s clear that the current system isn’t achieving this it’s equally unclear what might take its place if we attempted to replace or modify it.

[@Vienna3080]

I’d rather be living in a cave at this point It sounds more enjoyable and less stressful

[@gentlemanvontweed7147]

By the looks of your profile picture, you already do.

[@Zereniti77]

My rule of thumb when it comes to populism is: 1. Simple solutions to complex problems, or denying the existence of the problem. 2. Finding someone else to blame for problems people are facing. This might be “elite”, minorities, Soros etc. 3. Appeal to “traditional values”

[@valdemarulf8481]

How's this any different to regular political parties.

[@andreaceres552]

@Harry Lagom they are a different kind of populism

[@andreaceres552]

at least they don't spread hate and blame someone such as immigrants, soros...

[@Chrissy717]

@@valdemarulf8481 I don't know where you come from, but here the Germany only our right-winged party is a populist one. Constantly saying; climate change isn't real or all migrants rape.

[@andreaceres552]

@Harry Lagom and I think that Sanders wouldn't be considered a populist in most of western countries, cause he just wants free healtcare and welfare

[@1Liamthegod]

Very heavy focus on right wing populism, with no mention of left-wing UK populism. The labour parties motto being "for the many, not the few" definitely deserved a mention here.

[@thinkingofthingstolearn5327]

They've finally openly played their lefty card.

[@tesstickle7267]

Yet everything they focus on are for the few while ignoring the many lol the majority of Britain isn't bent out of shape confused about their sexual organs,the majority of Britain is from Britain not the middle east etc etc Britain does have a few religions but the majority is Christian Jewish etc list goes on. Labour is just as bad,personally i wouldn't give any of them a mention lol

[@tip0019]

You are right on the somewhat biased presentation. Just think of the SJW movement as example sawing away at the legs of liberal democracy with the pretend that they do it for the benefit of the people. Just blatend repression in disguise from the left and with pure populist intend 😎

[@tip0019]

@UC3L2mtXbgjcIXHwLInV93Sw A "motto" seems to be too narrow for me, like a slogan. SJW movement has the more elaborate thinking that any criticism on social behavior (religion/ culture/ equality/ etc) is a fundamentally bad thing, having the effect of silencing any information or news on social problems associated with social diversity. That's why I call it a "movement". The populist element is the very fact they pretend it is the only good thing to do and are so feeding on the basic human instinct to do good. Anyway, I don't know if you commented on my message :-)

[@MDP1702]

This motto doesn't sound too much as populist to me, the left parties are often for the people and workers, that is why they are left. Left populism would be more about promising things they can't deliver. However it depends on how you would see populism. In the american sense, yes it is populism because most left parties are populist by default (for the people/workers). However in a european interpretation (more negatively, demagoguery) left parties aren't necessarily populist.

[@Mr.Nichan]

I think of popular democracy as just "democracy" and liberal democracy as a balance between "liberty", "democracy", and other considerations.

[@coreybowtell6562]

I saw "populism" as rebrand of reactionary politics because even though you made an excellent point of it been closely affiliated with nationalistic politics it doesn't share the whole cultural purity that nationalists have, and we can pretty much all agree that populists are more right-wing as then conservatism. It also doesn't help that no populist parties have a unified idea of how an economy should be handled which is a large part of putting parties into boxes

[@PlantFaceMan]

Don't forget that Jeremy Corbyn is a left-wing populist, too.

[@alexanderbradley4009]

But you can have popular liberal democracies, look at the American Progressive Populists, they debunk a lot of this video and are totally different from nationalist populists

[@vannoo67]

Exactly! I find it curious that TLDR says "populism is usually used in a negative context" and then goes on to present populism in a negative context. I kept waiting for the part on Socialist Populism. Still waiting. I'm starting to wonder where your financing is coming from TLDR, last episode you were credulously citing NATO propaganda outfit - 'The Atlantic Council' on Russian propaganda. Now this Neo-liberalism propaganda. Sigh.

[@danielwebb8402]

True. Should def be described as populists. As could Corbyn. Corbyn and AOC are student union politicians. Any 32 year old who has a job dependent upon others (e.g. exclude public sector workers and those on benefits) laughs at Corbyn. E.g. Working class roofers (my whole village).

[@gentlemanvontweed7147]

@@vannoo67 If you support socialist populism, you belong in an asylum. Those traitors to freedom would convert the White House into a mosque before serving the interests of the people.

[@dallysinghson5569]

Means making the population think you're helping them while lining your own pockets 😂

[@Forlorn79]

Two aspects of democracy are: popular democracy and liberal democracy. Popular democracy is the belief that people are sovereign. Populism not only adheres to this but puts this belief at its very core, inherently. Populism is more compatible with popular democracy. However, liberal democracy is the belief in things such as: freedom of speech, avoiding the tyranny of the majority, protecting the rule of law, and separation of powers. The belief that certain things such as these come above popular democracy. Even if the people at times want to undermine these, they're so fundamental they should be inherent to democracy itself.

