First, after the failed revolt by the city of Mytilene, Cleon persuaded the Athenians to slaughter not just the Mytilenean prisoners, but every man in the city, and to sell their wives and children as slaves.
Stinson called the court ruling "claptrap" and added, "We are only saved from the rulings of the demagogues by the hand of the Lord when He takes them."
Bertolt Brecht has a demagogue trained in political rhetoric by an actor using this speech in The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui.
In September 1957 Henderson-Stewart denounced Frank Cousins of the Transport and General Workers' Union as "just another demagogue playing for power" when Cousins declared his opposition to wage restraint.