‘Perverse populism’ is a good term. But what is different today is that the necessary response to climate change (for sustainability, survivability) requires more fundamental change than progressive populism. The whole ‘consumer man’ culture (exploitation), in which right wing populism and progressive populism are both imbedded, is indicted. The election of Trump, Brexit, the mafia type in the Phillipines, the rise of xenophobic parties in Europe, etc., are intuitive responses from the terror of fundamental change. Naomi Klein in “This Changes Everything” tries to put a soft face on it but the ‘populist’ response today is, for now, of a nature that people will want to preserve any bit of consumer man they can grasp for as long as it lasts (probably not very long) and the centuries (millenially?) long devotion to exploitation as the cultural norm is seeing them accept more inequality.

Thanks,

Richard Keller