I don't entirely have an answer to the question "How Do Racists and Anti-Racists Use Group-ism at Election Time?" — if you have pieces of the puzzle, add them to the comments.
I recommend looking at What Ails the Right Isn’t (Just) Racism: An authoritarian fear of difference best explains the intolerance sweeping the Republican Party.
The short answer to my question: enough Americans
I watched good folks start to tear into each other when this window decal made its way to a political facebook group.
I'm guessing: this image is seen as wildly racist to some, and a silly joke about lousy ex-boyfriends to others.
And there is a big danger: when people don't think they're sharing something racist, and then get accused of it, they tend to feel pushed out, not called in. This is creating, over and over, a feeling of rejection among a large part of the country.
This provocation is done very much on purpose:
Cognitive Politics is about communications techniques. This blog looks at how we share outrage on social media, an exercise intended to be shared with the Smarter Politics community.
My friends are asking "When is the President going to be held accountable?"
Trump's America isn't what I ever thought America would be.
I'm angry in solidarity with you. SMART started because anger wasn't winning us elections, wasn't keeping people like Trump out of office.
The spin on the Mueller Report is overwhelming: not just whether Trump is guilty, but even simply what did Mueller find: a lot of us are watching only soundbites. What communication techniques can help? What should progressives be sharing?
Question: what is the best short video, article and tweet (one of each) to share about the Mueller Report, that will help politically disinclined TV watchers say "that's not what I saw" when Mueller is described as having found nothing?
Techniques
See my review on GoodReads.
This book pulls a lot together. It connects how inequality is getting worse, and how that is bad for our country and our democracy, while also digging in to the reasons why it's getting worse. For all those negatives, it is positive and solution-oriented: Reich both admits to the negative trends and describes a realistic, non-utopian answer to turn the problems around.
Do you feel that "the other side" listens to facts? Or that facts don't work?
Let's look at a fact, and consider ways we might react:
A pig is as intelligent as a dog
There, you’ve heard the fact. Are you vegan now, or at least done eating pork? Why not?
If you can answer that question, it might be a first step to more effective conversations with Trump supporters.
Have you read the Mueller Report? Democrats wanted a silver bullet. They keep letting themselves get trolled. Republicans are mostly celebrating — but not every one. Mueller's investigation led to 34 people and 3 companies convicted or pled guilty and no strong evidence that the Trump campaign worked directly with the Russians. For most Republicans, this is a celebration — a few law and order Republicans are horrified with the corruption Mueller did find. What do you think?
Techniques
Issue
rough draft. Might want a different style for something as broad as questions, perhaps without the tree
— and resuscitate stifled political conversations
Techniques