Blog | Populism à la Carte: Online-Baked Outrage

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Welcome to the global kitchen of online political discourse, where master bakers of populism have perfected the art of opinion-designing fear and outrage, using age-old transatlantic recipes. A timeless treat that satisfies every stomach is anti-immigration policy. There are many ways to perfect one’s anti-migrant narrative, and no one does it better than Germany’s Alice Weidel 🇩🇪, America’s Donald Trump 🇺🇸, and France’s Marine Le Pen 🇫🇷, with the help of her sous-chef, Jordan Bardella. Making up a populist narrative requires virtually no preparation time and is easy to whip up at a moment’s notice in case of a sudden terrorist attack 💥 or border crisis. 

Ingredient list

• 20 years of vague national nostalgia, with a promise to make everything “great again”. 
• 500MB of scapegoating (extracted from the “Migrants-are-the-problem.zip” folder) 
• 30k shares of pure, concentrated fear (harvested from cherry-picked recent events)
• 22k likes on inflation
• 1 livestream 🎥 of job losses 
• 16k comments of national social burden flour, sifted from all nuance
• A pinch 🧂 of saviorism spices, with an aftertaste of national rebirth. 
• 6.8k retweets 🔁 of calls for deportation
• 3GB of border walls 
• 8.58MB of online social bubbles
• Conspiracy story-telling to taste 🧙‍♂️

When it comes to serving narratives on a plate to an online audience, migration securitization, antagonization and (re)tweeting remain the techniques of choice. The original recipe is quite simple: criminalize, mix, weaponize, fill, fortify, decorate, and finally serve.

Step 1: Securitize 🔒

Just like in any good baking recipe, everything starts with a solid dough. The young French rooster  🐓Jordan Bardella recommends starting with a “blame-the-other’ technique, to enrich the dough with foreign interference conspiracies. True to far-right manipulation techniques, his tweets are all about framing migration as an existential security threat to national identity, public order and sovereignty. To follow in his steps, prepare your dough with conspiracy claims of foreign governments weaponizing migration to destabilize your country, and make it sound something like: “Millions of French people no longer recognize their country”. Emphasize how specific countries of origin are evil chefs plotting to overwhelm your national kitchen with foreign, hostile flavors, as Le Pen’s sous-chef warns: “In the face of Algeria, our diplomacy has resigned itself to permanent humiliation." Bonus point if your nation has an imperialist past – this allows you to frame the narrative as a post-colonial revenge through demographic takeover. 

If Bardella’s technique leaves your dough still too soft and lacking texture, look to American populist cuisine: Donald Trump’s suggests even more securitization! Just crank up the heat 🔥 on some public-fear syrup and boil it until it evaporates into pure panic, then incorporate it into your dough. Trump’s criminalization discourse relies on portraying migrants as inherently dangerous by amplifying isolated violent incidents, framing them as representative of a systemic threat : “Illegals... spill American blood.”; “They come from prisons and mental institutions... we have to save America.” 🚨

Once the dough is thickened and sticky with panic, please refer to Alice Weidel’s method of cultural and fiscal securitization. The AfD co-leader portrays immigrants not only as a threat to German identity and values, but also as an economic burden, accusing the government of wasting taxpayers' money on them at the expense of native Germans. To go down this route, shape your dough into a tart then bake it under low fiscal-alarm bells 🔔 and budgetary outrage heat. Consider something along the lines of: “(…)Berlin is using the debt orgy to take out emergency loans for migration costs.” To keep your oven steadily warm while baking, keep adding lines inspired by the German opposition-chef, such as : “Foreigners make up almost half of crime suspects.” 

Step 2: Antagonize 🎯⚔️

Your online populist narrative would not be complete without a sweet filling that antagonizes others and casts you yourself as the savior of the people. The key ingredient is made by directing citizen anger at an opponent of your choice. To do so, whip up opposition to the leading government. Marine Le Pen easily antagonizes current and former French leaders through her proven strategy, where she calls for a heaping scoop 🥄 of the people’s voice: “...let's hold a referendum on immigration! For 40 years, our leaders have ignored the French people's desire to reduce immigration.” Through this technique, Le Pen can position herself as an alternative to current leaders by inviting voters to express their dissatisfaction on an issue with broad appeal. This is simple and, like vanilla, attracts many voters. It cultivates anger surrounding current immigration policy and ensures the French people know who to blame and, most importantly, that Le Pen will solve all. 

