You have commented 339 times on Rantburg.

Your Name
Your e-mail (optional)
Website (optional)
My Original Nic        Pic-a-Nic        Sorry. Comments have been closed on this article.
Bold Italic Underline Strike Bullet Blockquote Small Big Link Squish Foto Photo
-Short Attention Span Theater-
Scott Adams (Dilbert) on Why Trump will win:
2016-06-02
So Adams pivoted to write more about the workplace, and the budding "Dilbert" in the early ’90s became "about this huge part of people’s lives that was invisible to the rest of the world and about suffering in a hundred different ways."

"By simply mentioning that world," Adams says, the comic connected with readers "on an emotional level."

And isn’t that essentially, in turn, what Trump is doing? He is acknowledging the suffering of some, Adams says, and then appealing emotionally to that.

And he bolsters that approach, Adams says, by "exploiting the business model" like an entrepreneur. In this model, which "the news industry doesn’t have the ability to change ... the media doesn’t really have the option of ignoring the most interesting story," says Adams, contending that Trump "can always be the most interesting story if he has nothing to fear and nothing to lose."

1. Trump knows people are basically irrational.,
2. Knowing that people are irrational, Trump aims to appeal on an emotional level.
3. By running on emotion, facts don’t matter.
4. If facts don’t matter, you can’t really be "wrong."
5. With fewer facts in play, it’s easier to bend reality.
6. To bend reality, Trump is a master of identity politics -- and identity is the strongest persuader.

"Identity is always the strongest level of persuasion. The only way to beat it is with dirty tricks or a stronger identity play. ... [And]

Trump is well on his way to owning the identities of Americans (people who see themselves that way), Alpha Males, and Women Who Like Alpha Males.
Clinton is well on her way to owning the identities of angry women, beta males, immigrants, and disenfranchised minorities.

"If this were poker, which hand looks stronger to you for a national election?"

"Free will is an illusion. Humans are nothing but moist robots"
Posted by:3dc

#5  I disagree with Adams on this. Voters are rational, very rational. It is a fact that folks vote against, very rarely for someone - that is rational if we vote against something that is not working or poisonous to our society. Thus, Trump woos the anti-illegal immigrant folks, the anti-Clintons and the anti-Obamas, anti-worthless Republican leadership, anti-beta male world. I want a war president and Trump is the best choice left standing.
Posted by: Tennessee   2016-06-02 20:31  

#4  a massive number of people have lost their jobs due to globalization. The Republicans and Democrats have ignored the problem and written these folks off of the unemployment numbers.

But they are still there and they vote and they are pissed.

Trump speaks to them. Bernie speaks to them as well, to a lesser extent.
Posted by: rjschwarz   2016-06-02 15:47  

#3  Scott's blog has been a must-read on political persuasion during this election cycle.
Posted by: regular joe   2016-06-02 12:02  

#2  Same playbook but with a twist of hammering the media that so so many hate. Can't be racist as so many are white.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2016-06-02 09:18  

#1  Although the focus is different, the list of 7 items in Adam's model reads a lot like the Donk playbook.
Posted by: JohnQC   2016-06-02 08:20  

00:00