Comments by "" (@DavidJ222) on "SE Cupp: Trump is exploiting our anxiety" video.
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Trump is a classic demagogue in every sense of the word. His demagoguery is associated with dictators, and it appeals to the worst nature of people. Demagoguery isn't based on reason, issues, and doing the right thing; it's based on stirring up fear and hatred to control people.
Scapegoating:
The most fundamental demagogic technique is scapegoating: blaming all of his troubles, bad behavior, or bad optics on other groups, usually the media, or people of different ethnicity,
religion, or social class. This is done by projection. It relies on condemning others for what you're doing. Projection is absolutely necessary for effective scapegoating.
Fearmongering:
Many demagogues have risen to power by evoking fear in their audiences, to stir them to action and prevent deliberation. Trump and fox have mastered the art of fearmongering.
Lying
While any politician needs to point out dangers to the people and criticize opponents' policies, demagogues choose their words for their effect on their audience's emotions, usually without regard for factual truth or the real severity of the danger. Some demagogues are opportunistic, monitoring the people and saying whatever currently will generate the most "heat". Other demagogues may themselves be so ignorant or prejudiced that they sincerely believe the falsehoods they tell. Trump falls under both categories here. And When one lie doesn't work, the demagogue quickly moves on to more lies.
Promising the impossible:
Another fundamental demagogic technique is making promises only for their emotional effect on audiences, without regard for how they might be accomplished or without intending to honor them once in office. ( I'm going to build a great wall, and Mexico is gonna pay for it) Demagogues express these empty promises simply and theatrically, but remain extremely hazy about how they will achieve them because usually they are impossible.
Personal insults and ridicule:
Many demagogues have found that ridiculing or insulting others is a simple way to shut down reasoned deliberation of competing ideas, especially with an unsophisticated audience.
A common demagogic technique is to pin an insulting epithet on an opponent, by saying it repeatedly, in speech after speech, when saying the opponent's name or in place of it. This is easily one of Trump's favorite demagogues tools.
Attacking the news media:
Since information from the press can undermine a demagogue's spell over his or her followers, modern demagogues have often demonized the media, calling for violence against newspapers who opposed them, claiming that the press can't be trusted, or was secretly in the service of moneyed interests or foreign powers, or claiming that leading newspapers were simply personally out to get them.
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