OK. Cool. So if we go back to Lakoff's idea that at least part of Trump's appeal <https://georgelakoff.com/2016/07/23/understanding-trump-2/> is his vague use of language, allowing particular audience members more flexibility in their inferences from what Trump said, then there must be something _interesting_ about this type of symbol.
"Elite" can't be a symbol like, say, "dark matter" is a symbol. "Dark matter" is a very particular thing introduced to solve a very particular problem. Despite the ultimate referents of "dark matter" or "elites" being multiple or unknown, there's a big difference between them as symbols. It's almost like "elites" has _both_ a high fan-in and fan-out, whereas "dark matter" has a single use case but lots of potential referents. The way you describe it, it sounds like "elites" is yet another aspect of "victimhood". In order to be susceptible to the (purposefully vague) rhetoric, you have to feel like a victim. And you might be especially ripe for the rhetoric if you have _not_ already identified your perpetrator. This way, the demagogue can use the term "elites" and rely on a kind of "recursive explanation" trick to pass the buck down the inferential road. If that were true, then perhaps the idea is testable. Those victims who have already identified a perpetrator should be less susceptible to the rhetoric, or at least ham-handed rhetoric like Trump's. I listened to part of an interview with Frauke Petry this morning on NPR. It strikes me that she has a very clear idea who the perpetrator(s) is(are). It's difficult for me to believe someone like her would be susceptible to the rhetoric of someone like Trump or even a dilettante like Bannon. So, do these (otherwise seemingly intelligent) people _also_ use the necessarily vague symbol "elites" in the same way? Or are they more tightly/particularly bound? On 01/27/2017 09:34 AM, Marcus Daniels wrote: > An elite is a symbol for an unknown bad guy. The bad buy exists somewhere at > a distance. The elite must have caused me and my kind pain, or ignored me > and my pain, because things aren't going well for me. This symbol > validates their irresponsibility, and makes them feel better. The symbol > is introduced by cynical politicians on both sides, but mostly right wingers, > that need some voters to unify around them and give them more power than they > had. -- ☣ glen ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
