History Main / WindmillPolitical

* In the ''Franchise/{{Bionicle}}'' novel ''Island of Doom'', the villainous Piraka, use a Type 2 example in order to convince the Matoran that they're really the good guys, by using their powers to create a fake monster which they then "defeat."

--->'''Winston:''' Does he exists as you and I exist?\\

* In StarControl, the [[LovableCoward Spathi]] live in fear of the Ultimate Evil. A race of beings so sneaky, they always stay just outside detection range of the Spathi's best scanners. This is clearly proof of their sinister intent.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

* The creation of a Windmill Political is integral to the plot of ''{{ComicBook/Watchmen}}''.
* While also playing it straight sometimes, ''ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}'' is famous for a deconstruction of this trope: Dogbert openly advises people to pick a harmless person and make him seem like a threat. Then destroy him, and have people reward you for saving you from the "threat". (The deconstruction part is that Dogbert is completely open and public with his cynicism, thus defeating the purpose.)
* In ''ComicStrip/{{Ernie}}'' (also known as ''ComicStrip/PiranhaClub''), Uncle Sid makes a lot of money selling insurance against black holes. (And no, the comic doesn't feature space travel or immortality, merely regular people living on Earth.)
* In ''ComicStrip/PearlsBeforeSwine'', the cynical Rat invokes this trope by campaigning against rainbows.

* Parodied in ''ComicBook/{{Asterix}} in Spain'', when one man the Gauls talk to charges, weapons ready, whenever [[DonQuixote windmills]] were mentioned.

[[folder:Films]]

* Film/CanadianBacon is all about this.

* Literature/DonQuixote is the TropeNamer as well as the ur-example. The main character mistakes literal windmills for literal gigantic hostile humanoids. Even when he is a deluded fanboy and not a politician, this trope really applies to Don Quixote. At Part I Chapter I, Don Quixote praises the giant Morgante, because he is the only good giant he has encountered in his chivalry books. All other giants are evil because “the giant breed which is always arrogant and ill-conditioned” [[MoralDissonance Therefore, for a Knight, is perfectly honorable to attack giants without provocation, kill them all, and rob them of their possessions.]] The fact that Don Quixote at Part I, Chapter VIII, gets caught in one of the windmill sails could be interpreted by the reader as a funny event, a tragic failure, or the [[LaserGuidedKarma deserved fate of an HeroicSociopath wanabe]].

* In ''Literature/HarryPotterAndTheOrderOfThePhoenix'', Harry and Dumbledore are assumed by the Ministry of Magic to be using this trope regarding Voldemort's return. As a result, this trope is ironically used against them in response.

** In [[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince the book between those two]], CloudCuckoolander Luna Lovegood's windmills include Aurors, whom she believes intend "to bring down the [[TheGovernment Ministry of Magic]] from within using a combination of [[BlackMagic Dark Magic]] and gum disease".

-->Winston: Does he exists as you and I exist?
-->O'Brien: [[UnPerson You do not exist.]]

[[folder:Live Action TV]]

# WindmillCrusader, who believes his windmills to be actual threats. In the [[Literature/DonQuixote Ur-example]], this is the belief that literal windmills actually are literal gigantic hostile humanoids. However, it’s normally meant metaphorically.

* In the MiniSeries {{Remake}} of ''ThePrisoner'', Number 2 convinces the Village that black holes appearing everywhere are because people do not have enough pigs to provide stability, and encourages villagers to buy more pigs.

** As the third game is apparently going to feature the machinations of Orlais, and how they are affected by both the way the first game featured the near-breaking of Ferelden before being saved by the Warden AND the fallout of Kirkwall's Templar/Mage civil war (which was also influenced by the events in the first game, namely the thousands of refugees displaced by the Darkspawn horde he let in), it seems like Loghain's overall fears became reality [[NiceJobBreakingItHero thanks primarily to his own actions]].

* Another joke in a similar vein: [[Literature/TheBible Jesus]] promised the end of all wicked people. [[Myth/NorseMythology Odin]] promised the end of all ice giants. I don't see many ice giants around.

* Another joke in a similar vein: [[Literature/TheBible Jesus]] promised the end of all wicked people. [[NorseMythology Odin]] promised the end of all ice giants. I don't see many ice giants around.

* In ''PearlsBeforeSwine'', the cynical Rat invokes this trope by campaigning against rainbows.
* In the Bone comic series, Phoney Bone does the ManipulativeBastard version of this: he convinces the people of Barrelhaven that they need to be protected from the (actually harmless) dragons, and capitalizes on his new role as the Dragon Slayer to win a bet.

* Paul in ''TheLastTemptationOfChrist'' is briefly portrayed as the misguided kind of WindmillCrusader. However, he is quickly deconstructed as a StrawHypocrite who simply doesn’t care if the [[WindmillPolitical gospel he preaches]] is true or not.

* In AnimalFarm, Farmer Jones, his spies, and [[spoiler: eventually Snowball]] are all accused of being the source of all the farm's problems, long after Jones has apparently left the farm for good. The literal windmill, however is not.
* In ''[[Literature/NineteenEightyFour 1984]]'', Goldstein and the Brotherhood are known as LaResistance against the Party, but O'Brien suggests that they were invented to keep more control over the population and to identify dissidents.

