rabble rousing
Stirring up crowds
Rabble rousing is stirring up strong emotions in a crowd, typically to provoke anger or action against authority.
The rabble is the common people, often used dismissively, and to rouse them is to agitate them toward unrest.
A rabble rouser appeals to grievances and resentments: The mayor dismissed the protesters as rabble rousers.
The term usually carries disapproval, implying manipulation rather than legitimate advocacy.
- agitatorOne who foments discord
- firebrandAgitator or burning stick
- demagogueManipulative populist leader
- fire and brimstoneWrathful divine punishment imagery
- incitementProvoking unlawful behavior
inflammatory · stir up trouble · provocateur · soapbox · mob · riot · protest · uprising · fomenting · sedition · stirring · crowd · chanting · pitchforks · torches · dissent · grass roots movement · unrest
- emotional rhetoricpathos, emotional appeal, appeals to emotion, loaded language, loaded words
- mob violenceriot, lynching, lynch mob, mob justice, vigilantism
rabble rousingreasoned argument
Position backed by logic
statesmanship · diplomacy · consensus-building · mediation · conciliation
rabble rousingpeacemaking
Resolving conflicts through negotiation
reconciliation · unifying · bridge-building · conflict resolution · harmonizing
rabble, rousing, rouse, roused, rouses, rouser, rousers, rabbles