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The right attempts political persuasion. The left attempts social persuasion
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Date: January 20th, 2018 1:12 PM Author: Hyperactive slimy knife http://dailycaller.com/2018/01/13/how-to-trump-the-media-avoid-conservatives-biggest-mistake/
A good friend of mine wrote me recently. He complained about smug leftist neighbors who are “making decisions to ‘feel good’ with virtually no regard for true factual input or testing.”
I get this a lot.
If you want to understand Donald Trump, you need understand why this complaint is myopic. Once you do understand, you’ll never see politics the same way again. You’ll also begin to grasp that leftism does work, and that you’ve just failed to understand how.
Which is why you lose so often.
Want a clue?
“Feel good” about what?
Not about being right, which is best described as “useful, to a point.” Aristotle noticed over 2,000 years ago that many people aren’t persuadable by logical arguments. So what’s the “feeling good” all about?
The right’s favorite mistake
Try this on for size:
People often take public positions in an attempt to increase their social status.
If you’ve been in a corporate setting, or settings with certain friends, I don’t need to offer further examples of this idea. You’ve seen it happen, and you also know that you need to be “reading the room” at all times before you speak and act. Failure costs status. People notice this dynamic, and act accordingly.
I didn’t say it was an ideal state of affairs. But a truly rational person must notice reality. My friend and his wife are picking up on a “we’re higher status than you” signal, and it’s part of the reason they’re so upset.
Macro examples also abound:
Do you really think it’s a coincidence that leftism and its “Diversity Pokemon Points” amount to a full caste system?
Do you have any doubt about The left’s hatred for those who will not stay in their assigned status?
Have you noticed their quickness to turn on their own allies? Fail to follow the latest fad, and your status is demoted.
Perhaps you’ve noticed that endlessly callous virtue signaling is the identifying badge of our modern try-hard Striver Class.
Maybe that’s because American public education is now a 20-year Milgram Experiment. Where the meta-message inside political correctness is to override your own judgement, in favor of deliberately-shifting judgements from people with higher status.
These aren’t accidents. They’re clues.
Leftism isn’t a policy machine or an economic machine. Its economic results would tell you that much in a hurry. But the machine keeps running. Which means it must work for something. The correct question is: in what way does it work?
Analysis: Leftism is a status machine. A very, very successful status machine. Conservatives have lost status battle after status battle, often because they fought it as a policy battle. It rarely is.
That’s conservatism’s most consistent and most damaging mistake.
From theory to practice: Trumping the media
President Trump’s systematic thrashing of the leftist media is the example that illustrates the theory.
Conservatives complained about the media for a long time. Aristotle’s dialectic approach, against people uninterested in truth. Net effect? Very low. Sad!
So let’s apply what we’ve learned.
Why do the media have power? Because they have social status with ordinary people. Are we still hearing about Watergate — decades later? The Pentagon Papers? How many movies seem to exist just to show journalists as heroes? Or let’s take a different tack: What’s the attraction of such a low-paying profession? Status given by the profession, and status from rubbing shoulders with high-status people. Status by acting as a vector for status signals, which is what every women’s magazine is. Ditto publications like WIRED, which is just Cosmo for geeks.
The media offers people clues about what things are high status within the areas they cover. People notice, and act accordingly. Yet most conservatives still don’t understand Trump’s response:
If I lower the media’s status, I will wreck their power.
So The Donald says that the media has “some of the most dishonest people” he has ever seen. Not an arm’s length complaint. A direct and personal status attack, rooted in truth.
Trump also acts in ways that cause journalists to fulfill his pre-suasion labeling. He makes “outrageous” statements, which many people outside the Beltway Bubble agree with. Those statements receive over-the-top media attacks, which make his enemies look ridiculous. Then events swiftly show that Trump had a point. Trump rubs it in, using the media’s own “Fake News” term against them and pouncing on every sloppy and dishonest mistake. As a final topper, Trump makes the dishonest media a focus during every massive rally. Which strengthens his out-grouping effect among participants and viewers.
He uses ridicule and lèse majesté, not bended knee and appeals — note that subordinating word — to logical argument.
The result?
American belief in the credibility of their news media is now at about 32 percent. That’s the lowest ever polled, and an 8 percent drop from the lowest point of the 2008-2015 period. The media has lost audience, and a lot of power. When Vogue tried to damage Melania by ripping her wardrobe, activists promptly made memes from a photo of the weird-looking critic. The attack instantly lost its power.
Facebook has tried to fight these trend lines by flagging items as “fake news.” Recently, the social media giant decided to stop. Too many people sought out flagged articles. Or, put another way: In many circles, the mainstream media’s status has become negative.
What an amazing amount of damage to a hostile institution.
Rational people notice and acknowledge real-world results. Even the left has noticed.
So, why hadn’t anyone ever done this before? In fairness, Newt Gingrich had some success in the 2012 primaries, and Ted Cruz has also tried. But they lacked the full array of tools. Worse, they didn’t understand how to make the media their enemy.
Once you understand conservatives’ biggest and most consistent mistake, it all becomes clear.
Now, how about a 12-step program to finally stop making the same mistake?
Joe Katzman is a part-time political and defense analyst; he used to run the group blog Winds of Change.
