Joe's Hammer

and what to do about it

@cobracommandr15 observes: 

Notice whenever Joe Biden indignantly opens his eyes wide 👀, he does so to imply something is conspicuously obvious to his audience when in reality, it isn’t even true. [LINK]

@AndToddsaid: Yep, it's his tell for a non sequitur. Biden's entire persuasive tool kit boils down to saying "duh" over and over. That's his hammer. Unfortunately, it's highly effective on people who think of themselves as "getting it."

@Gitabushi: Confirmation bias is a helluva drug.

@cobracommandr15: Scott Adams says that CNN assigns political opinions to its audience.

@AndToddsaid: Biden is the final form of the Democrat née Communist Party's persuasion model since the hippy sixties. Flatter kids that they're smarter than their parents (easy), teach them political party is central to their ID, pull shit from your ass while saying "Don't you get it, man?"

@Gitabushi: This is The Way.

@AndToddsaid: The point of step 2 is to make them lifers. Basically, flatter them when they're young to lock them in and short-circuit thinking when they're older. The trick, really, is rather than providing reasons to your constituents to back you, get them to do that work themselves. [1]

Instead of explanations for your bat shit crazy ideas, just remind them that they're hip, they're with it, they don't need an explanation because they already understand. And sure enough, they'll come up with something on their own.

We share the axiom that anything Democrats accuse Republicans of, they are guilty of doing themselves. Well, that would hold for when they accuse GOPs of being mind-numbed followers who make up excuses for their leaders. [2]

Not to say that there aren't some GOPs like that, there are in any group.

Which brings me to the NeverTrumpers. Before Trump, their default mode was to prove their bona fides by criticizing the Right from the Right. This earned them flattery and praise from the Left.

It's just a slightly different twist on the original model. Instead of being smarter than mom and dad, these pundits get to be smarter than their peers. Feels good, man.

Not to mention, they WANT to do the heavy lifting of inventing reasons on behalf of the less imaginative.

The only thing that changed with Trump is the Left hates Trump so much more than other GOPs. So, to keep receiving their usual dopamine, the NeverTrumpers had to distance themselves so much further. Even to the point of disavowing conservative principles they formerly espoused.

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[2] @cobracommandr15: Democrats accuse Republicans of the chicanery Democrats are unable to pull off themselves.

@TheCynicalVixen: And this is how we get "Educate YOURSELF, Fascist!  It's not MY JOB to EXPLAIN THINGS to BRAINDEAD NAZIS like YOU!".

They don't know what they know, but they know that they know it.

And that you don't.

@AndToddsaid: It's a clear sign that they've been pushed up against the cognitive wall and the Google Machine isn't producing.

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[1] @cobracommandr15: Make them say it.

Make them define it.

Make them own it.

@TheCynicalVixen: They won't.  They'll just play the same "Educate YOURSELF" card that they always do.

@Gitabushi: can't be defeatist, tho.

Gotta try.

To be human is to be adaptable. We've got to continue to find a way to get them to adapt back, or to hold them accountable if they don't.

So, it starts with trying. Getting them on record. Giving them a chance. [4]

One of the conclusions I arrived at just from writing out this thread is one of the Founding Principles is patience.  Patience, patience, patience. Patience with the impatient. Be as patient as you can, and then be more patient. [LINK] 

Because, yes, sometimes the Tree of Liberty must be watered with the blood of tyrants and patriots.

But far, far, far, far better to convince the person attacking our institutions to change.  Better to persuade to unity than to create unity by killing the aggressors.

Discernment is important, of course.

We can't let them actually destroy our institutions while we're being patient.

But as long as our institutions & protections against centralization of power stand, we should remain patient, work within the system to discredit their ideology.

You can't convince someone programmed since childhood to want you dead that they are wrong to want you dead.

@AndToddsaid: Not per se, but it's an in.

To you want you dead is a sign that they've dehumanized you. That makes this a bit easier with Leftists, since every Leftist knows that EEEVIL Nazis dehumanized their victims. The trick is to make them connect their behavior to Nazi behavior.

@Gitabushi:  and to find ANYTHING that makes them see you as a little bit human again.

@AndToddsaid: Most of the stories I've heard of people who #WalkAwayFromDemocrats include an element of this. A moment where they realized that the people on the other side were PEOPLE who just want a better life, like they do, but just have different ideas about how to go about it.

@Gitabushi: and the 2nd step is as soon as they bring up that realization with their Leftist friends, they get *savaged*.

The first step isn't enough.

They have to feel what it's like to be the target of Leftist groupthink rage.

That's how I got one person to change sides.

@AndToddsaid: That's right. It's a double-whammy. There needs to be a gentle shaming from the right that just says "you're not living up to your own values." Then they need to take that back to the hive and experience the harsh shaming of left. Step three is the right needs to keep open arms. [3]

@TheCynicalVixen: Most of the people I've known on the Left tend to be the "Revenge Communist" type.  If the don't think of the Right as Nazis, then they think of them as the Mean Father who won't let them have anything they want.  And they exaggerate that into "They're literally killing me!"

They see any vote against Communism as signing their death warrant and see Communism as their vehicle for harming "you" back.

 @Gitabushi: Yep. Mock them for that.

Then shame them.

Sure, the success rate will be distressingly low.

But that's how you save people from a cult.  One at a time.

You save what you can.

You can caption almost any Leftist display of rebellion with "See, Dad?  I'm a person!  With ideas! I'm a strong, independent person with ideas!  I matter!  My ideas matter! You'll see!"

And, yes, to a large extent, the Left basically has the emotional maturity and reasoning ability no better than that of adolescent girls.

And the Right *does* take on the mantle of Angry Father a little too easily.

So, we should try to respond that way a *good* father would.

Patience, tolerance, teaching, and acceptance when they finally get over their tantrum.

@AndToddsaid: Gita is right. The success rate will be low. In sales, a 10% conversion rate is considered great. In some markets, low single-digits are seen as good. Persuasion is harder than baseball. No one bats 300.

@TheCynicalVixen: There are far too many on the right who WANT to be the monster.

@AndToddsaid: I agree.

[3] Step three is a hard one, too. There is a time to enjoy the schadenfreude and there is a time to welcome the refugee, and you have to know the difference. I'm afraid I can't come up with a simple test for that one, but maybe the rule is to err on open arms.

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[4] @TheCynicalVixen: That's the thing.  I'm not sure they're not automatons.  They're programmed.  They give back reflexive canned responses.

@AndToddsaid: They are susceptible to shame. That's the basis of their OS. They use shame tactics to stop other people from using shame. (Stop X-shaming!) They instinctively know it's their weakness.

Decorum conservatives aid them by agreeing that shaming is uncouth. It's why they decry protest even as they defend 1A.

Aside: The First Amendment is one of the most amazing sentences in the English Language. Almost everybody has one item in that list that they'd prefer not be in it, but the Framers put them all together.

@TheCynicalVixen: The Riot Generation wants to kill you. The Bill Kristol "Conservatives" want the Riot Generation to kill you.

@AndToddsaid: Bill Kristol "Conservatives" still think it's an absurd exaggeration to suggest that anyone wants to kill anyone over politics in America. The only thing that might save their lives is that the idea is so firmly lodged in their brains, even a bullet won't penetrate.