Thread by @dappergander

Let's do a little Media Analysis on the incredible Brietbart op-ed from a couple weeks ago.
patreon.com/posts/democrat…

On September 10, Breitbart published a remarkable op-ed claiming that Democrats were using reverse-psychology on Trump-loving Republicans in order to trick them into *not* getting vaccinated. By telling them to get vaccinated.
breitbart.com/entertainment/…

I also couldn’t stop thinking about this piece after I read it, but not because I was offended by the premise.

Instead, I was fascinated by the piece precisely because I knew I wasn’t the intended audience for it. Nolte wasn't trying to convince *me* of anything.

While the op-ed got soundly mocked for its premise when it was first published, quite a few people managed to pick up on the same vibe I had gotten.

The op-ed itself was a kind of reverse-reverse-psychology.

Nolte *wants* his readers to get vaccinated.

https://twitter.com/talkwithtatsu/status/1441612038007001090?s=20

When looking at persuasive writing (or listening to persuasive speaking), the first steps are to ask three questions.

Nolte isn't actually trying to prove Democrats want Republicans to die from COVID (no matter what the title of the article says).

The article's entire argumentative premise is a conspiracy theory, given with no evidence, in service to the real goal: get vaccinated.

In a way, I end up feeling sorry for people like Nolte. His writing reveals that he knows exactly who his audience is. He knows everything that's been said about them is true.

They are more motivated by opposition than logic.
They are conspiracy theorists.
They need to hate.