• spoderman
    +3

    Huh? Did I miss something?

    Have I dropped some popcorn?

    • kraftykitty
      +5

      "Bread and circuses" (or bread and games; from Latin: panem et circenses) is metonymic for a superficial means of appeasement.

    • FRIK
      +4

      No, you're good. "Bread and circuses" is a phrase meaning that people want and are satisfied by huge spectacles and free food.

    • stareyedgirl
      +2

      Wikipedia page for Bread and Circuses

      From the article:

      In the case of politics, the phrase is used to describe the generation of public approval, not through exemplary or excellent public service or public policy, but through diversion; distraction; or the mere satisfaction of the immediate, shallow requirements of a populace,[1] as an offered "palliative." Its originator, Juvenal, used the phrase to decry the selfishness of common people and their neglect of wider concerns.[2][3][4] The phrase also implies the erosion or ignorance of civic duty amongst the concerns of the commoner.