a contest of storytelling
October 21, 2019 8:47 AM Subscribe
Around the world, there’s a battle of storytelling about migrants and Muslims. Populists are winning Because it’s a contest of storytelling, the sworn enemies of the populists are people like me: writers and journalists. Truth tellers, writes Suketu Mehta.
Interview with NPR about his book, an Immigrant's Manifesto
posted by ChuraChura at 10:07 AM on October 21, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by ChuraChura at 10:07 AM on October 21, 2019 [2 favorites]
This is really wonderful and basically sums up my point of view about the situation in India, the US, and the world (though much more eloquently than I ever could).
posted by peacheater at 10:29 AM on October 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by peacheater at 10:29 AM on October 21, 2019 [1 favorite]
There's a lot here that is beautiful. But I'd sure like it if people would quit conflating xenophobic-far-right-asshole-faux-populism with "populism" fullstop. That would be nice.
Maybe that seems like nitpicking, but I don't see how the "writers and truth-tellers of the world" can tell a persuasive story to combat said fascists if the writers view their mandate as fighting populism, which conceptually rules out the notion that maybe there really are elites whose interests are hostile to those of the common people, i.e., the 99%.
posted by Beardman at 4:54 PM on October 21, 2019 [3 favorites]
Maybe that seems like nitpicking, but I don't see how the "writers and truth-tellers of the world" can tell a persuasive story to combat said fascists if the writers view their mandate as fighting populism, which conceptually rules out the notion that maybe there really are elites whose interests are hostile to those of the common people, i.e., the 99%.
posted by Beardman at 4:54 PM on October 21, 2019 [3 favorites]
Might you be conflating class issues with the kind of othering issues that muslims and migrants (and others targeted) face?
posted by Mrs Potato at 9:55 AM on October 22, 2019
posted by Mrs Potato at 9:55 AM on October 22, 2019
Might you be conflating class issues with the kind of othering issues that muslims and migrants (and others targeted) face?
The vast majority of people who have been targeted by far-right populists belong to the working class. As such, their interests could be furthered by a multiracial left-wing populist movement.
The alternative to that is... some form of "progressive" politics that either uncritically or cynically declares "populism" the enemy? Something about that – the exhortation to just trust the experts – smells funny. Almost as if it laid the foundations, opened up the space, for the very right-wing populists we now see.
posted by Beardman at 7:11 PM on October 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
The vast majority of people who have been targeted by far-right populists belong to the working class. As such, their interests could be furthered by a multiracial left-wing populist movement.
The alternative to that is... some form of "progressive" politics that either uncritically or cynically declares "populism" the enemy? Something about that – the exhortation to just trust the experts – smells funny. Almost as if it laid the foundations, opened up the space, for the very right-wing populists we now see.
posted by Beardman at 7:11 PM on October 22, 2019 [2 favorites]
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posted by ChuraChura at 9:54 AM on October 21, 2019 [1 favorite]