* In ''AFeastForCrows'', Cersei Lannister becomes convinced that her new daughter-in-law Margaery and her family are plotting against her. Ironically, her attempts to destroy Margaery backfire spectacularly, resulting in [[spoiler:her being imprisoned by the very same forces that she tried to sic on Margaery.]]

* Parodied in ''{{Asterix}} in Spain'', when one man the Gauls talk to charges, weapons ready, whenever [[DonQuixote windmills]] were mentioned.

** A heroic example. In a fourth season episode Sheridan creates an imaginary threat in the form of mysterious aliens who are invisible to all but the White Star fleet. He does this by, among other things, denying the existence of said invaders, and having Ivanova state on her news program that [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial nothing at all happened in a particular region of space that day]]. All this serves to amp the alien ambassadors' normal paranoia UpToEleven. Note that this isn't done to gain personal power, but rather to get the alien races to allow the White Star fleet to patrol their respective territories (and thus protect them from ''real'' threats), something they would never do normally because the afore-mentioned paranoia could cause them to assume ulterior motives.

* CanadianBacon is all about this.

* The "Cannon Fodder" short in KatsuhiroOtomo's ''Anime/{{Memories}}'' shows a society whose sole apparent motivation for life and development is to attack an unseen enemy using cannons.

* Religious right-wing fanatics in first book of ''Literature/DoraWilkSeries'' are, despite their name, clear 2. They decide to use the fact that the case of one of theirs murder is not solved after a day to claim that "ruling party does not care for anybody except their electorate" and thus generate a bad feedback against the "[[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed ruling party]]". Poles being used to this, fanatics are ignored.

* In [[http://www.glasswings.com.au/comics/idrewthis/d/20040825.html this]] strip of Crator/DCSimpson's ''I Drew This'', as shown in the page pic, some random moron firmly believe that broccoli is part of an evil plot to put a lawn gnome in the White House. Somebody disagrees, but a third party decides that since both positions have been presented with a straight face [[GoldenMeanFallacy they must be treated as equally valid]].

* The "Cannon Fodder" short in KatsuhiroOtomo's {{Memories}} shows a society whose sole apparent motivation for life and development is to attack an unseen enemy using cannons.

* UsefulNotes/AlGore's portrayal in ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', in which he insists on the terrible threat Manbearpig (half man, half bear, half pig) poses to mankind, a satire, of course, of the real Gore and his activism against GlobalWarming.

* ''Der Untergang'' (''Film/{{Downfall}}'') is one of the many works that take this view on the concept of a global Jewish conspiracy: It was a total windmill crackpot hoax and delusion, but [[AdolfHitler Hitler]] and his followers honestly believed in it—making them {{Windmill Crusader}}s.

* In [[http://www.glasswings.com.au/comics/idrewthis/d/20040825.html this]] strip of "I Drew This", some random moron firmly believe that broccoli is part of an evil plot to put a lawn gnome in the White House. Somebody disagrees, but a third party decides that since both positions have been presented with a straight face [[GoldenMeanFallacy they must be treated as equally valid]].
* In KevinAndKell, a group of predators try to disguise the fact that they're controlling a Rabbit Council candidate by convincing rabbits that the real threat is rabbits whose ears point in the opposite direction.
* Congressman Arthur Bennett of ''ButImACatPerson'' tries to paint himself as tough on the threat posed by Beings. It's complicated by the fact that only about a hundred Beings exist in the world, and they're all incapable of harming humans. No wonder [[spoiler: the only scary incidents he can point to are the ones he himself secretly caused]].

* AlGore's portrayal in ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'', in which he insists on the terrible threat Manbearpig (half man, half bear, half pig) poses to mankind, a satire, of course, of the real Gore and his activism against GlobalWarming.

* A SpittingImage sketch has the United States declaring war on broccoli because GeorgeBush said he hates broccoli (and because the U.S.government was desperate to have ''some'', ''any'' kind of enemy they could unite the American people against). Interestingly, Bush himself is portrayed as the OnlySaneMan, objecting to the stupidity of it all. Then the whole thing is subverted when a broccoli suicide bomber smuggles itself into the white house.

While a Strawman is a dumbed-down effigy of a real enemy or similar, a Windmill is not a real target at all. There is no real threat, and it might not even be capable of returning the animosity. The windmill doesn’t even have to exist to be efficient; much less does it have to consist of actual human beings. On the contrary: If they don't exist, then they can't deny the vicious accusations you raise against them.

** A heroic example. In a fifth season episode Sheridan creates an imaginary threat in the form of mysterious aliens who are invisible to all but the White Star fleet. He does this by, among other things, denying the existence of said invaders, and having Ivanova state on her news program that [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial nothing at all happened in a particular region of space that day]]. All this serves to amp the alien ambassadors' normal paranoia UpToEleven. Note that this isn't done to gain personal power, but rather to get the alien races to allow the White Star fleet to patrol their respective territories (and thus protect them from ''real'' threats), something they would never do normally because the afore-mentioned paranoia could cause them to assume ulterior motives.

** It doesn't defeat the purpose when everyone around him is TooDumbToLive, which is most of the time.

** In the game ''VideoGame/SouthParkStickOfTruth'', you ultimately have to fight him after [[spoiler:he finally goes off the deep end and thinks you are Manbearpig after spamming your Facebook with no answer. After you defeat him and his entire three-man Secret Service team, he ultimately returns having taken on the guise of Manbearpig in a bid to finally take you down]].