Sadopopulism
noun
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A political strategy or act in which a leader appeals to people by harming them but convincing them that people they hate are at fault or suffering worse harm. uncountable
"[…] 'sadopopulism', in which people are willing to inflict pain on themselves so long as they can believe that, in the same moment, they are making their enemies hurt more: […]'"
Example
More examples"[…] 'sadopopulism', in which people are willing to inflict pain on themselves so long as they can believe that, in the same moment, they are making their enemies hurt more: […]'"
Etymology
From sado- + populism, coined by historian Timothy Snyder, then influenced by earlier terms and concepts like "political sadism".
More for "sadopopulism"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.