Provocateur

From Conservapedia
This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Aschlafly (talk | contribs) at 02:08, November 29, 2007. It may differ significantly from current revision.
(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

A provocateur is someone who thrives on provoking conflict for the sake of conflict alone. The provocateur is constantly picking fights, mental or physical, with no apparent consistency in argument. Often a provocateur simply likes the attention that conflict brings, and enjoys the exaggerated influence that might follow from the conflict. If effective, others in the group spend more time and energy trying to appease the provocateur than advancing more productive goals.

An agent provocateur is a particularly sophisticated attempt to infiltrate a group and pretend sympathy with it, only then to discredit the group with indefensible statements or actions.