ABSTRACT
This chapter seeks to account for the differential treatment right-wing and left-wing populist conspiracism receives in both academia and cultural commentary. Taking Donald Trump as the main reference point, it suggests that aesthetic disposition—specifically processes of distinction and taste—might operate as an under-examined factor in why, at least in the limited context of British and American liberal milieus, right-wing populist conspiracists garner more ire and airtime than left-wing counterparts. In the endeavor to approach conspiracist populism as an embodied and mediated signifying practice, the chapter draws on existing literature that approaches populism as a style. Behind the depiction of right-wing conspiracist populists as emblematic of “bad taste,” the chapter argues, is a form of boundary maintenance between “legitimate” and “illegitimate” knowledge.
