Populist backlash is driven less by discrete policy mistakes than by a perceived moral and cultural gap between elites and broad populations: when experts and institutions adopt cosmopolitan, expressive values that many voters see as remote or contemptuous, resentment accumulates even if objective failure rates are unchanged. This dynamic makes cultural tone and signaling by elites a primary causal lever for anti‑establishment politics alongside—rather than after—policy performance.
— If true, politics will hinge more on elites’ public repertoires and cultural positioning than on marginal policy corrections, implying different remedies (tone, representational change, visible humility) than standard technocratic fixes.
Scott Alexander
2026.01.06
85% relevant
Several highlighted comments (and the author’s meta‑observations) stress that perceived elite detachment — policy choices that feel unmarked to elders but marked to younger people — drives resentment and populist backlash, directly connecting to the existing idea that elite moral/attitudinal distance is a engine of populist politics.
2026.01.05
70% relevant
Warby argues that intellectuals double‑down on orthodox theory in the face of contradictory evidence, a behavior that widens the moral/epistemic gap between elites and ordinary voters and helps explain populist backlash—matching the existing claim that elite tone and distance drive populist politics.
2026.01.04
100% relevant
Dan Williams summarizes Matt Yglesias’s counterargument (experts’ cultural tilt rather than worse competence) and cites Michael Gove and Trump quotes that exemplify voters’ rejection of elite moral postures.
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