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Mallen Baker showed me something interesting

Sunday 15 June 2025

Baker explains that a powerful tactic used by populists follows this pattern: polarize, demonize, dramatize. The last step, as I understand it, involves telling a compelling story that reinforces the earlier strategies of polarization and demonization.

Take for example the story about “migrants eating your pets.” Even after the original report was debunked, the narrative remained gripping. It began with a claim that bones found in the trash belonged to a missing pet. That turned out to be false. Subsequently, the neighbor that had said her cat had been taken and eaten by migrants found her cat locked in her own basement.

Yet facts didn’t matter. The story was so emotionally charged that even the woman who found her cat still clung to the narrative. She claimed that the Haitians probably caught the cat but secretly returned it.

The point is: this cycle of polarization, demonization, and dramatization has very little to do with reality. Political opponents aren’t evil monsters—at worst, they’re ordinary people with different views. In fact, most people still agree on many fundamental values and major policy issues. It’s just that wedge issues get repeated over and over, framed as though they’re the only things that matter.

Here’s where Baker makes a crucial observation. At the same time that Trump is pushing his hardline deportation policy, he is quietly backing away from it behind the scenes. The narrative says migrants are dangerous, a threat to society. But the reality? The vast majority of migrants are hardworking people who fill essential roles.

Even Trump had to admit this. In his own words:

“Our great farmers and people in the hotel and leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long-time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace.”

Soon after, a leaked document revealed a policy change:

“Effective today, please hold on all work site enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture (including aquaculture and meat packing plants), restaurants, and operating hotels.”

Reality exposed the anti-immigrant narrative as fiction—at least in this case. Sometimes, reality still manages to place limits on the story. But of course, that part never gets shared with the political base. They only see the tattooed gang members being dragged away by ICE.

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