[Parlortricks] Lakoff nails it once again: Why Conservative Lies Spread and What Progressives Can Do to Fight Them

[Peter Fraterdeus]

http://bit.ly/b9ZAcW

Lakoff: Why Conservative Lies Spread and What Progressives Can Do to Fight Them

When Democrats use conservative language to promote their agenda, it ultimately 
creates more support for Republicans.
July 9, 2010  |  
  
Democrats are constantly resorting to disaster messaging. Here's a description 
of the typical situation.

        • The Republicans outmessage the Democrats. The Democrats, having no 
effective response, face disaster: They lose politically, either in electoral 
support or failure on crucial legislation.
        • The Democrats then take polls and do focus groups. The pollsters 
discover that extremist Republicans control the most common ("mainstream") way 
of thinking and talking about the given issue.
        • The pollsters recommend that Democrats move to the right: adopt 
conservative Republican language and a less extreme version of conservative 
policy, along with weakened versions of some Democratic ideas.
        • The Democrats believe that, if they follow this advice, they can gain 
enough independent and Republican support to pass legislation that, at least, 
will be some improvement on the extreme Republican position.
        • Otherwise, the pollsters warn, Democrats will lose popular support -- 
and elections -- to the Republicans, because "mainstream" thought and language 
resides with the Republicans.
        • Believing the pollsters, the Democrats change their policy and their 
messaging, and move to the right.
        • The Republicans demand even more and refuse to support the Democrats.
We have seen this on issues like health care, immigration, global warming, 
finance reform, and so on. We are seeing it again on the Death Gusher in the 
Gulf. It happens even with a Democratic president and a Democratic majority in 
both houses of Congress.

Why? Is there anything the Democrats can do about it? First, it has to be 
understood. It doesn't just happen.

The Difference Between Framing and Messaging

Framing is the most commonplace thing we do with thought and language. Frames 
are the cognitive structures we think with. They are physical, embodied in 
neural circuitry. Frames come in systems. Their circuitry is strengthened and 
often made permanent through use: the more the circuits are used, the stronger 
they get. Effective frames are not isolated. They build on, and extend, other 
frames already established. All words are defined in terms of conceptual 
frames. When the words are heard, the frames are strengthened -- not just the 
immediate frames, but the whole system.

Fit matters. The brain is a "best-fit" system. The better a new frame "fits" 
existing frames, the more effective it will be; that is, the more people will 
think, and make decisions, using that frame.

Full article here: http://bit.ly/b9ZAcW


_______________________________________________
ParlorTricks mailing list
ParlorTricks@eiotx.net
http://www.eiotx.net/mailman/listinfo/parlortricks