rabble rouser

plural rabble rousers · alternative rabble-rouser

1. idiomaticSomeone or something that tends to inspire mobs; something controversial or provocative.

   They proceed steadily from studies of human character and destiny, the proper business of the novelist, to mere outpourings of social and economic panaceas, the proper business of leader writers, chautauquas rabble-rousers and hedge politicians.

   1917, H. L. Mencken, “Joseph Conrad”, in A Book of Prefaces

   1 more example

   He often appears with Gen X rabble-rousers like Hiroyuki Nishimura, a celebrity entrepreneur and owner of 4chan, the online message board where some of the internet’s most toxic ideas bloom, and Takafumi Horie, a trash-talking entrepreneur who once went to prison for securities fraud.

   2023 February 12, Motoko Rich, Hikari Hida, “A Yale Professor Suggested Mass Suicide for Old People in Japan. What Did He Mean?”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

   Synonyms: demagogue