the.com/silent majority
The crowd that claims to speak for everyone by speaking to no one.
means A supposed large group of people who hold a particular (often conservative or moderate) view but don't publicly voice it, so their opinion is inferred rather than heard.
from The phrase drifted through English for decades as a euphemism for 'the dead' (those silent by definition), but its modern political life began when it was used to invoke the millions of ordinary, non-protesting citizens assumed to quietly back the status quo — most famously popularized by Richard Nixon in a 1969 speech appealing to Americans who, he claimed, supported his policies without marching or shouting about it. Since then it's become a standard rhetorical move: claiming a vast, mute constituency that conveniently agrees with the speaker.
- origin
- Popularized by Nixon in 1969 speech
- logic flaw
- Silence can mean agreement, apathy, or absence
- usage tell
- Invoked most by those who cannot poll it
- rhetorical power
- Unfalsifiable, so impossible to disprove