Why you can’t win an argument with a populist

In “The 7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship” Ece Temelkuran exemplifies the stifling efficiency of populist reasoning with a fictitious dialogue between Greek philosopher Aristotle and a populist. The debate starts with Socrates’ famous syllogism ‘All humans are mortal. Socrates is human. Therefore, Socrates is mortal.”

The dialogue demonstrates the simple but highly successful and extremely hard to counter strategy of populist (un)reasoning. The textbook may have originally been written by Joseph Goebbels, but the likes of Boris Johnson, Nigel Farage, Steve Bannon, Victor Orbán, Erdogan, Donald Trump, Gauweiler and their fellow populist travellers have since improved upon it, making brutally effective use of social media. Some core elements of populist arguments demonstrated in Temelkuran’s dialogue below include:

• Claiming ownership of terminology (concepts, words, meaning)
• Representing oneself as the REAL people and thus as in opposition to the corrupt elites and the establishment.
• Painting the opposite as a member of these elites (even if they aren’t).
• Ignoring the subject of the conversation and instead discussing something entirely different and irrelevant.
• Attacking the person to discredit their arguments.
• Demanding proof for scientific facts which are proven, thus implying that any existing proof is somewhat tainted.
• Disregarding everything that does not conform to their own view of the world as fake and lies,  proposing ‘alternative’ facts.

Aristotle: All humans are mortal.

Populist: That is a totalitarian statement.

Aristotle: Do you not think that all humans are mortal?

Populist: Are you interrogating me? Just because we are not citizens like you, but people, we are ignorant, is that it? Maybe we are, but we know about real life.

Aristotle: That is irrelevant.

Populist: Of course it’s irrelevant to you. For years, you and your kind have ruled this place, saying the people are irrelevant.

Aristotle: Please answer my question.

Populist: The real people of this country think otherwise. Our response is something that cannot be found on any elite papyrus.

Aristotle: (Silence)

Populist: Prove it. Prove to me that all humans are mortal.

Aristotle: (Nervous Smile)

Populist: See! You can’t prove it. (Confident grin, a signature trait that will be exercised constantly to annoy Aristotle). That’s all right. What we understand from democracy is that all ideas can be represented in the public space, and they are respected equally. The gods say…

Aristotle: This is not an idea, it’s a fact. And we are talking about mortal humans.

Populist: If it were left up to you, you’d kill everybody to prove that all humans are mortal, just like your predecessors did…..

Temelkuran lets the argument continue further, the eventual outcome should be clear by now, though. Aristotle finds himself utterly defeated and highly confused by the apparent irrationality of his opponent who refuses to play by the accepted rules of rational and informed debate. As yet, all of us who still believe in the validity of research, of established facts, of objectivity and rationality find ourselves in the very same place as Aristotle when confronted with populist rhetoric, internet trolls, tweeting presidents or flat-earthers.

Ece Temelkuran’s analysis of the global rise of populism, populist communication strategies and their successes in constructing alternative realities is a masterpiece. Rarely was a book as urgent and necessary as ‘The 7 Steps from Democracy to Dictatorship.’

Edgar Klüsener

Temelkuran, E. (2019). How to lose a country: the seven steps from democracy to dictatorship. London: 4th Estate.