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Comment by rozab | Hacker News Reader

I assume by 'strong personality' you mean populist. I think it's a big mistake to think populism can only be fought with populism, otherwise all democracies would have fallen to it long ago.

I do think if we're pointing fingers, most of the problems came from before the Harris campaign kicked off.

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Populism is just democracy taking the reigns back from the entrenched political establishment. There is nothing democratic about a social class of bureaucrats gatekeeping all political offices. If anything, it seems to me that populism is necessary to overcome the local minimum that the political landscape settles in from time to time.

It's pretty hard to define what populism is; it's kind of a "know it when I see it" kind of definition for most commentators.

My best attempt at a definition would be a platform that denies known truths in favour of superficially popular positions. For example, claiming that tariffs don't increase prices, or that legal convictions are lies, or even that solid, established scientific evidence (like vaccines are safe and hugely effective or climate change is real) are untrue.

Nah, that is not what it means.

Populism is a political approach that seeks to represent the interests and voice of "ordinary people" against what is perceived as an elite or establishment. Populist movements often emphasize a direct connection between the leader and the people, bypassing traditional political institutions or parties, and claim to speak for the "common people" against corrupt or out-of-touch elites. Populism can appear across the political spectrum, taking different forms depending on the issues and ideologies within a given society.

This is likely to cause winners and losers to come out of the situation... and probably after time, the leaders end up becoming elites who become out of touch with the "common people" and the process is likely to repeat.

I think it is closer to Democracy than whatever the democrats seem to say - which they seem to define as: "whatever gives them the power to do what they want"

In the ideal, populism can be seen as a good example of democracy. In practice, voters just go off of feelings and "he said, she said", at which point it's not about the benefit of the people so much as whichever elites manage to wrest the conch this time. For the most part, the people themselves aren't well educated and able to understand what is actually to their benefit or not, even if they are college educated. Adding to that, people are bad at long-term thinking and focusing on multiple issues. In practice, the outcome is the same.

Good definition! Here’s the Cambridge one:

“political ideas and activities that are intended to get the support of ordinary people by giving them what they want”.

Giving someone all they want is not seen as a good thing… unless you are the recipient, in that case internal bias comes to play.

That is how populism has been branded as bad, to you. By your definition the most populist parties are the republicans and democrats ("denies known truths in favour of superficially popular positions").

> the most populist parties are the republicans and democrats

This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone...

It's funny how "populism" has a shifting definition (as I see it). Your comment implies populism is the opposite of democracy. While it's literal meaning seems to be exactly democratic (doing what the populous wants).

Dear OP, if you don't understand why people are making fun of you, imagine the trump guy that mostly exists in your own heads saying "We must avoid falling into tyranny by leaning into the fuhrerprinciple!"

And now we know why Confucius said the first step is the rectification of names.

It's not "doing what the people want", but it's "telling them what they want to hear".

..but it isn't doing what the populous wants. It is making it appear to do what they want based on populistic (yet unrealistic) resentments.

From the outside this is what I think too. Biden tried too desperately to be the next candidate again and Harris' campaign could have started 1 or 2 months earlier than it did.

If Trump actually wins, the world might be in for a lot of trouble very soon. Quite worrying. Aside from totalitarian regimes, wherever you look around the world people were hoping the crazy dude would not win, wondering how anyone could be so blind not to see what kind of person he is, how uneducated, silly, and what a loser in the general sense.

A second administration will look quite different. If he remembers his campaign ideas, the economics will look much closer to Brexit than the chaos of his first term.

...Brexit not being chaos?

Yeah, the application of new tariffs will look like the disorderly negotiations of Brexit rather than magic marker hurricane prediction.

"impotent gridlock" would be more accurate than "chaos" to describe Trump's first term.

> Aside from totalitarian regimes, wherever you look around the world people were hoping the crazy dude would not win

Can you list some of the places where you've looked "around the world"? The locals I know out here in Asia (and a few in Southern Africa) aren't Trump haters.

Basically everywhere in Europe, where we still have democracy, even if more and more shaky these days, because we don't get our act together with regard to the war in Ukraine.

Then Ukraine itself of course.

I think no one wants to have to deal with a deranged dude, who calls NK dictator a "great guy". Surely people in South America don't like his hate speeches and outlandish ideas about them paying for any kind of wall either.

In general people in many countries take statements like wanting to be a dictator "only on the first day" as very serious indications of some guy's mental health and for what they will have to deal with in the near future. Generally people are not a big fan of having to deal with authoritarian figures, who could impact their country's economy tomorrow, by doubling down on some idiotic tariffs policy or some other crap that comes his mind.

> Basically everywhere in Europe

Ohhhhhh, the other half of the Global North? I don't consider that representative of "around the world". Europe's population is a minority (reference the Valeriepieris Circle: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valeriepieris_circle) , and it doesn't hold a monopoly on functioning democracies either.

>Surely people in South America don't like his hate speeches and outlandish ideas about them paying for any kind of wall either.

But....have you been there, and asked them? Or have you just been to Europe? I've never been to South America, and only know a handful of Mexicans, Brazilians, Argentinians, and Colombians....not enough to say that I can speak for their politics.

> Generally people are not a big fan of having to deal with authoritarian figures, who could impact their country's economy tomorrow, by doubling down on some idiotic tariffs policy or some other crap that comes his mind.

I think authoritarians are more popular, globally, than you realize. I know Filipinos who spoke highly of Duterte because his crackdown really cleaned up crime in Manila, as one anecdote. Trump's tariff policy will probably not work out well for the overall quality of life in America, agreed on that point though.

> I've never been to South America, and only know a handful of Mexicans, Brazilians, Argentinians, and Colombians....not enough to say that I can speak for their politics.

Brazilian here. Our politics can be summed up as "socialist president backed by totalitarian supreme court". Trump's victory gave me hope. The socialists are already complaining about the upcoming "hard times". Anything he does that pisses off brazilian authorities is a win in my book.

I once watched Trump give a speech about how the USA was losing Brazil. Time proved him right. Brazil is now very close to China and Russia, they're even trying to replace the USD with their own currency. Maybe he'll care enough to change that.

> Surely people in South America don't like his hate speeches and outlandish ideas about them paying for any kind of wall either.

Lots of people here who do.

Welcome to South America.

Every single day, I wake up and I see news of some government official making a comically stupid decision that negatively impacts the entire economy, my future ability to make money and also the worth of the money I've already made. Elected socialists who want to crush us with taxes. Unelected judges with god complexes. You name it, we've got it.

At some point you start hoping a dude like Trump shows up and makes up a reason to sanction your own country. No reason in particular, you just to watch it burn. Because it deserves it.

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