Exiting the Trump Train, v1
adminFri 2019-01-18
People opposed to Trump need to stop saying it’s like a cult, as if that alone would work, and look at the tactics that actually work against cults.
The Wall as Metaphor: Protection or Hate?
Wed 2019-01-16
Imagine a "Wall."
What is it for? Before you know anything about any particular wall, what comes to mind? What feelings does it evoke? If a wall is used as a metaphor, what is the point of the metaphor?
Linguistic framing expert George Lakoff writes: Democrats must block Trump’s wall of hate.
Exercise on Framing: Refugees fleeing Central America at the Border Wall
adminWed 2018-12-12
(1) What are the policy choices? What are all the different frames you can think of — the different ways to focus on the story — that you hear?
Important: people can usually take either side within a frame:
Take relief => the frame is that taxes are an affliction. "No new taxes" and "The rich should pay more" => both positions treat taxes like an affliction, opposite positions within the same frame.
(2) [usually easy] Which of these frames is more focused on the values you want to emphasize?
Framing Basics: Speak Your Truth So It Can Be Heard
adminTue 2018-12-11
A Framing 101 Post written for Radical Conversation enthusiasts.
Framing creates context for an issue.
Framing is unavoidable.
Facts Do Work — Bricks or Artillery?
adminFri 2018-12-07
Conservatives and "Fear" — the Yale Study
adminTue 2018-11-27
The Yale study that pretends to shift conservatives into liberals, made famous at the Washington Post (behind a firewall), finds that when
Immigration and Gassing Refugees at the Border
adminTue 2018-11-27
What words would you use to share this photo and this story? What are the best communication techniques and frames about the current border crisis?
Story Behind Viral Photo of Diapered, Barefoot Migrant Children Fleeing Tear Gas
Immigration, teargas, and the conservative moral heirarchy
adminTue 2018-11-27
George Lakoff asks and answers: "Why are staunch Republicans fine with tear gassing refugee children? It's the conservative moral hierarchy."
Floater Centrism and Mushy Civility
adminThu 2018-11-08
Take a look at Cannon Thomas, Ph.D's Politics and the Catastrophe of Us and Them: We have to change the way we view the opposing party for our nation to thrive. The article favors what I call "floater" centrism: it lists a whole bunch of acts of violence all by one side, and draws the conclusion that we're all equivalent (floating between the parties) instead of cal
What does it mean to be a centrist amidst today's partisan brawling?
adminSat 2018-10-13
An awful lot of us are pissed off at partisanship coming from politicians — and our friends.
The ideals of a democracy where we talk to each other and are all trying to make this country better, with different views of how to make the country better, they are failing. The center is not holding.