Democrats are running out of tools to beat Trump
All they have left...
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Men, Women, Girls and Boys
Risk vs. Control Gitabushi says: “One notion I'm working on today is how to demonstrate that although Socialism as sold as a reduction in risk, it actually increases it.” I think the way to demonstrate it is to actually side-step it. Tangent for another day, but as societies advance, they feminize. We are there. In simplest terms, a feminized culture acts more like a woman than a man. WARNING: I WILL BE SPEAKING IN GENERALITIES! Women more than men bristle at the idea of being controlled. You can get men to go to war to shake off the yoke of oppression, but not much less. You can get women to upend their entire personal lives because someone in it may be vaguely "controlling" them. So, the way to sidestep the risk discussion (which is ideal for a masculine conversation) is to explain how socialism is more controlling than free markets (we must dispense with the Marxist term "capitalism"). This should be easy. The only hurdle is gaining a platf...
A meandering discussion on political polarization and the Overton Window
Dear Readers, I apologize in advance. This post attempts to preserve what I regard as the highlights of a rather long Twitter conversation that involved a lot of participants (not all of them represented here) and cross-posting. I did my best to put things in something of a logical order that followed the general path of the conversation, but it is messy. Yours, Todd Thanks to @PintSizePolemic , I saw something interesting. The Overton Window is widening. The range of acceptable discourse is broader now than it was when I was a kid. This is a minor conservative victory. Quote tweet Replying to @PintSizePolemic I think about this a lot. (green lines added by me) Can't be completely accurate, because conservatism has adopted a lot of positions that were unthinkable even to liberals in 1994, but at least it's a consistent approach over the years. source: https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/interactives/political-polarization-1994-2017/ It certainly puts ...
Why Fact-Checks are Completely Worthless
Many people are stuck on grade school levels of telling truth from lies. Which means they accept whatever is told to them by an authority they trust (like). They haven’t knowingly caught on to the trick that most events can be seen as both true or false depending on how you look at them. For example, say Politician A issues a blatant misstatement of fact. If the scapegoat outlet reports the statement, it gets flagged, because it is spreading a falsehood. If the mainstream outlet reports the statement, it slides, because it is just covering the falsehood. It’s a very simple trick that most people can do without even realizing they’re doing it. It’s just motivated reasoning. If you think so-and-so is a liar, you will interpret anything so-and-so says such that it is a lie. This gets even easier when people use idioms, hyperbole, sarcasm, and other rhetorical flourishes, as most people are wont to do. In fact, people rarely speak literally about anything. At root, all language is met...
You'll Do It, But You Won't Like It.
As a marketing professional, one thing that has bothered me is how absolutely abysmal messaging has been in relation to the COVID response at all levels. The White House, I understand. The concerted effort to undermine everything the current administration says—by the press and by professional bureaucrats—has been a constant since the moment this president took office. But consider this. The first and hardest hit place in the US was New York City, home of Madison Avenue. The best, most talented and well resourced persuaders on the planet are in I mean, come on! The whole nation is convulsing over mask mandates and yet the glossy PSAs declaring " Wearing is Caring " or some such pithy slogan are nowhere to be seen. What I'm saying is, the buy-in approach—the carrot as opposed to the stick—was discarded at the outset. I see no evidence it was ever really tried. WHY? The charitable side of me says the players involved didn't think of it. The uncharitable side says they ...