deegpoes reviewed Populisme by Jan Blommaert
Review of 'Populisme' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
This in depth analysis of Belgian and European neoliberalism describes, very convincingly, the dangers of the attention economy and politics as a competitive market.
It soberly contemplates the marketing behind right- and left-wing political parties: the hypocrisy of anti-intellectual campaigns constructed by teams of intellectuals, the malleable concept of "the common man", the incompatibility of national government and global capitalism, etc.
Main thesis: for-profit mass media have forced politics into a market format where presentation is more important than content, which is detrimental to democracy.
Overall a very informative and insightful read albeit a bit lacking in structure. Since it was published in 2007 it isn't entirely up to date but I believe the same principles still apply in more recent media.