[Ideas] Ruth Wodak: On Trump And The Politics of Fear

Prominent scholar in the field of politics and linguistics, Ruth Wodak, dissects Trump’s persona of ‘authentic simple man’ through the powerful lens of The Politics Of Fear. She reviews the U.S. President’s own discourse and messages, his appeals to anti-intellectualism, his ability to drawn on the skills he learned as an entertainer and the ‘calculated ambivalence’ he displays to the truth, explaining how the millionaire has succeeded to claim to speak for the people. By examining right-wing populist discourse on both sides of the Atlantic, Ruth Wodak offers solutions on how the contemporary populist trend can be reversed.

ABOUT

Ruth Wodak is an Austrian linguist, Emeritus Distinguished Professor and Chair in Discourse Studies at Lancaster University, and Professor in Linguistics at the University of Vienna. Her research interests focus on discourse studies, identity politics, racism, antisemitism and other forms of discrimination, and on ethnographic methods of linguistic field work.

GOOD READS 

The Politics Of Fear, What right-wing populist discourses mean (2015)

Rightwing Populism in Europe: Politics and Discourse (2013)

The Discourse Of Politics In Action: Politics as Usual (2011)

Migration, Identity and Belonging (2011)

The Politics of Exclusion: Debating Migration in Austria (2009)