The Left's ongoing Great War on Sanity, June 10
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle. Sun Tzu The Art of War
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Fear Not.
The whole point of Jacksonianism is: "You leave me alone and I'll leave you alone. You play fair with me and I'll play fair with you. But if you eff with me, I'll kill you." --Steven Den Beste There's an older video with Jay Leno 1999 with Trump discussing philosophy in it.
Enticing Democrats off their mental plantation is tricky. Because the fences of the plantation were cleverly constructed in the first place. You see comments: "Why can't they see?!?" and "Their entire counter-argument is literally 'RRrrrreeeeee!!!' ", and all sorts of things that simply don't parse. Best whirl at explaining below. Because 'Knowing the opposition' is vital.
Also a block on "How Trump uses their own approach as return fire, incessantly."
What is Bluepilling? Emotional Thinking?
The key to Redpilling, (in my opinion, and love critiques!) is first recognizing what Bluepilling is - and before that what a solid education used to mean. (For any educators, note that the things I'm pointing at are curriculum and thus textbook choice issues, and used particularly in urban schools that aren't obvious from the trenches or offsite. I'd love details and critiques.) It's somewhat involved, so this isn't a convenient brick to just fling in a fight. It requires figuring it out yourself . I happen to think "simply" breaking the complete lock of the press is the "I have to interact with a Leftist" default position. Not by arguing "The right is correct" or "SourceX says", but instead "Stelter is a comical buffoon", and "Anderson Cooper's programming seems off today." etc. Best accompanied with latest insanity. "He was against masks last week ." Or: "Wait, I thought ... walls bad?!?" Mostly not good 'Redpilling', but "Solid Press 180" a couple minutes in
Standard Persuasion and Education
There are three persuasive approaches: Ethos, Pathos, and Logos.
Ethos is an appeal to character. An example would be trusting an expert's word on a given subject.
Pathos is an appeal to emotion. An example would be citing the effect on humanity a given event or action has had.
Logos is an appeal to logic. An example would be citing statistics relating to a given event or action.
Note that the Renaissance, re-proving and accumulating the mathematical theorems, and codifying The Scientific Method also involved a lot of time developing things like a List of Fallacies that has been developed (and re-discovered) over thousands of years of Western Civilization. In short, "Logos" finds the others fallacious from the get-go - ipse dixit . :D Ethos is a fallacious "Appeal to Authority, argumentum ad verecundiam And Pathos has an entire list, one for each emotion, like argumentum ad misericordiam 'Argument from Pity'. The modern frameworks of science and technology somewhat rest on the idea that sufficient credentials "Prove" an expert ... and thus opens Ethos as a near-valid approach once everyone's credentials are affirmed.
Using the wrong persuasive technique, or trying too hard in your persuasion will undoubtedly lead to failure This should be something you have personal experience with. "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" - the various stereotypes and statistics have underlying reasons. A solid chunk of the various misunderstandings, confusions, and state of relations fall right in there as (somewhat more Logos) interacting with (some mix of more ethos and pathos).
An early childhood education that's very heavy on Ethos and Pathos can't be a shock to anyone. Logos, in part, is a learned skill , Dispassionate Analysis, "Devil's Advocate", "Neutral Observer Voice", "Put yourself in their shoes". Attempting to construct a logical argument is easiest if you can "Disconnect" and try to assess things without engaging. Difficult to explain to a four year old. "Hot, no." But a key aspect of Western Civilization is wedging proper science, logic, research, citations in as early as possible.
The Scientific Method itself is a method of attempting to have the scientist (anyone attempting the method) to actively 'oppose' the effort to get an objective, dispassionate assessment. Simply 'making your hypothesis' in advance, then actively attempting to disprove it methodically.
Dots, then conclusions.. And if you didn't run the experiment personally, cite sources properly.
By 1909, this was compressed to the Harvard Classics Library. Five feet of books that pretty much comprised a solid education.
Enter: Bluepilling
I'm going to skip most of the historical steps, and just drop a few notes on Gates' "Common Core". Not arguing the facts, omissions, deletions, insertions. But the method of teaching was designed by teams of psychologists. Finger's can be pointed in all directions right here, don't get distracted. The key bit is contemplate the possibility that something's off the rails, assess. Here's thinking about language arts:
Punish Logos for 'Ethos and Pathos'
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Have the kids read excerpts of texts, never the whole thing. It teaches kids to cherry-pick their information and take things out of context as a given.
