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A little populism never killed nobody | Benedikt Kau | TEDxTUBerlin — Transcript

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0:10I think we all should be populists to
0:13some extent.
0:14And tonight
0:15I would like to share why.
0:18I don't think populism is good.
0:20Although there is some disagreement
0:22about what exactly should count as
0:24populism,
0:25I think we all tend to agree that it's
0:27something we want to have
0:28less of in our world.
0:30Populists
0:31make unrealistic, sometimes even
0:33radical, statements.
0:35They
0:36distort facts, spread fake news,
0:38and might even lie.
0:41Nevertheless,
0:43populism seems to be everywhere these
0:44days.
0:45We see it in our newspapers, on TV,
0:49in our Facebook and, especially, Twitter
0:51feeds.
0:53If populism is that widespread,
0:56populists must be doing something right.
1:01Although they tend to be weak on
1:02reasoning, facts, and realistic
1:05propositions,
1:06populists get their messages across.
1:08They are great communicators.
1:11And if we
1:13want to beat great communicators,
1:15bare facts, dry statistics, and
1:17political theory will not be enough.
1:20Because in order to be a successful,
1:23our strength our our messages, our
1:25communication must be as strong as
1:27theirs. In order to beat populism, in
1:30order to fight populism,
1:32we must learn from populists. We must
1:34become a little populist ourselves. We
1:37must become
1:40positive populists.
1:43You might say,
1:44uh, that sounds a little little bit like
1:45one of those crazy ideas students are
1:47having when they are sitting sitting in
1:49the university library procrastinating.
1:53And I must admit
1:54that's actually exactly what it is.
1:56About 3 years ago, two of my best
1:58friends and I
1:59felt, after the shock of the vote on
2:02Brexit, felt that we should become
2:04active.
2:05We thought, if all that anti-European
2:08populism prior to the vote on Brexit was
2:10so successful,
2:12why can't we spread messages
2:14exactly as populist as theirs,
2:16but pro-European?
2:19So, while I should really have been
2:21studying for what turned out to be the
2:23worst exam of my studies, we set up a
2:25Facebook and a Twitter page and started
2:28sharing advantages of European
2:30integration and of the European Union.
2:34One-liners
2:36in square pictures.
2:37Just as populists would probably do it.
2:41We called our project
2:43Why Europe?
2:45And somehow
2:47all this escalated quite quickly and
2:49this is us now,
2:512 years later, with a team of 30 members
2:53in 10 European countries.
2:57But how exactly do we communicate as
2:59positive populists?
3:02We find that there are three major
3:04characteristics of how populists
3:06communicate that we stole from them,
3:09combined those with a pro-European
3:11narrative,
3:12and used it against them.
3:16First,
3:18populism is simple.
3:20We all like simple messages, don't we?
3:23I still remember those moments as a
3:25child when I was sick in sitting in
3:28front of my plate and my big chunks of
3:30broccoli in front of me,
3:32and I was not willing to eat those until
3:34usually my mom came and cut those chunks
3:36into small pieces.
3:39I think the same goes for messages.
3:41Yes, sometimes it might be more
3:43difficult to break down political
3:44messages compared to broccoli,
3:46but in both cases we're taking something
3:48big
3:49and breaking it down into small, easily
3:51digestible pieces.
3:54This is how the European Union
3:57communicates that we have free movement
3:59between many European member states.
4:01They need 790 words for that on the
4:03website.
4:05So, that's a pretty huge chunk of
4:07broccoli right there.
4:09What we're doing with Why Europe
4:11is taking that text and reducing it
4:14to one single sentence.
4:16In Europe, you can travel, live
4:20in every country without border
4:21controls.
4:24And this is how populism makes messages
4:26simple.
4:30Secondly,
4:32Populism is personal.
4:35How much time of your holidays are you
4:37spending on evaluating the up and down
4:38sides of a Euro European digital single
4:41market of mobile service providers?
4:44And how much time on being happy about
4:46calling your boy or girlfriend without
4:48having to pay roaming charges?
4:51How many times each day
4:53are you thinking about the how the
4:55European Schengen agreement benefits
4:57long-term cross-border relationships?
4:59And how many times are you thinking
5:01about sex?
5:08Only few of us are thinking about
5:10politics all day.
5:12But everyone nearly always cares about
5:14politics if it affects them personally.
5:18And populists
5:19are doing a great job in relating topics
5:22to individuals.
5:24The strongest messages of say right-wing
5:26populists are not about economic
5:28evaluations or social implications of
5:30immigration,
5:31but about you
5:33being attacked, being raped by an
5:35immigrant,
5:36or your job being taken away by being
5:38taken away by them.
5:40I'm not saying that these messages are
5:41good.
5:42I'm saying that they're strong.
5:44Strong because they're personal.
5:49Positive populism means not to
5:50communicate a political concept,
5:53not to communicate what the EU does or
5:54what a government does.
5:56It means to communicate how it affects
5:58us, how it makes us feel.
6:01Let's focus on people,
6:02not politics.
6:05Coming back to our example of
6:06communicating free movement in Europe,
6:09that's our sentence.
6:10And this is how positive populism makes
6:13it personal.
6:15We all have better things to do than
6:17waiting at borders.
6:21Thirdly,
6:23populists make their messages even
6:24stronger by appealing to emo- emotions,
6:28often appealing to fear and anger.
6:31But,
6:32I'm convinced that we can do the same
6:34with positive emotions.
6:37And a great way of adding emotions to a
6:38message are pictures.
6:40So, let's take our example
6:42and add a few pictures to it.
