Powermongery
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Powermongery is the deliberate exploitation of ignorance and skeptiphobia (reluctance to think critically) within a population as a means of gaining personal power.
It is closely related to fearmongery, as powermongery almost always involves incitement of irrational fear, though powermongery can also involve promise of (unlikely or impossible) reward as a "carrot" to balance the "stick" of fear.
Examples
In right-wing Christian mythology, the threat of "eternal damnation" or "eternal torment" in "Hell" is held out as an unimaginably bad consequence for failure to obey certain dictates, while the distant promise of "Heaven" is sometimes offered as a possible reward for those who obey those dictates with sufficient fervor.
Related
- emotional wedge: a technique often used by powermongers
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