“In essence, texts like this one are, to a considerable extent, harmful.

A political populist lives in the media. It is their main lifeline — even when they are not being praised, but criticized, exposed, and taken apart piece by piece. Simply being present in the information space already works in their favor. Good publicity or bad publicity — to a populist, that is very much beside the point.

So every populist I mention here gets a little bonus. I am not happy about that: political parasites generally should not be fed unless absolutely necessary. On the other hand, it is rather difficult to describe a phenomenon without naming it or providing recognizable examples.

All I can do is hope that, whatever harm this article may cause, it will ultimately do more good than damage…”

My new piece for ArchFrontline.eu

Pressing on the Boil: Oleksiy Honcharenko and the Economics of Outrage