Looking for a sweeter, thicker filling? Try Alice Weidel’s technique to create a more concentrated, pointed narrative. Weidel’s timeless tactics lay out how the broken status quo has resulted in Germany’s immigration crisis. Her argument vilifies the asylum system, highlighting it “invites abuse” and that “the constantly growing asylum industry earns a lot from it and has no interest in change.” Weidel’s solution is simple: “This swamp must be drained!” Who can voters ask to initiate the change they so desperately desire?  Weidel herself, of course 💅.

For more advanced populists, try the Trump technique. This one should only be attempted by experienced bakers 🧑‍🍳 who have access to high-quality ingredients, such as power and party control of the legislative, as Trump does in both chambers of Congress. Your filling can take aim at past administrations, the legal system  ⚖️, and Washington’s bureaucratic apparatus. A wonderful flavor combination indeed. The most common combination made with the Trump technique is produced by folding blame on “Crooked Joe Biden Open Borders Policy” in with a “lengthy Legal process” to create the perfect angry mixture, with notes of “dangerous and violent people, who kill, maim and, in many other ways, harm the people of our Country,” and 📣“MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”🧢 All three techniques produce a thick, angry filling for your populist recipe.  

Step 3: Tweet & Retweet 🔁 📲

After adding your filling into the baked product, it is time to focus on decorating. Simply use some community-bubble icing to create and spread a populist narrative around migrants of your choice. Plain decoration will not make your sweet treat stand out in the turbulent political climate. Try adding self-written tweets as a glaze that supports like-minded politicians, such as “FREE MARINE LE PEN!” by Donald Trump. This can be easily substituted by reposting and elevating other populists. A perfect example by Alice Weidel is: “Thank you for your trust, dear @geertwilderspvv! Together we must break the reign of injustice of illegal migration in Europe! Let's make our fatherlands safe again together and restore law & order”. Just reposting a comment of another like-minded populist or influencer that portrays you as the only possible savior of your country is a quick decoration idea. Additional flag 🚩, heart ❤️, or siren emojis 🚨 will make you stand out. 

If icing isn't to your taste, use a mesmerizing storytelling sugarcoat instead ✨. Storytelling done well will give you the perfect motive to make your message stick in people's minds. Who could forget “Mimi Ramirez-Rodriguez was kidnapped and murdered by an illegal alien — leaving behind a 9 year-old girl. I met her grieving mom Carmen tonight in Georgia” after Trump told us? No one. Popular narratives include, but are not limited to, crying mothers, victims of violent assault by immigrants, and children in danger. After following all these steps, you will have the perfect populism baked good for every occasion. 

If you are worried the final product will go stale too fast, a common approach to keep reach, influence, and recognition is to attach your image to a popular figure, such as a young white man 👨‍💼 or a billionaire 🧑‍💻 of your choice. This is especially recommended if you are not a white man or a young white woman.

Serving suggestions

Anti-immigrant sentiments are best served during or after major economic and societal crises 📉. Luckily, social media algorithms do a lot of the work for you. Through shares and likes, populist messages can spread almost on their own; further action is unnecessary. In contrast to populism treats from traditional media sources, social media provides a cheap, fast, and wide audience reach. The distribution time is reduced to basically none. However, if you are still worried your goods will not appeal to many, try adding some extra sprinkles. Incorporate disinformation to overexert, inflate, and take issues out of context. 

Without editors, your audience will believe everything they read. Thanks to the addictive nature of social media and a general lack of media literacy, you will have no problem gaining popularity.

Here are some extra secrets to a perfect anti-immigration narrative: 

• TYPE IN ALL CAPS WHEN NECESSARY 🔊
• Don’t be scared of personal contradictions- every sweet needs a pinch of salt!🧂
• You can always make them believe you’re the victim 😢
• Never attack native people 🙅
• For young palates, add a dash of their favorite influencers 📸

No populist cake will be the same. Enjoy the chaos and prejudice you create and have fun! 🎉