6:55And this is how positive populism makes
6:57messages emotional.
7:01There's one thing I want to make very
7:03clear.
7:05Positive populism is about
7:06communication.
7:08Please don't walk out of here tonight
7:09and think you must become a real
7:10populist.
7:12I don't want anyone
7:14to use simplistic reasoning behind our
7:16arguments. We should never do that. We
7:18should never ignore facts, never abandon
7:20science.
7:22We should study the evidence,
7:24form our own opinions,
7:26and as a last step, we can use positive
7:29populism to make ourselves heard.
7:33Populists
7:34often turn emotions into facts.
7:37But with positive populism, I'm
7:39suggesting the opposite.
7:41Let's turn facts into emotions.
7:46I think it's time for me to talk a bit
7:48about what positive populism can achieve
7:50apart from some colorful pictures.
7:54Tonight,
7:55I don't want to talk about our online
7:57reach, our number of followers or likes.
8:01Instead, I would like to share the
8:04two moments
8:06that were the most impressive during my
8:08during my time with Wahlkampf
8:10and showed and conveyed the power of
8:13positive populism to me personally.
8:17About a year ago, I read an interview in
8:20a German newspaper
8:22with a dad who had started to organize
8:25pro-European demonstrations.
8:28Being asked why he did that,
8:30he replied
8:32he had seen some picture online stating
8:35"Dad,
8:36what did you do for Europe?"
8:39And that's what made him become active
8:42for the future of his children.
8:46Just a few weeks earlier,
8:47I had created and
8:49posted this exact picture online.
8:52I've
8:53never met the man,
8:54but until today, I remember reading this
8:57article
8:58and being both speechless and grateful
9:01for this dad's reaction to this picture.
9:06The second moment was close to the Dutch
9:08elections last year.
9:10We feared that Eurosceptics could move
9:13the Netherlands to a situation close to
9:15a second Brexit.
9:17So, we wanted to send a pro-European
9:19message to the Dutch.
9:22But how do you make people care about
9:24the election in another country?
9:27We took a simple, personal, and
9:31emotional situation we all can probably
9:33and unfortunately relate to.
9:37A breakup.
9:39More specifically, the point at
9:42which you see that your relationship is
9:44falling apart,
9:46but you still have feelings,
9:48and you still hope you can work it out.
9:51So, you sit down together and talk.
9:55And the main message you want to convey
9:57during that conversation
9:59is stay with me.
10:04And that's exactly the message we sent
10:05to the Dutch.
10:07We made pictures saying stay with us
10:09in Dutch, blijf bij ons,
10:11translated it
10:13into many European languages with nice
10:15pictures in the background.
10:20And the initiative Pulse of Europe
10:22printed those pictures and distributed
10:24them at many demonstrations.
10:27I was really happy seeing those pictures
10:29being distributed at a demonstration in
10:31Frankfurt.
10:33I was incredibly impressed seeing the
10:35slogan blijf bij ons being shown in
10:38front of the cathedral in Cologne.
10:41But what left me speechless once again
10:45was just a few days before the actual
10:46election should take place in Amsterdam
10:49at a pro-European demonstration.
10:52Knowing
10:53that tens of thousands of people at this
10:55very moment were demonstrating and
10:57sending out this very message to the
10:59Dutch.
11:00And standing in Amsterdam
11:03seeing those pictures there
11:05knowing that the message had actually
11:07gotten through.
11:09That was probably the most rewarding
11:11moment I had with We Europe so far.
11:14And it once again reminded me of the
11:17immense power such a simple, emotional,
11:19and personal message can have.
11:23Positive populism
11:24is not limited to Europe at all.
11:27If you're passionate about the
11:28environment,
11:29let's Let's talk about the science
11:31behind it.
11:32Let's share why sustainability improves
11:35our daily lives.
11:37If you're passionate about fighting
11:39inequality,
11:41let's leave the economic theories aside
11:42and let's talk about how
11:44how equality
11:46positively affects a single person.
11:48Not the society as a whole, not some
11:50minorities, how it affects positively a
11:52single person.
11:55With positive populism, we really get to
11:57the core of a political message. We see
12:00how this political belief affects us,
12:03how it makes us feel.
12:05And after 2 years with this with this
12:07approach, I'm convinced that we can do
12:09it with every political message.
12:12Because
12:13if we find no way whatsoever how we can
12:15break down a political message,
12:18if we find no way whatsoever how a
12:20political belief
12:21positively affects a single person,
12:25I think we should question the political
12:26belief.
12:30There's one last point I would like to
12:31share
12:33about why I think positive populism is
12:35needed.
12:37My generation,
12:39maybe young people in general,
12:41we often being called a political or not
12:43engaged enough.
12:45I don't think this is true at all,
12:48but I must admit we live in an aging
12:50society and it might get more and more
12:51difficult for us to get heard.
12:55I am convinced that positive populism
12:58can be a way for us to be heard more.
13:01We are the generation that has been
13:03raised with a Facebook timeline,
13:05Instagram filters, and Snapchat stories.
13:08If there's one generation that is born
13:10to spread positively populist messages
13:12over social media channels, it's us.
13:16We live in a fast-changing and
13:18fascinating world.
13:20And I believe that the young generation
13:23defending values, defending reason,
13:26defending common sense is badly needed.
13:31Form your own opinions.
13:33Never abandon science. Never ignore
13:36facts.
13:37Never stop critical thinking.
13:41But from time to time,
13:44if you feel like it,
13:46you may want to try a little bit of
13:48positive populism. Thank you.

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