When she held a lecture on populism and conspiracy theories years ago, Franziska Emmerling thought that would be the only one. She couldn’t have been more wrong, sighs the German neuroscientist, who is interested in politics and philosophy, in a Zoom call: it’s a more relevant topic than ever and she has to turn down invitations. But not one from her former employer, Maastricht University’s Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience, where she obtained her doctorate in 2015 and where she will return on 9 December.
"You can be a left-wing, right-wing, or religious populist, or a populist animal rights advocate"
She will tackle the two very different topics in one fell swoop. “Because people are constantly asking me about that combination,” she explains. “These are the things that occupy them, that make them angry. And while they’re not the same, they are compatible: populists sometimes use conspiracy theories, conspiracy theorists sometimes employ populist rhetoric.”
Fear
It quickly reveals a common thread, says Emmerling: fear, a topic that she researched. “Who is most attracted to conspiracy theories? Simply put, people who are scared for whatever reason. And those theories often strengthen that fear, leading people into a vicious cycle.”
Something similar applies to populism. “That feeds the fear for someone or something else. It’s always black and white, ‘us’ versus ‘them’ – whoever they may be, because populism isn’t tied specifically to any one ideology. You can be a left-wing, right-wing, or religious populist, or a populist animal rights advocate.”
'The will of the people'
What all those populists do have in common, though, is how they justify their words and actions: an appeal to ‘the will of the people’. “That sounds very democratic, ‘the majority wants this’, but that isn’t necessarily the case,” says Emmerling. According to her, whoever says they can determine ‘the will of the people’ outside of the democratic or scientific process, “implicitly says who does and does not belong to that people. Which can exclude parts – sometimes large parts – of society.”
"With provocateurs, you have to ask critical questions"
And it’s not a new thing either, emphasises Emmerling. Populism and conspiracy theories “are as old as time; centuries ago, Greek and Roman philosophers wrote that whoever can scare people, can exert power over them. That’s good news: we can learn from that past to understand these phenomena and to understand the people who hold those views.”
But how far should that understanding stretch? Should you always be willing to listen patiently, even when they say the worst possible things? Not necessarily, says Emmerling: “If a conversation is mentally or physically harmful, you can stop.”
Angry citizens
And if you don’t want to? Her research and her experience – she works for a council in the south of Germany and frequently has to deal with angry citizens – have taught her to distinguish between the two. “If someone is uncertain – ‘Populists sometimes say things that are true, I do feel threatened!’ – then listen. Try to understand that person and help them change their perspective. With provocateurs – ‘Finally somebody who says how things really stand!’ – you have to be more assertive and ask critical questions. And if people say truly inhumane and reprehensible things – ‘Death to the Israelis or the Palestinians!’ – or argue against the law, human rights, or democracy, then you have to say, ‘stop, you’re going too far’. If you don’t, then very slowly and subconsciously, your own values will start to shift, too. Moreover, the group that is being attacked has to know that they will be protected and bystanders have to see that someone is willing to stand up for fundamental matters, that certain opinions are not true.”
The lecture “Populism and conspiracies” will take place Monday, 9 December, from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. in the Jo Ritzen Room at 55 Oxfordlaan. It is open to anyone who would like to join.