George Lakoff made a very interesting point with Ari Melber on MSNBC

[kentuck]

They were discussing Trump's comments about the press being the "enemy" of the American people.

Lakoff said it was something very clever like "preemptive framing". In the sense that he knew he could get the "media" to report that Trump knew they would report it that he said they were "enemies of the American people". By reporting on it, they are saying, "I am not an enemy of the American people". The people hear the exact opposite.

He likened it to the time when Nixon said, "I am not a crook". People interpreted is as "Nixon is a crook".

Thought-provoking.

[mopinko]

1. yup.

lets hope. seems like the scales are starting to fall.

[tblue37]

3. His point was that the media are unintentionally labeling themselves the enemy of the

American people, when their intention in reporting his accusation is to prove they are NOT the enemy of the American people.

[Amaryllis]

2. They are keeping the narrative in the public atttention. LAkoff is really big on not

responding to their narrative but making it about what you want the focus on. He said the left is always saying, "How should we respond to xxxx," and Lakoff says that is the wrong question because you are letting them define the narrative.

Here is some great Lakoff stuff on that:
http://www.truth-out.org/progressive-picks/item/27576-george-lakoff-progressives-cannot-succeed-without-expressing-respect-values

https://georgelakoff.com/2016/07/23/understanding-trump-2/

https://georgelakoff.com/2016/12/15/how-to-help-trump/

[Hekate]

17. Lakoff is brilliant

[brush]

4. I wouldn't give that a-hole credit for a reverse psychology play...

he's just reading by the numbers from "Dictators 101", Chapter 3 — Attack and discredit the media.

He already fucked up Chapter 1 with the bumbled stupidity in Yemen (the death of an elite U.S. Navy SEAL, Ryan Owens; 57 civilians killed, a $90 million Osprey, a tilt-rotor aircraft, was destroyed and the al-Qaida leader target edby the mission was not taken out.)

And Chapter 2, his attempt to villainize and make Muslims the feared 'other' with his ban was rolled out clumsily and was a spectacular failure that bit the dust hard in the courts.

Nah, he's not that smart.

[pat_k]

6. Lakoff is just proposing reasons WHY what he's doing is so effective.

I do not think Lakoff is attributing brilliance to DT. Only describing reasons why DT's words/behavior effectively advance his agenda. And pointing out that if we recognize the phenomenon, we can start counteracting it. Step 1 is to stop 24x7 conversations about DT's latest pronouncements. We keep doing that, we are helping DT advance his agenda.

[brush]

7. IMO it's not so successful. Only his deplorable base, 30% of the population ...

are eating up his crappola.

That's what all the protests and resistance is about.

Effective?

Nah, his four weeks in office have been a disaster.

[pat_k]

8. And Hillary was a shoo-in.

We underestimate the power of the DT-phenomenon at our peril.

[brush]

9. He'll be lucky to last the year.

Comey and Putin and Crosscheck stole the election for him but no one can steal good governance for him.

His first four horrible, bungled weeks have shown that.

[pat_k]

16. I hope you are right.

[AC_Mem]

13. Lakoff's work is really important

I recommend everyone get his books and read them. There is a kind of mass hypnosis going on here that is causing people to literally support that which will ultimately hurt them. Very interesting work and he sites examples of WHY language and framing are important. Not just to understand what the hell happened in this election fiasco, but how we can change things so that it doesn' t happen again.

Annette

[Hekate]

18. Benedict Donald is above all a salesman of himself. How do you think he got this far?

He's rotten, he's corrupt, his IQ is nowhere what he imagines -- but that's not the point.

He has the skill of reading crowds, surfing the energy of those crowds, and manipulating the hell out of them, all the while gloating over what pathetic suckers they are. He is a salesman -- of himself.

And now he's president, the biggest bully in the country, and he has some very powerful friends. We will get out of this mess, but it won't be by either underestimating him or by giving up.

Welcome to the Real Life Resistance.

