Rhetoric at the ontological level—for instance, the way in which hegemony is structured like speech—is a tool that can be used to give meaning to narratives such as the medical populist claims that arose in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Although these populist claims ranged from explicitly trivial conspiracies to rational demands about healthcare, outside the truth–falsity binaries we can explain how the narratives functioned metaphorically to gain acceptability. While guarding against linguistic reductionism, but considering that hegemony works like grammar, rhetorical discourse analysis, inspired by the work of Ernesto Laclau, is used to read the metaphorical transformation of disinformation into “rational” demands and the construction of enemy outsiders to stabilise this populist hegemony. Through a metaphoric mechanism, disinformation is converted to information and linked to rational demands, which enables what is otherwise irrational to become believable. This linking is achieved through disinformation and rational demands metaphorically substituting each other to become what they are not in their literal form. Thereafter, the metaphorical meaning loses its metaphoricity, allowing the disinformation to become catachrestic and to be taken as literal or genuine knowledge. Several cases are cited to illustrate concrete examples of knowledge generated through metaphorical contamination of rational demands with disinformation.

本体论层面的修辞——例如，霸权像演讲一样的结构方式——是一种工具，可用于赋予叙事以意义，例如为应对 Covid-19 大流行而出现的医学民粹主义主张。尽管这些民粹主义主张的范围从明显的微不足道的阴谋到对医疗保健的理性要求，但在真假二元论之外，我们可以解释这些叙述是如何通过隐喻的方式获得接受的。在提防语言还原论的同时，考虑到霸权就像语法一样，修辞话语分析受到埃内斯托·拉克劳（Ernesto Laclau）作品的启发，被用来解读虚假信息向“理性”要求的隐喻转化和敌对局外人的构建，以稳定这种民粹主义霸权。通过一种隐喻机制，虚假信息被转化为信息并与理性需求相关联，从而使原本不合理的事情变得可信。这种联系是通过虚假信息和理性需求隐喻地相互替代来实现的，以成为它们在字面形式中所不是的样子。此后，隐喻意义失去了隐喻性，使虚假信息成为灾难性的，并被视为文字或真正的知识。引用了几个案例来说明通过用虚假信息隐喻地污染理性需求而产生的知识的具体例子。这种联系是通过虚假信息和理性需求隐喻地相互替代来实现的，以成为它们在字面形式中所不是的样子。此后，隐喻意义失去了隐喻性，使虚假信息成为灾难性的，并被视为文字或真正的知识。引用了几个案例来说明通过用虚假信息隐喻地污染理性需求而产生的知识的具体例子。这种联系是通过虚假信息和理性需求隐喻地相互替代来实现的，以成为它们在字面形式中所不是的样子。此后，隐喻意义失去了隐喻性，使虚假信息成为灾难性的，并被视为文字或真正的知识。引用了几个案例来说明通过用虚假信息隐喻地污染理性需求而产生的知识的具体例子。