Désamorcer le populisme en quatre étapes faciles (ou pas!)

Les populistes, qu’ils soient de gauche ou de droite, tirent leur pouvoir de notre réflexe à les dépeindre comme des imbéciles et des fascistes. C’est ce que nous dit Andrés Miguel Rondón dans un texte qui a été publié par le Caracas Chronicles le jour de l’inauguration de Donald Trump.

Le chroniqueur nous met en garde contre les portraits outranciers du nouveau président des États-Unis, les réactions excessives à ses décisions et une polarisation inutile de l’espace public à son sujet. C’est en faisant ça qu’on se trouverait à nourrir son pouvoir… comme l’opposition vénézuélienne l’a fait avec Hugo Chavez pendant dix ans, rappelle-t-il.

Ce texte nous met en garde: pour éviter que le Québec ne vive une situation semblable, il est urgent d’apprendre à éviter les pièges du populisme. Quand on parlera de Trump, bien sûr, mais aussi quand on commentera le discours de tous ceux et celles qui prétendent s’exprimer au nom des victimes du système contre les élites (économiques, politiques, intellectuelles, etc.).

Rappeler l’importance des faits ne sera pas suffisant. Il va falloir que nous apprenions à éviter les discours inutilement moralisateurs, à sortir de nos zones de conforts, recommencer à se rendre là où on ne nous attend plus, écouter ceux à qui on avait peut-être cessé de tendre l’oreille. Il va falloir descendre des tribunes, aller faire un tour dans le trafic, prendre le temps de jouer aux cartes, de tricoter, de prendre une bière ou de manger un roteux à l’entrée des arénas.

Et le plus tôt sera le mieux, nous avertit Andrés Miguel Rondón.

Ci-dessous quelques extraits de son texte

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How to Culture Jam a Populist in Four Easy Steps
Andrés Miguel Rondón

Excerpts:

The recipe [of populism] is universal. Find a wound common to many, someone to blame for it and a good story to tell. Mix it all together. (…)

Populism is built on the irresistible allure of simplicity. The narcotic of the simple answer to an intractable question. The problem is now made simple. (…)

And so, some advice:

1. Don’t forget who the enemy is.

Populism can only survive amid polarization. It works through caricature, through the unending vilification of a cartoonish enemy. Pro tip: you’re the enemy. (…) Trump needs you to be the enemy just like all religions need a demon. As a scapegoat.

“But facts!”, you’ll say, missing the point entirely. (…) Your focus has to be on erase the cartoon you’ve been drawn into. Scrambling it. Undermining it.

2. Show no contempt.

Your organizing principle is simple: don’t feed polarization, disarm it.

The Venezuelan Opposition struggled for years to get this. It wouldn’t stop pontificating about how stupid it all is. (…) “Really, this guy? Are you nuts? You must be nuts.” We’d say. (…) Repeat after me: fascism ». (…)

[Doing so you would] lost the first battle. Instead of fighting polarization, you [would play] into it. (…)

3. Don’t try to force him out.

If any [plan to force Chavez out] had gone well, bear with me for a second, Venezuela wouldn’t be in the shitshow it is in right now. (…)

The people on the other side (…) will rebel against you if you look like you’re losing your mind. Worst of all, you will have proved yourself to be the very thing you’re claiming to be fighting against: an enemy of democracy. And all the while you’re just giving the Populist and his followers enough rhetorical fuel to rightly call you a saboteur, an unpatriotic schemer, for years to come. (…)

4. Find a counter-argument. (No, not the one you think.)

The problem [is] not that Trump supporters are too stupid to see right from wrong, it’s that you’re much more valuable to them as an enemy than as a compatriot.

The problem is tribal. Your challenge is to prove that you belong in the same tribe as them: that you are American in exactly the same way they are.

In Venezuela, we fell into the abstraction trap in a bad way. We wrote again and again about principles, about the separation of powers, about civil liberties, about the role of the military in politics, about corruption and economic policy. But it took our leaders ten years to figure out they needed to actually go to the slums and to the countryside. And not for a speech, or a rally, but for game of dominoes or to dance salsa – to show they were Venezuelans too, (…) It is the only way of establishing your standing. It’s deciding not to live in an echo chamber. To press pause on the siren song of polarization.

You will not find that pause button in the cities or the university’s campuses. You will find it precisely where you’re not expected.

Only then will your message land.

There’s no point sugar coating: the road ahead is tough and the pitfalls are many. It’s way easier to get this wrong than to get this right, and the chances are the people getting it wrong will drown out those getting it right.