18 June

The greatest misunderstanding I think of populist movements like Trump or One Nation is that they're the product of people being economically disadvantaged - cost of living, unemployment etc. The anger of populism is about status. The perception that a person and their social group have lost their relative position in the social status hierarchy, often by the emergence of new status groups. Why the campaigning is about 'taking back my country' type things. It's about identity. The anger is directed at a list of specific groups, like migrants, the 'woke', bureaucrats etc. All challengers to status, not about cost of living, or jobs. It's the collective, population-level equivalent of a mid-life crisis. Where people go from being 'in' and 'cool' to suddenly feeling like they're on the outer.