[brush]

20. More people in the country are aligned against him than for him. He'll be lucky to last the year

I mean we're talking the future of this democracy/republic, whatever you want to call it.

More and more people are realizing this guy and his white supremacist crew are endangering that and they are now begining to speak up in protests on the streets and in townhalls and on TV and social media.

Even republicans are starting to stand up. Kasich of Ohio just came out and said the Russian tampering needs to be thoroughly investigated.

I don't care how good a salesman trump is to his fu_king base, as they are the only ones falling for his crappola. They are only 30% of the population and we outnumber them.

And remember, for all his so-called salesmanship, it didn't win him the election. Comey, Putin, Interstate Crosscheck and repug vote tampering and suppression "won" the election and we need to remember that. trump didn't win sh_t with his salesmanship.

He's is going down.

[pat_k]

5. Related: "Call to Action: Letters to editors to refocus on what Repubs in Congress are up to"

Yes. The whole "Don't think of an elephant" phenomenon.

He also pointed that the focus on DT lunacy is giving Congress cover to push through their agenda to destroy crucial protections and cut resources that benefit us All.

I think we should follow Lakoff's lead on this and posted the following.

Call to Action: Letters to editors to refocus on what Repubs in Congress are doing
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10028680197

Post includes link to Lakoff's "10 points for democratic activists"

[Hekate]

19. Thanks, pat k

[mehrrh]

10. devil and the deep sea

What is to be done?
Let Trump continue his propaganda discrediting the media (as totalitarians always do as a first step)?
The public will have no one to look to for news, truth and facts...only the word of the administration?
The Ministry of Truth?
Or deny his lies and smears, which give him some kind of platform if not validation?
His aide last week said, "the President will not be reviewed" -- He will not be questioned?
Are we to stand and salute? March in lockstep?
We already heard from a congressman who said we should get all our news and information from only the president.

The monster was at the door, and we let him in January 20th.

[JHan]

11. I despair that Trump's ridiculousness is that effective...

...just now brainwashed/dumb do you have to be ? And even by calling it out by what it is - dumb- some will say such strong language shouldn't be used even though it IS dumb.

[bucolic_frolic]

12. I hear it as inoculation against pending bad news by the Trump White House

Trying to flip the truth vs lies sides in the media because the media too is
polarized

If he can discredit the traditionally mainstream sources then the faux side
will be believed

This "enemy" comment is about setting the table and tilting it

[OhioBlue]

14. I agree with Lakoff. The more the media reports and repeats

the outrageous things said by tRump, the more it is reinforced. When the tRump administration published a list of terror attacks that were supposedly not reported by media, I saw several outlets rush to defend their coverage. They listed the terror attacks and replayed clips of their reporting. They fed into exactly what the admin wanted, which was to focus the narrative on terror attacks (even if they would have been unaffected by his ban) instead of the human interest stories that were in the headlines over his Muslim ban.

We might not thing tRump is clever or forward thinking enough to plan this, but he does have people like Bannon and Ailes advising him.

[Blue_Roses]

15. Projecting. Trump does it all the time.

Common defense mechanism. It's finding fault in others when it is really you. Trump does it all the time.

Yes, lots of projection.


https://www.britannica.com/topic/projection-psychology

Projection is a form of defense in which unwanted feelings are displaced onto another person, where they then appear as a threat from the external world. A common form of projection occurs when an individual, threatened by his own angry feelings, accuses another of harbouring hostile thoughts.

[Orsino]

21. Clever? No. Desperate, yes.

The inevitable collision of Trump's pants-it "leadership" style and reality was never going to go well for him. The reapeated failure of the world we live in to live up to his stated wishes was going to have to be blamed on someone, and the press is simply the obvious scapegoat.

It's not genius. It's merely unscrupulousness on the part of the Administration. As for Trump himsrlf, that's perhaps a more pitiable story. The boy who grew up with his every wish granted never learned leadership skills. Every time he opens his mouth, he's bluffing.