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Pepper the textbooks with excerpts from writers who are writing absolute anti-American propaganda. Lock the idea of "Untrusted sources" in there very firmly ... and put even ten year-old textbooks at the same school on the list.
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Eliminate teaching analytical essays and technical writing in favor of persuasive writing and emotional responses (How did this make you feel? Do you feel proud of Thomas Jefferson in the excerpt about owning slaves? Why or why not?).
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Shift even further away from "Non-fiction" and "Technical details" sort of reading materials. This craters 'Logos-oriented' types interest in the entire idea of 'Reading' or 'English' in the first place.
Other pieces wedged into Common Core are even less sensical: Common Core to 'End White Privilege', and outcomes are, as expected. Baltimore Zero Proficient in Math. Note also that we now have a decade of data: Common Core lowered math and reading skills both. So ... what was it actually designed to do? Note that it does in part do precisely some of the "Overtly stated goals." Scrambling history prevents any semblance of a solid "We rest on the shoulders of the giants before us" cultural identity. It also "Raises comparative STEM scores" ... by spiking the wheels of anyone primarily STEM-oriented. (My daughter scored a 99% on the ACT-math, and yet struggled to pass the math classes over persuasive essays ... in math.) Side effect, see 'drop out rates' and 'college application rates'. The process has killed the interest in learning, selectively.
Note that this is actual strategy Education
Enter: Snowflakes. (Mental picture: Inauguration-REEE-thing)
Gamergate and the weirdness between the "Games Journalists" and the "Gaming Community" is a subject all for itself. I just want to kidnap one term that became widespread in there. The Snowflake. It is the recognition that people were wandering around with college degrees that simply have "no there, there". Long detailed arguments being shot down with glib "Shoot the messenger" and ad hominem attacks with the only backing being "Appeal to Authority". "That's Faux News, just what I expected from a _____, blocked!".
This is a "Somewhat more Logos" crowd running head first into a crowd possessed by "Ethos/Pathos." And plenty of more corporate types cowering because "Well, that crew is the more crazy crew, kneeling in submission is easier." "Cancel Culture" is ... the ideologically possessed acting as an actual 'mob'. Mobs are often Ethos. There's an icon , leading them. "Somehow" the icons of a lot of little cliques drag their little flocks along. The leader has said such, and thus, I must follow. The Monty Python skit involving "We are all independent we are all independent" Gosh, not only are many Snowflakes that melt into a puddle at opposition, but they're also "NPCs" - they're letting conformity-to-group and follow-the-leader rule. "But Dr. Fauci says..." Sigh.
The press has (apparently) decided to actively use the approach "Connections, then find dots that fit." Combine all the little pieces of how the Bluepilled "Work", and add continual re-inforcement from all "accepted sources" in all directions.
Happen to personally think "Thou shalt not make an idol" applies even more here than it does to the literal carving-of-rock.
The problem isn't that Johnny can't read. The problem isn't even that Johnny can't think. The problem is that Johnny doesn't know what thinking is; he confuses it with feeling -- Thomas Sowell
Reason obeys itself; and ignorance submits to whatever is dictated to it -- Thomas Paine
You can’t reason with a Democrat because if you could they wouldn’t be a Democrat -- Clint Eastwood
To argue with a person who has renounced reason is like administering medicine to the dead -- Thomas Paine
Reason is not automatic. Those who deny it cannot be conquered by it. Do not count on them. Leave them alone -- Ayn Rand
You can sway a thousand men by appealing to their prejudices quicker than you can convince one man by logic --Robert A. Heinlein Revolt in 2100 (1953)
It is easy to hate, but it is difficult to love -- Confucius
Difficult to logic a person out of a position they were emoted into.
That's the core problem.
Seattle and Portland already have a couple-day-spikes.
So...
We seem to be going back into arguing nuttiness about COVID.
Happen to think the best strategy is trying to help make sure the week is spent with BLM arguing with the COVID-Karens somehow.
Don't know how to make sure that happens though. Don't quite want to be pointing out "You know, the medical Karens run the pharmacies." (Frankly boggled that that wasn't already a key point-of-interest).