[@jameskendrick6402]

There needs to be a distinction between true populists and leaders who simply use populist rhetoric and focus on populist concerns for their own purpose. Populism can be a force for a lot of good, as long as it is not abused.

[@AP-yx1mm]

7:59 Separation of Powers in the Executive?

[@JayNewberyy]

You’re gonna have to do a video on democratic socialism vs populist socialism, lots of confusion and opinions in the comments. I don’t get the people who are claiming TLDR is left wing or labour sympathetic. I find this channel to be the most middle road facts based examination of Brexit and politics related issues I’ve come across. My guess is our lovely host is most likely a Lib Dem, no offence meant

[@juanvasquez6535]

I chuckle every time she says "knife crime". I live in the USA.

[@elwinvanhuissteden7729]

the Netherlands now has 2 populist parties; the PVV (party of freedom) and FvD (forum of democracy)

[@thumper8684]

Technocracy is a pretty complex term too. What constitutes a technical discipline? Engineering and medicine are long established disciplines, which have been seen to progress according to their own standards, as well as success in the field. Meanwhle economics is a piece of made up crap that can only vaguely succeed in accounting for its own grotesque shortcomings. How are the experts held to account? Peer acceptance might be enough if the rewards for malpractice are outweighed by professional embarrassment. Often though professional embarrassment is a reason why peer review falters. How are the aims and goals to be determined in the first place? Funding??!!! It is a messy term, and people that use it tend to overstate its reliability.

[@luispimenta59]

Can you do one about berxit in Portugal is a lot of UK people ask for nationality and is get a Portuguese sisten of get good I think is a good one to talk is is apen in anodar country's

[@teutates1989]

I don't think you should about the USA. The term is too vague to have much use in the debate. It fits way too easily on either side, just with different in and out groups.

[@Bustaperizm]

It's very vague term. All politicians are supposedly acting in the interest of the people. As "populist" suggests. Unless it's being used as a pejorative to say you arent really for the people, just pretending. It's becoming a meaningless word

[@philguer4802]

Believing the elite is corrupt or impotent isn't fondamentally opposed to thinking some rules like freedom of speech are necessary for democracy to work. Personally,my definition for populism is "who use very strong,generally negatives emotions to convince people by angering them or making them euphoric" ,which almost not different from demagogism i see now. This is why I use this word in a pejorative way.

[@G60J60F80]

EU-Mercosur trade agreement video please :)

[@JayNewberyy]

It should be noted at the ‘True Finns’ party are now just called ‘The Finns’ party. That advert was a) shocking to watch and b) obviously made via Fiver or something, I doubt the actors knew what they were starring in.

[@jamieah152]

Thanks for continuous great content!

[@caveymoley]

Wow that true finns video looks awesome! Gonna need to watch that.

[@bleh170]

This video was the first time I heard the word.

[@glenipolus9731]

depends on the country

[@FirefoxisredExplorerisblueGoog]

I don't think democracy can be described in two camps. There are many, many ways of setting up a democratic system within a nation. Democracy is a very fluent concept and at it's core it's about giving people (the demos) a way to influence the governing authority (-cracy). Please note, this doesn't even have to include _all_ people in a nation. Also, I disagree with liberalism being about avoiding the tyranny of the majority as this can easily be used as a justification to oppress the majority. Rather, it's simply about avoiding tyranny of any kind.

[@Super-Sheepy]

So like everything else, too much of anything can be a bad thing without democracy

[@chnadeau1]

I would love occasional videos on Canadian political news.

[@Gredddfe]

Shiiiiiiit that Finns video gave me the creeps!

[@jokuvaan5175]

Yea. It was heavily criticised in Finland for fear mongering etc. But of course true finns supporters loved it.

[@xpdmk]

​@@jokuvaan5175 I don't agree on the description of the migration situation in the video, but I still voted for them. Saying that all true finns supporters loved it is ridiculous. Supporting them doesn't mean one supports everything the party or their supporters do. Many voted for them based on being the major party with a certain stance on certain issues and to challenge the majority of big parties on the issues. After the most recent election, the party has grown to be the most supported political party in the country because of this. It doesn't stop there. As Sebastian Tynkkynen has proposed recently, they would be experimenting with a mobile app for the party supporters in the future to figure the stances on issues moving forward and even offer the idea to other political parties to figure out what their supporters actually think. Masking the party to be for only the far right is just misinformed. Stating that migration has to have limits is nowhere near far right.

[@Pining_for_the_fjords]

It made me feel sick. It portrays immigrants how I imagine the nazi party would have portrayed Jews.

