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Steve Bannon turns populism trick


Former Trump strategist Steve Bannon was given the red carpet treatment at the Munk Debates on Friday night as protesters were pepper-sprayed outside Roy Thomson Hall. 

The event, labelled as a debate between populism and liberalism, provided a platform for Bannon’s white supremacist extremism opposed only by former Bush speechwriter David Frum, the man who coined the phrase “axis of evil.” You know there is something to worry about when the architect of the Islamophobic rhetoric that drummed up support for two of the 21st century’s most egregious (and unending) wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is the guy who is supposed to defend the interests of democracy against a guy who thinks that racists and xenophobes should wear those labels “as a badge of honour.”

Munk Debates organizer and moderator Rudyard Griffiths championed the discussion as a public service in the defense of “free speech.” We can now safely conclude that he was not advocating for freedom of speech for anyone that disagreed with the premise of the debate  – namely, the thousands who signed petitions calling for cancellation of the event, the hundreds of academics who asked organizers to bring a wider spectrum of opinions to the table, or the protestor inside who unfurled a No Hate. No Bigotry. No Place for Bannon’s White Supremacy banner from the balcony and then was promptly removed by police.

After any speech that meaningfully disagreed with the debate had been sufficiently silenced, the three white men on stage continued with their chat about populism.

Bannon has been drumming up support for far-right groups and xenophobic politicians around Europe and South America for months using the term “populism” to describe his political philosophy. It’s all been a smokescreen. What does populism mean anyway?

According to some academics populism relies on a rhetorical trick. The trick involves “the affective process through which heterogeneous particulars (political demands) are gathered together (the logic of equivalence) under another (now become an empty signifier) and quasi-universalized as collective will.” Huh?

In other words, populism relies on making individual political issues that are not necessarily related linked in people’s hearts and minds. Once the issues are linked, they can simply be expressed all at once through an “empty signifier” – a word that in itself means nothing, but feels like it’s saying everything. That’s how the right has mobilized anger through terms like “political correctness” or “Social Justice Warrior,” rhetorical footballs that divide people into camps by linking multiple social issues surrounding race, immigration, feminism, and gender identity in particular.

Bannon has used the trick of populism on the term “populism” itself. That’s pretty clever, but after all, when you bring a pot to boil, it’s the scum that rises to the top.

Far from discussing the intricacies of populism or defending free speech, the Munk Debates simply defended Bannon’s right to yell “fire!” in a crowded theatre. And the result?

Twenty-eight per cent of the 3,000 or so in attendance voted in support of North America’s most notorious white nationalist, while a brave 72 per cent took a stand against Bannon’s hate mongering, by voting for a wet towel.

The result was the exact same as the vote cast at the beginning of the debate on the question: be it resolved, the future of western politics is populist not liberal, meaning that no one changed their minds. Frum may have collected the majority of votes, but who was the real winner?

Well, the Munk Debates of course! The dealer always wins. But less like a casino, and more like a birthday party for the conservative movement, this event let everyone win because behind the charade of debate the real mission is to steer political discourse further right.

Canadians pride themselves on their national identity of progressive tolerance. We are so attached to this image, in fact, that we ignore what’s actually happening in this country. Canadians should be concerned that Bannon is being given a megaphone in a city where we know that 25,000 people voted for openly racist candidate Faith Goldy in the most recent municipal elections.

Canadians should also be concerned that an estimated 100 neo-Nazi and white supremacist groups are operating in Canada, and that far-right extremist groups have grown an estimated 25 per cent since 2015, and that men’s rights groups are on the rise as well, bolstered by the likes of the Munk Debates’ recent invitee Jordan Peterson. The majority of people in line for the event appeared to be white men.

But perhaps some Canadians are starting to wake up?

By the police barricades outside Roy Thomson Hall, two women whose husbands were inside watching the debate, stood outside in protest. Unlike most of the demonstrators, these women simply looked sad. “My son is out here with me,” one of them kept insisting. 

Elizabeth Davis is a PhD candidate at the University of Toronto.

news@nowtoronto.com | @nowtoronto

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