I've been pondering for some time about how to deal with the problem of it being fundamentally easier for populist rhetoric to take popular hold (compared to in-depth analysis), while also being fundamentally dangerous because it can be easily coopted.

I'm wondering if maybe what we need as leftists isn't some sort of rhetoric that 'feels' populist on the face of it, but that is basically impossible to engage with or talk about without doing deeper analysis and reflection first (as a co-opting defense). What exactly that rhetoric would be, I'm not sure.