demagogues
Inflammatory political opportunists
Demagogues are political leaders who gain power by exploiting popular prejudices and making emotional appeals rather than using rational argument.
The demagogue stokes fear, resentment, or enthusiasm to manipulate crowds: History's demagogues have often risen during economic crises.
The term is always pejorative, implying manipulation and disregard for truth.
Champions of ordinary citizens
- agitatorsThose who incite disturbance
- rabble-rousersThose inciting public disorder
- firebrandsPassionate agents of change
- authoritariansRulers demanding total compliance
strongmen · opportunists · charlatans · tyrants · dictators · fascists · nationalists · autocrats
Deliberately spreading exaggerated threats
- scapegoatingUnfairly assigning fault to innocents
- panderingAppealing to lowest impulses
- sloganeeringReliance on pithy phrases
- rhetoricArt of persuasive language
manipulation · inflammatory · bombast · spectacle · rally · tirade · harangue · invective
populists
Champions of ordinary citizens
- agitatorsThose who incite disturbance
- rabble-rousersThose inciting public disorder
- firebrandsPassionate agents of change
authoritarians · strongmen · opportunists · charlatans · tyrants · dictators · fascists · nationalists · autocrats · provocateurs
fearmongering
Deliberately spreading exaggerated threats
- scapegoatingUnfairly assigning fault to innocents
- panderingAppealing to lowest impulses
- sloganeeringReliance on pithy phrases
rhetoric · manipulation · inflammatory · bombast · spectacle · rally · tirade · harangue · invective · vitriol
McCarthy
Cold War inquisitor
- MussoliniItalian fascist premier
- tribunesRoman plebeian representatives
- tyrantsOppressive absolute rulers
Athens · Rome · mob · plebeians · assembly · democracy · republic · aristocracy · oligarchy · Aristotle
- manipulatorsmanipulators, brainwashers, gaslighters, controllers, puppeteers
- Roman oratoryfuneral orations, political rhetoric
- noisemakersnoisemaker, air horn, bell, buzzer, kazoo
- troublemakerstroublemaker, rascals, delinquents, imps, brats
- bigotsbigot, bigots, racist, racists, sexist
- dictatorsdictator, tyrant, despot, autocrat, Stalin
demagoguesstatesmen
Experienced government leaders
public servants · elder statesmen · unifiers · diplomats · technocrats
demagoguestruth-tellers
Those who state facts
honest brokers · public intellectuals · educators · sages · scholars