Alejandro Salgado

1/27/18
Period 4
The World of Populists

The term populist came from the latin word ​populus, ​which means people​ a
​ nd 

-ist came from the english language and became a word during the 19th century, as it 

was mostly used throughout the time periods of the 1900s to 2010. The basic 

definition of this term being a member or follower of a political party striving to portray 

the fascinations of ordinary people. But the slang term for this word whether it being the 

noun or adjective version is anyone who uses facts in an argument(noun) or could be a 

term snobby intellectuals and aristocrats as code meaning “​this is what morons 

like​”(adjective). So being that it is a term used by people who believe they are above 

everyone and think that all they do is for the benefit of everyone else, but not really at 

most times and just act like a total douchebag(informal).  

The People’s Party or the Populists was technically an agricultural-populist 

political party in the U.S. and for the years of 1892-96, it played a major role of being the 

left-wing force in American politics. A possible example of a possible currently is being 

depicted that Donald J. Trump could be considered Populist just by how his ideal 

America is turning out by his actions, and by the looks of it, he using his own ideas and 

imagining that it’s what to “​make America great again​” by deporting immigrants and 

muslims by feeding people lies about these ethnicities to gain followers. Another 

example of populist was Martin Luther King Jr. because he used his abilities of facts to 

state his argument fighting for what the African Americans deserved and was their 
rights, so in reality being a populist can be good or bad, it depends on how one is 

portraying their ideal future, for MLK he had organized marches, speeches to get the 

masses rising to go against the racist community in his era of the mid-50s of fighting 

for civil rights and segregation. A bad example of populist could be Adolf Hitler, the 

infamous dictator of Germany, Adolf Hitler would consistently ramble about the jewish 

community being evil and must be annihilated,so his point was using the action of being 

rhetoric with his words of telling his followers the worst of the jewish people in hopes of 

increasing his popularity of his tribe of nazi germans, that time period on its own was a 

dark time of horrid moments to make people sick to the stomach.  

In today’s meta, the term Populist or Populism as an insult against their 

opponents. Being that the view of populism as a leader abusing their power making 

false claims, promises, and use such popular misconceptions and all to gain power by 

appealing to the public and create a name for themselves on the political range. The 

Populists have their followers being metaphoric sheeps because they follow the 

shepherd or another example would be peter piper and his magical flute to lure their 

followers as they follow their leader by a melodic sound to put them under a trance of a 

brainwash of some sort. The list metaphorical examples can go on because there are 

many stories of a leader and their followers, like a cult leader, religious leader, or 

President because all these examples lead a group of people and give them words to 

believe in the idea being for their own good, it could be a sign of hope for the people or 

can lead down a different path then expected. 

 In the conclusion, Populism never changed much in the literal sense of how the 

the action of it is done by group leaders/tribe leaders. But the definition most definitely 

changed to how it was originally written to something more drastic, but almost similar 

to how the noun slang version definition is written. That being said that there also the 

followers who perceive that they found people who believe in the same ideas as they 

are being fed by their oh so great leader because as one of many of the human needs, 

belonging is one of them. The Populists although giving good ideas or bad ideas to their 

followers they give those people a group for themselves to be around people like them 

that see in the same light, even if the context rhetoric to a sense.  

https://www.useloom.com/share/1605811bcb414041aa2fa951e8344928