The process of demagoguery

A primary, if not central, political issue of the modern era and certainly the post-modern era is the process of demagoguery. In an era when the masses can be persuaded directly by those with enough energy and resources and skill in the use of the instruments of power to shape the public conversation and the public perception, a most important factor of public governance is how to manage such forces. 

The shift from the material substance of the matter to the needs of the rulers to control the general understanding of the matter is a most important factor shaping public policy today. Whether it is terrorism or racism or class warfare or culture warfare the need to whip up the masses' passions to keep the body politic from recognizing the implications of the actions of the ruling classes, wherever they are, is what typically shapes the concerns of most societies in the world today. 

Anti-Semitism is but the most venerable instrument of demagoguery in the arsenal of the shaping of public (mis)perceptions in the modern era.