demagogue

is one who uses anti-intellectualism as one of his basic tools. He sets the lower classes against the upper educated elite by offering flippant answers and seemingly simple solutions to problems that are in fact complex, thereby making the intellectual look pompous or silly.

Gilbert (51) believes that anti-intellectualism is basic to demagoguery. It is not difficult to see why this might be so. Since, as noted above, demagogues attempt to set the lower classes against the upper, intellectuals are a natural target, since they are usually identified with the upper classes (in education if not in wealth). Further, the intellectual is the demagogue's foremost enemy, since the former is often adept at pointing out the fallacious logic and oversimplifications of the latter. This is one reason why demagogues have frequently attacked newspapers... they were responding to the newspapers' exposes of the demagogues' specious rhetoric (Luthin 309-310). Intellectuals often present an easy target for the demagogue. Recognizing that complex problems require complex solutions (or may even have no solution), the intellectual rarely can offer simple, easily-grasped ideas to the public. The demagogue, with his flair for flippant answers and simple solutions, can sometimes make the intellectual look pompous or silly (Baskerville 10-11).

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