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ManOeuvre -> Demagoguery (12/15/2016 9:51:33 PM)
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I started a new thread on account of a topical storm Eecee.
quote:
ORIGINAL: MrRodgers
Well I disagree about any demagogue needing a god-like mastery or telepathy at all. Emotions are the beginning and many will tell you...the prejudices will follow.
Sorry, Mr Rodgers, we seem to have run up against an algabraic fault line in the English language. I was not accusing a demagogue of needing omniscience of any kind. My argument was entirely against the concept of a demagogue. It seems to me that in order to assert with confidence the definition you produced:
quote:
Demagogue: a person, especially an orator or political leader, (or one who seeks political power) who gains power and popularity by arousing the emotions, passions, and prejudices of the people.
...one would need to know for certain that emotions, passions and/or prejudices are in play, above some threshold. How much emotion, passion and prejudice was present when people settled for "Yes we can!" compared to "Make America Great Again!"?
There is no Ipsos data for:
On a scale of 1 to 10, with one being dispassionately rational and 10 being utterly emotional, passions a-flarin' and prejudicial, how well reasoned was your vote for Donald Trump?
We can't know, and claiming to is what demands an Olympian ability to read emotions and passions, or a full-on Betazoid capacity to read the prejudice between someone else's ears.
That's why I find the word demagogue especially boring these days.
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