What Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orbán Understand About Your Brain asks “Why do people believe some politicians’ lies even when they have been proven false? And why do so many of the same people peddle conspiracy theories? Lying and conspiratorial thinking might seem to be two different problems, but they turn out to be related. I study political rhetoric and have tried to understand how populist politicians use language to develop a cult-like following, divide nations, create culture wars and instill hatred.”
Marcel Danesi is a professor emeritus of semiotics and linguistic anthropology at the University of Toronto. He is the author of the recent book, Politics, Lies and Conspiracy Theories: A Cognitive Linguistic Perspective.
