Tearing my hair out at well-meaning people who keep saying Alt-Right controversialists & Brexit advocates are “stupid” because they say factually wrong, obtuse or offensive things. They are *not* stupid; they are part of a highly sophisticated network running rings around us👇
We keep making the mistake of applying our standards and our rules to them. They are NOT trying to win a fact-based argument. They are not trying to convince most people that what they’re saying is true. Here’s what they are (successfully) doing:👇
- dominating news cycle & setting theme of national conversation
- generating outrage (authoritarianism, or fascism if you prefer, thrives in a climate of anger, polarisation & shouting)
- dogwhistling to a tiny radicalised minority
- grooming another susceptible minority
- generating outrage (authoritarianism, or fascism if you prefer, thrives in a climate of anger, polarisation & shouting)
- dogwhistling to a tiny radicalised minority
- grooming another susceptible minority
How to respond? Well, it’s not easy but some pointers in these two threads...
This one about Trump & co
And this one about those trying to ensure that Brexit happens, despite growing evidence that it will be an utter shitshow:
tl;dr - be aware of what they are trying to do; don’t fall into their traps; stay focused; don’t react in raw anger but calmly; dismiss their distractions swiftly & contemptuously then pivot back to the points that we want to talk about and to which they have no answer.//
PS Try to resist temptation to quote-tweet with some snarky smart-alec putdown proving what they said is wrong/stupid. They don’t care! All you do is amplify their influence on social media (algorithms), preach to the converted in your bubble & entrench views of their followers!
Take a screenshot and tweet it with your putdown instead. #UseHashtags: don’t tag (@) them. #UseScreenshots
