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Dr. Mark Edwards
University of Jönköping
Understanding Trumpism: A metatheoretical mapping of changing political landscapes
The standard means for identifying political positions, the left-right distinction, has always been inadequate for any in depth understanding of the range of political views. The rise of Trumpism is the feather that breaks the back of this simplistic left-right lens. Trumpism is essentially the convergence of two contradictory movements – the radical rejection of conventional political norms and the opportunistic acceptance of this rejection by mainstream political and corporate conservatives. In this presentation I point to the need for metatheoretical lenses such as a morality spectrum and a mediational lens to untangle the web of complexities that currently besets the post-truth, or more correctly the a-truth (as in a-moral), political landscape. This meta-theoretical mapping is one option of many that can be used to bring some additional conceptual muscle to help make sense of Trumpism.