Lennox Series Lecture: “Trumping Democracy: Conspiracy Theories, Right-Wing Propaganda and Scripted Violence” @TrinityU

In this lecture, titled “Trumping Democracy: Conspiracy Theories, Right-Wing Propaganda and Scripted Violence,” investigative journalist Chip Berlet explains why “Trumpism threatens not just the First Amendment but democracy itself” and argues that Donald J. Trump is a “right-wing populist using fascistic rhetoric to target scapegoated groups.”

Chip Berlet is an investigative journalist and independent scholar who co-authored the award-winning book Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort (Guilford 2000); and the entry on “Neo-Nazism” in the 2nd edition of the Encyclopaedia Judaica. Publishing his most recent research on the site Research For Progress, Berlet has studied far right movements, rhetoric, and conspiracy theories for over 40 years; with three decades as senior analyst at Political Research Associates, a progressive think tank near Boston. Berlet’s journal articles have appeared in Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions, Contemporary Sociology, American Anthropologist, Critical Sociology, Criminology and Public Policy, and Research in Political Sociology.