Revealed: populists far more likely to believe in conspiracy theories

[CousinIT]

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/may/01/revealed-populists-more-likely-believe-conspiracy-theories-vaccines

Populists across the world are significantly more likely to believe in conspiracy theories about vaccinations, global warming and the 9/11 terrorist attacks, according to a landmark global survey shared exclusively with the Guardian.

The YouGov-Cambridge Globalism Project sheds new light on a section of the world population that appears to have limited faith in scientific experts and representative democracy.

Analysis of the survey found the clearest tendency among people with strongly held populist attitudes was a belief in conspiracy theories that were contradicted by science or factual evidence.


The research may go some way towards understanding the success of rightwing populists such as Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro, who have fuelled conspiracy theories, undermined efforts to address global warming and dismissed fact-based journalism as “fake news”.

The survey findings may also prove useful to public health officials who are battling to contain outbreaks of measles around the world amid alarming rates of unvaccinated children.

The World Health Organization and other public health bodies have embarked on major campaigns to remind the public of the importance of vaccination as anti-vaccine propaganda and conspiracy theories have flourished on social media.

Unicef recently revealed that measles cases had risen 300% in the first three months of this year compared with the same time last year. In 2017, approximately 110,000 people died of the illness, most of them children. About 169 million children under 10 worldwide are unvaccinated, the UN agency said.

[Blue_Tires]

1. Of course, no great shock there...

modern "populism" has always been about emotions and gut feelings and celebrating ignorance... That's why they're such suckers for lameassed simpleton slogans like "Drain the Swamp" which is easy to remember, easier to chant and is completely free of any substance whatsoever...

[hlthe2b]

2. I do not believe that there is a consistent definition of "Populism" at play here...

Seems to me the definitions loosely adopted in the US are quite different than those in Europe...
Otherwise, how can the "populist message" of a Sanders, Warren, or even Biden be equated with that of a Bolsonaro of Brazil? How can the "Occupy Wallstreet--99% movement" be equated with Trumpism?

Even Wikipedia acknowledges as such:
Populism refers to a range of political stances that emphasise the idea of "the people" and often juxtapose this group against "the elite." There is no single definition of the term, which developed in the 19th century and has been used to mean various things since that time. Few politicians or political groups describe themselves as "populist" and in political discourse the term is often applied to others pejoratively. Within political science and other social sciences, various different definitions of populism have been used, although some scholars propose rejecting the term altogether.


So, what exactly is being measured here?

[marylandblue]

3. They defined populist as someone who strongly agreed that:

1.My country is divided between ordinary people and the corrupt elites who exploit them.

2.The will of the people should be the highest principle in this country’s politics.

They said this was a common definition used by social scientists.

[hlthe2b]

4. By that definition, nearly all of DU would be populists, yet how many would vote a Trump/Bolsonaro

or buy into anti-vaxx or other conspiracy?