Divisive Tactics Quotes

The way they control a population is by pointing at somebody else - whether they're gay, Mexican, Jewish, black - and saying, 'They are different than you. They're the reason you're in the shape you're in. You're not responsible.' And when they exonerate you through vilifying and demonizing someone else, they control you.

The right-wing just loves making a big entrance.

Republicans will criticize whatever President Obama does because that is what they do.

The technique of infamy is to start two lies at once and get people arguing heatedly over which is the truth.

Sloganeering and name-calling have been some of the most unsavoury aspects of Leave/Remain conflicts over the past few years.

Vilifying members of other political parties is a puerile exercise.

All of us must have heard about the people who call themselves the Fundamentalists. Their apparent intention is to drive out of the evangelical churches men and women of liberal opinions…. And now, in the presence of colossal problems, which must be solved in Christ’s name and for Christ’s sake, the Fundamentalists propose to drive out from the Christian churches all the consecrated souls who do not agree with their theory of inspiration. What immeasurable folly!

Social issues have been used to distract Americans from their own self interests since Nixon's southern strategy, and now people are paying the price.

Right now, politics follows the rules of talk radio - using conflict, tension, fear, and resentment to find new recruits.

Pit race against race, religion against religion, prejudice against prejudice. Divide and conquer! We must not let that happen here.

David Cameron says he wants to keep Britain in the EU, but his tactics are so divisive that, if he gets what he wants it will be at the price of huge ill-will in Europe; or if he doesn't, it will be at the price of increased anti-EU sentiment in his own party and in British society.

Recent events in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina have reaffirmed for me, however, the complete folly of any Republican strategy to increase black representation in the Republican Party by appeals based on race. Whatever the name- 'African American Outreach' or 'Black Republicans for Bush'- any effort to attract blacks or any other ethnic group to the Republican party, based on explicit or implicit appeals to race or ethnic identity, are not only a waste of time and resources, but are also misguided and potentially quite damaging to the nation.

Too often, we see wedge politics and petty rhetoric used to belittle adversaries and inflame partisan divisions.

In a political fight, when you've got nothing in favour of your side, start a row in the opposition camp.

What I don't like about the way the media portrays religion is that they seem to weaponize it and use it as a tool to divide people.

For all the farcical invoking of Blitz spirit, Brexit isn't merely an absurdist experiment in English nationalist nostalgia - it is the most audacious example yet of a futuristic Russian nationalism that seeks to divide and rule Europe.

Those who want to divide the workers have resorted to the foulest methods.

It is a common thing for supporters of President Trump, even as early as when he was a candidate, to say, 'He fights.' And yes, he does fight. He fights everyone. He gets into all kinds of scraps that are pointless and unnecessary. He insults when he doesn't need to.

I think we all realize too that there are some people in this Capital City whose task is in large part to stir up dissension, and to magnify normal healthy disagreements so that they appear to be irreconcilable conflicts.

Donald Trump was tainted every kind of way you could imagine. I mean, no way in the world that Donald Trump is a champion of working people. He has hurt workers in Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Florida, multiple bankruptcies, never showed his taxes. I don't know any good thing this guy's ever done. And yet, because he was able to throw hate and poison on Hillary Clinton, he was able to somehow prevail at least until the Electoral College. I think he was skilled at just sort of, like, keeping the attention on anyone but himself. He is the most outrageous person ever to win a presidential election.

Donald Trump has spent his entire campaign offering a dog whistle to his most hateful supporters.

Putin needed an enemy, an Other, against which to mobilize. LGBT people are really convenient: we're sort of the ultimate foreign agent.

It is unfortunate whenever someone tries to bring politics into sport.

The impulse to scapegoat and belittle threatens to turn us into a fearful, backward-looking people. In the case of the Republican Party, those things also threaten to turn us into a fearful, backward-looking minority party.

The fact is that it's the most dangerous place to be on the political scale is to brand those on the other side as racist. That's the atomic bomb. That's the nuclear weapon of an American.