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Date: January 20th, 2018 5:17 PM Author: navy fluffy twinkling uncleanness For those that missed this, like me:
UNBELIEVABLE. |
Date: January 20th, 2018 1:17 PM Author: flatulent jet-lagged cumskin meetinghouse Logic wins arguments but doesn't persuade. You can't persuade someone against their will. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3865526&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5309775",#35196976) |
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Date: January 20th, 2018 1:26 PM Author: swashbuckling preventive strike Great article. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3865526&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5309775",#35197036) |
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Date: January 20th, 2018 2:56 PM Author: Hyperactive slimy knife (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3865526&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5309775",#35197570) |
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Date: January 20th, 2018 5:05 PM Author: heady roommate piazza (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3865526&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5309775",#35198447) |
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Date: January 20th, 2018 5:01 PM Author: concupiscible disrespectful multi-billionaire great article thx
trump's diminution of the status of the media will stand -- with the possible exception of immigration policy depending on how that shakes out -- as his greatest presidential accomplishment. and it was something literally only he could have done out of the field we had |
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Date: January 20th, 2018 5:03 PM Author: anal curious lay depressive nice try but Trump said pussy (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3865526&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5309775",#35198433) |
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Date: January 20th, 2018 5:11 PM Author: insecure market "our modern try-hard Striver Class"
sup, joe? |
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Date: January 20th, 2018 5:13 PM Author: insecure market article is correct with the point that "people often take public positions in an attempt to increase their social status," but this is obviously not limited to the left at all. pretty stupid. if you're from ARE, of course you're all about ARE troops, not going to launch into xoian diatribes about how we fight israsels wars for it, etc (just to name one example). leftism has many pathologies unique to it, of which xo ted was the best exponent i can think of, but this is not one of them (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3865526&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5309775",#35198485) |
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Date: January 20th, 2018 5:22 PM Author: navy fluffy twinkling uncleanness Being all about ARE TROOPS is a good thing, though. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3865526&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5309775",#35198520) |
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Date: January 20th, 2018 5:24 PM Author: insecure market i guess. before trump's "you think we're so good," the xo consensus on foreign policy was way outside the right wing overton window.
anyway the point the sociological phenomenon he ascribes to leftists is really applicable to everyone |
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Date: January 20th, 2018 5:26 PM Author: anal curious lay depressive it's way more applicable to libs. like 10x more (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3865526&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5309775",#35198532) |
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Date: January 20th, 2018 5:30 PM Author: insecure market modern shitlibs, sure, but at early as the 90s i'd say that the moral majority right was just as bad with this as the clintonian left was (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3865526&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5309775",#35198556) |
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Date: January 20th, 2018 5:41 PM Author: anal curious lay depressive the moral majority was sps hot garbage but modern libs are still 10x worse. the ratio of histrionic shitlib bile to conservahero posts on FB is like 99:1. no reasonable person wants to be surrounded by jerry falwell types but at least jerry falwell xtian tards aren't actively trying to dismantle the country, and indoctrinate every new generation with Marxist fascists until we're overrun by law-breaking indigents from coast to coast (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3865526&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5309775",#35198605) |
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Date: January 21st, 2018 12:16 AM Author: rambunctious crackhouse jew TITMFCR (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3865526&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5309775",#35200920) |
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Date: January 20th, 2018 5:23 PM Author: concupiscible disrespectful multi-billionaire you seem to be arguing that because people in rural areas will dislike it if you disagree with their politics, that's somehow comparable to the intensely exclusionary, excommunicatory, faddish, mob-driven, identity-obsessed left-wing status games, which have the benefit of a near-total monopoly on cultural centers of power/the media/corporate culture/universities backing them up. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3865526&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5309775",#35198523) |
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Date: January 20th, 2018 5:26 PM Author: insecure market you're putting words in my mouth. yes modern SJWism is particularly bad, but the idea that people espouse political views publicly in part as a means to gain status is completely obvious and applicable in all sorts of situations. a lot of what this bort thinks is unsayable in deep red america for someone that needs to keep up appearances (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3865526&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5309775",#35198531) |
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Date: January 20th, 2018 5:20 PM Author: charismatic transparent idiot senate the hilarious thing is that the faggy media walked right into Trump's trap. every day, they become more unhinged and shriekingly partisan, pounding their little fists in outrage over Trump, thus proving his point. they are featherbrained, effeminate twits. |
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Date: January 20th, 2018 5:52 PM Author: navy fluffy twinkling uncleanness https://www.dailywire.com/news/20477/meet-teen-vogue-writer-who-ripped-melania-trumps-amanda-prestigiacomo (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3865526&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5309775",#35198634) |
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Date: January 21st, 2018 12:13 AM Author: razzmatazz confused degenerate philosopher-king Partisan screeching is a strictly better business model in the modern era. I don't expect to have anything I'd view as a legitimate source of truth in another decade or so.
I often wonder whether there is a business model targeting strict fact reporting on a subscription. |
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Date: January 21st, 2018 12:03 AM Author: painfully honest ebony site antidepressant drug (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3865526&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5309775",#35200846) |
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Date: September 28th, 2024 4:19 PM Author: Hyperactive slimy knife *assassination (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3865526&forum_id=2\u0026mark_id=5309775",#48140872) |