[@alex-sv8ru]

Vasilijan Nikolovski That's right. But it saddens me, that racists are now profiting from this crisis.

[@jeremyjcpaul]

Also...people only recently stopped living in the caves at Kinver Edge.

[@NichoTBE]

do a video on liberalism including progressive-liberalism and how its ultimately lead to the rise of the populist/nationalists gaining power

[@originaluddite]

A problem with populists is that they say that 'everyone' agrees with them (for a given definition of 'everyone'). They talk of a 'silent majority' that only they speak for. But how do they know and how can we trust that they know? I've had an argument with a self-declared populist who claimed that populism was nothing more than what is popular (and therefore right). Never mind that many populist parties are minor and rarely win power by themselves. Best to be as skeptical as them as of any other politician.

[@johnnyboy1586]

Well I hear politicians of the establishment declare quite often about some contentious issue that what they perceive as right are what all the country believes when that is not the facts at all

[@originaluddite]

@@johnnyboy1586 agreed. I think that, rather than say someone is either a populist or not, it makes more sense to say that there are populist characteristics that indicate to what _degree_ one is populist. Major parties naturally want to win and will say plenty of things to garner votes. But what happens between elections is important too. Are they negotiating with others or simply grandstanding and obstructing? This suggests a difference between pluralistic and populist attitudes to politics. One important thing to stress (and I forget if TLDR did this) is that populist characteristics can be adopted or rejected by any group, whatever its ideology, so when someone criticizes populism, they're not automatically attacking whomever you might be voting for. It all depends.

[@dewittbourchier7169]

The Populists in the US were a left wing political insurgency movement, the right wing has appropriated the term recently to describe themselves but Populists are not necessarily rightwing or even, as is the case of the original US Populists, opposed to core liberal democratic principles. William Jennings Bryan in his 1896 Convention Speech even addressed the argument that Populists aimed to disturb certain interests that shouldn't be given how dear the issue was to them - in this case a 'hard money' and pursuing price deflation - and Bryan pointed out that those suffering due to price deflation were having THEIR interests egregiously affected and it was hardly undemocratic in a liberal or popular sense to ensure that those people's business interests were not disturbed. Left wing Populists, at least in the western European and American scene, and to some extent even in the Latin American scene, also tend to be les exclusionary. While it generated tension within the American Populists, they were broadly speaking supportive of enforcing the rights African Americans were entitled to on paper as citizens. The PSOE in Spain before 1936 were broadly speaking 'Populist' but far more respecting of liberal democratic rights and values than the non-Populist CEDA and Radicals.

[@zXHipoXz]

As entertaining as some of these comments are, it's a little saddening to see so many people are so blinded by left vs right winged politics that they instantly dismiss or insult people based on any sign of favour towards one or the other. It's a sense of mindlessness where people are creating their own ignorance and is alike to how people saw a dystopian future a few decades ago. People go on about the exaggeration of brain washing in politics, yet seem to be perfectly happy acting as if they were brain washed when faced with someone who has the "opposing" perspective. I dread to think how these sorts of people would treat their own family members for not sharing the same political perspective... it can't be healthy.

[@SolarMechanic]

... was that a real campaign video?

[@Jotari]

Yay, you get to use May hair again.

[@RKNGL]

Of the two definitions given the I think the latter is the only substantive one. The first would describe majority of politicians as populists which misses the mark by a mile.

[@slightlytwistedagain]

To me it is about the balance of power between the elites and the people because anything that becomes too centralized ends up being corrupt and abused, it's the reason why the saying "Power corrupts but absolute power corrupts absolutely" is eternal because it's part of our hierarchy species condition. Doesn't matter if it's populist democracy or liberal democracy, tyranny forms in both as we can see in the UK with all the laws compelling speech these past couple of decades. Say an offensive joke or comment that isn't incitement, get thrown in jail.

[@kingbubbles4509]

You didnt paint trump orange. Props.

[@borislavvaradinov8923]

All that is well said, but what about Liberalism turning into Socialism? I grew up in a Soviet Socialist state (massively wrongly described in West as a "communist" one, although I never heard even the communists saying that we live in a "communist state"), and I'm shocked to see how the Liberal ideology turns into pure Marxism. Aiming more centralized power (what Guy Verhofstadt repeats while collaborating with mafia parties created by KGB), aiming bigger distance between the ruling body (EU parliament and commission) and the voters, imposing economy rules and regulations which do not support free market liberalism (just look at the quotas system within the EU market, for example) - how is that insane Marxist leaning perspective something good for the Liberal idea? I think that's the pure reason so many populist+nationalists appeared in Europe in the past 5 years and took power - it's just to balance the fact that the nowadays Liberalism is more about Socialism than actual guaranteed freedom.