The Left Needs to Ignore the Facts?
I don’t know to what degree I agree with this, but he has many sharp points:
“People working on progressive issues, with truth and information on their side—those should be the greatest weapons,” […] ”But those things are actually a huge liability. The left ends up relying on truth and information too much, and neglecting the impact of the emotional and the irrational.”
A critical mass of data now seems to support a great many of their long-held positions; they were right on climate change, right about Wall Street regulation, right about key missteps in the War on Terror and right that the health care system is wildly broken. And yet the left is losing. Not clearly winning, anyway. It’s a baffling fact to many […]
He says what will nudge the conversation toward truth isn’t by using facts (people can choose to disbelieve) but to speak with your friends in a way that “intuitively changes your friend’s point of reference” with narrative. This tactic is what the right has used for years to rile people up, for example, despite the fact that they are in charge of the government, and not visa versa. A narrative is a critical part of human DNA… these stories become reality as they pass as a meme from person to person.
The full piece is worth a quick read: Stop making sense: A political messaging pro puts his finger on why progressives–and Obama–are off-track
3 months ago