Applied Linguistics and the pressing need of the hour

Abstract

I argue in this paper that Linguistics can ill afford any more not to address the threat posed by burgeoning populist tendencies all over the world, coupled with the alarming spread of fake news and little regard for truth. We, researchers in the area of language, have a duty to intervene in the developing state of affairs with all that we can muster. If that means having to rethink our claims to be doing science and therefore be mere observers of the unfolding scenario lest we should be reneging on our oath to maintain value neutrality at any cost, then so be it. Key words : rising populism; fake news; critical linguistics; value neutrality; intervention.