Today, I'm going to talk about the problem with populism. I have been making the argument against populism, since at least five or six years ago, but it seems that the problem is only getting worse. Many things that should be argued for on principle, like free speech, and the case against postmodernism, have instead been ruined by the populist approach. Today, I will argue why this is a very bad thing. Basically, populism is unprincipled, tribalist and irrational, all of which are bad for freedom. Real life results in the past few years demonstrate the harms populism has inflicted on freedom. The populist defense of free speech is inconsistent, for example in decrying left-wing cancel culture but not opposing right-wing book bans and drag bans. This has made the free speech movement not credible in the eyes of many. The populist approach to promoting libertarianism also ignores its roots in the idea of non-aggression. As a result, some libertarian ideas have been hijacked by aggressive culture warriors, and melded with irrational conspiracy theories. In the end, populism only serves the interests of politicians. It is always harmful for freedom.
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