You might be worried that in the US and Western Europe, there are some pretty scary folks that are getting pretty popular. Those folks–who appeal to our fears and hatred to get power–are called demagogues.
We’ve seen them throughout history, from the very first Democracy–Athens–up through today. Xander and Erik give a brief history of demagogues throughout history to show that we’ve seen this story before… and then we have a good conversation about what to do when we see demagoguery creeping in.
Direct Sources
- The Peloponnesian War
- “Demagogue” Wikipedia Page
- Joshua Greene’s Moral Tribes
- Thucidydes’s The History of the Peloponnesian War
- Great Courses lecture series: the Peloponnesian War
- Foreign Affairs, Jan/Feb 16. “Brazil’s Antipoverty Breakthrough – The Surprising Success of Bolsa Familia”
Further Reading
- Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind
- We totally thought of using Cleon before we read this, but the Washington Post thinks that a bit of history on the old Greek is apt for this year’s election.
- Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History 6-part series “Death Throes of the Republic”
- Givewell.org
- ReConsider on Patreon
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