Empowering the People’s Truth Through Social Media? (De)Legitimizing Truth Claims of Populist Politicians and Citizens

Michael Hameleers

doi:10.17645/pag.v10i1.4726

Abstract

Right-wing populists have allegedly fueled increasing levels of distrust regarding expert knowledge and empirical evidence. Yet, we know little about how right-wing populist politicians and citizens use social media to construct and oppose truth claims. Using a qualitative analysis of Twitter and Facebook posts communicated by right-wing populists and citizens supporting populist ideas in the Netherlands, this article offers in-depth insights into processes of legitimization (confirming truth claims) and de-legitimization (opposing truth claims). The main conclusion is that right-wing populists and citizens supporting populism do not share a universal way of referring to reality. They use social media to communicate a confirmation-biased reality: Expert knowledge and evidence are de-contextualized or reinterpreted and aligned with right-wing populist agendas. References to the people’s experiences and worldviews, conspiracy theories and crisis sentiments are used to legitimize people’s opposition to expert knowledge and empirical evidence. Based on these findings, we coin the idea of an “adaptable construction of confirmation-biased truth claims” central in right-wing populist interpretations of reality. In times of increasing attacks on expert knowledge and empirical evidence, populist discourse may fuel an antagonism between the ordinary people’s experiences and the truth claims of established media channels and politicians in government. Social media offer a platform to members of the public to engage in discussions about (un)truthfulness, perceived deception, and populist oppositions—potentially amplifying divides between the ordinary people’s experiences and expert sources.

Highlights

Populist ideas, which revolve around the construction of an antagonistic narrative emphasizing the divide between the “good” ordinary people and the “corrupt” elite (Mudde, 2004), are very prominent on social media
The de‐legitimization of truth claims can be understood as a rejection or refuta‐ tion of the truth claims made by opposed actors—a dis‐ course that resonates with the “fake news” accusations voiced by Right‐wing populist (RWP) actors (e.g., Egelhofer & Lecheler, 2019; Waisbord, 2018)
Populism is thin in the ideology it conveys (Mudde, 2004), we look at right‐wing populism in this article because these sentiments and political actors are more prominent in the Dutch context

Summary

Introduction

Populist ideas, which revolve around the construction of an antagonistic narrative emphasizing the divide between the “good” ordinary people and the “corrupt” elite (Mudde, 2004), are very prominent on social media. The dynamics of legitimiza‐ tion and de‐legitimization may contribute to an antago‐ nistic populist reality construction: Claims that are con‐ gruent with people’s beliefs are justified and defended, whereas opposed claims are rejected or counter‐argued. The truth claims of people’s in‐group may be seen as honest and accurate, whereas the truth claims expressed by out‐groups are seen as dishonest or even deceptive In this setting, we introduce the following research questions: RQ1: To what extent and how does populist rhetoric afforded by social media de‐legitimize and oppose elite actors whilst introducing counternar‐ ratives within the same traditions of authoritative knowledge?

Objectives

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Results

Conclusion