5 ms·
Funny detail in our ongoing political shift: 'populist' apparently now codes as 'bad guy' for a lot of the NYT reader base. William Jennings Bryant ain't happy
by yourbandsucks 7y ago
Funny detail in our ongoing political shift: 'populist' apparently now codes as 'bad guy' for a lot of the NYT reader base.
William Jennings Bryant ain't happy.
- QuesnayJr 7y agoThis has been true for a long, long time, back to Hofstadter's book "The Paranoid Style in American Politics" in 1964.
- yourbandsucks 7y agoPartially true.. used to be that fealty to working class unions and such was pretty sacrosanct. Blue bloods were always threatened by it of course, but they used to be split between liberals and northeastern Republicans. I'd say using populist as an uncontroversial shorthand for bad is a pretty big change for a movement calling itself 'left'. (This is to say nothing about Orban's merits or lack thereof, just noting the terminology)
- QuesnayJr 7y agoThe NYT is not "left". It's always been the newspaper of the establishment. They've always criticized populists, because they want to draw a line to say that certain elements "go too far".
- jjaredsimpson 7y agoMore like used to code for anti-business, whereas presently codes for nativist.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- yourbandsucks 7y agoThat's a good way of putting it. I could write a book on the assumptions, stereotypes and missed opportunities involved in buying into that shift.