George Lakoff Profile picture
Mar 6 13 tweets 3 min read Read on X
12 Traps for Democrats to Avoid🧵

1. The Issue Trap: Don’t get trapped in issue silos. Unite around common values such as Freedom and a government Of, By and For the People.
Full Link at FrameLab: theframelab.org/p/twelve-commu…
2. The Poll Trap📊: Leadership is about leading, not following. Instead of simply echoing polls, Democrats must also guide the polls. Remember: “Republicans don't follow polls, Republicans try to change the polls.”
3. The Laundry List Trap📝:: Voters base their choices on values, connection, authenticity, trust, and identity, not lists of policies.

Policy matters, but it must always be framed in terms of moral values.
4. The Rationalism Trap 🧠: Reason is not conscious, literal, logical, universal, or unemotional.

It’s a big mistake to assume that hard facts alone will persuade voters.
5. The 'No-Framing-Necessary' Trap 🖼️: The notion that "truth doesn't need to be framed" or that "facts speak for themselves" ignores the FACT that people use frames to understand facts.

Truths need appropriate moral framing to be recognized as truths.
6: "The ‘Policies are Values’ Trap⚖️: Confusing policies for values is a mistake. Policies are based on values like empathy, responsibility, fairness, and justice, but are not values themselves.
Policies must always be framed in terms of their moral values.
7: The 'Centrist' Trap🔀: The belief in a consistent ideological "center" is flawed. The "center" comprises people who are conservative in some aspects but progressive in others.
Addressing them through their progressive identities is crucial. Stop “moving to the right”!
8: The ‘Misunderestimating’ Trap🤔: Viewing Republicans voters as simply uninformed or “voting against their self-interest” misses the point.
Conservative populism is cultural and based in a distinct moral worldview. Understand, don’t underestimate.
9. The Reactive Trap🔄: Democrats usually let Republicans frame the debate, reacting in ways that inadvertently reinforce conservative frames.
We need proactive policies and long-term campaigns to convey our values.
10: The Spin Trap🍥: Winning with clever spin or slogans is insufficient. Deep framing, grounded in our moral convictions and principles, is necessary for making truths visible and values clear.
For more information, subscribe to the FrameLab Newsletter. It's Free! theframelab.org
11. The Policyspeak Trap🗣️: Avoid legislative jargon and bureaucratic terms. Speak in terms of the common concerns of voters. Make it tangible. For instance, talk how a policy will let you send your daughter to college, or how it will let you launch your own business.
12. The Blame Game Trap👉👈: Yes, Republicans lie and use Orwellian language to distort the truth. Yes, the media helps them.

This does not excuse Democrats' failure to communicate clearly on the level of moral values.

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More from @GeorgeLakoff

Sep 1, 2023
🧵Freedom of speech is the cornerstone of all freedom. But not all speech is the same. Not all speech qualifies as “free speech.” As the indictments pile up against Trump and his co-conspirators, he has tried a ridiculous defense based on “freedom of speech.”
According to his cockamamie theory, free speech means he can say whatever he wants, regardless of the consequences. He falsely equates his leadership of the criminal conspiracy to destroy American democracy with the act of having a mere opinion or belief.
But cognitive linguists have long understood that there are different kinds of speech, and that some kinds of speech constitute “speech acts.” Speech acts are instances of speech that constitute action.
Read 7 tweets
Dec 22, 2022
🧵 Elon Musk sees his Twitter takeover as part of "a battle for the future of civilization."

His $44 billion purchase of Twitter had one key goal: to buy as much of your brain space as possible.
Yes, there's a method to his madness. georgelakoff.substack.com/p/twitter-ceo-…
The world’s richest man has little interest in “free speech.” What he wants is the power to control what the public hears, and to shape reality by turning the so-called “digital town square” into a privately-owned propaganda machine.
With American democracy under threat, Musk’s Twitter is giving us a clear glimpse of the world he would like to see. It’s a world that empowers dictators, fascists, white supremacists, Nazis, disinformation and misinformation.
Read 6 tweets
Dec 20, 2022
Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter gives him direct access to tens of millions of brains, and he is making a zealous public effort to change and control those brains by flooding them with hate and misinformation.

georgelakoff.substack.com/p/algorithm-wa…
He creating an echo chamber that forces everyone to engage the extreme conservative ideas in order to make such ideas seem mainstream. He’s shifting the discourse to favor election deniers, racists and insurrectionists …turning Twitter into a social media version of Fox.
Musk has become Twitter’s dictator, changing the rules to suit his whims, banning accounts he doesn’t like with much of a rationale. He has vast control over what we hear/see on this powerful media platform. He’s a powerful new weapon in the conservative communications arsenal.
Read 5 tweets
Dec 13, 2022
Freedom is the most crucial idea in America.

We all cherish and support freedom, yet the very meaning of the word is disputed.

Freedom means different things to different people, depending on their moral worldview. axios.com/2022/12/12/wes…
Over time, our definition of freedom has been expanded to include a greater number of people, and our freedoms have expanded in a progressive direction.

We have seen an expansion of citizen participation and voter rights, opportunity, worker rights and public education.
All of these have helped to expand freedom for a greater number of Americans.

What radical Republicans aim to do is reverse many of these hard-won gains and go back to the time before these progressive freedoms were established.
Read 6 tweets
Dec 2, 2022
All thought is carried out by neural circuitry — it does not float in air. Language neurally activates thought. Language can thus change brains, both for the better and the worse.
Hate speech changes the brains of those hated for the worse. It creates toxic stress, fear and distrust — all physical, all in one’s neural circuitry active every day.
This internal harm can be even more severe than an attack with a fist. It imposes on the freedom to think and therefore to act free of fear, threats, and distrust.
Read 6 tweets
Sep 1, 2021
1/ California is an overwhelmingly Democratic state. Governor Gavin Newsom won the 2018 election with 62% of voter support. As governor, he has carried out the desires of California’s overwhelmingly Democratic majority. This is how democracy is supposed to work.
2/ Naturally, Republicans oppose what Newsom has done as governor and would like to remove him from office. Under California law, the signatures of only 12% of the total number of votes cast in the previous election can trigger a recall election.
3/ As a result, California is now spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a recall election. If the recall succeeds, Newsom could be replaced with a right-wing Republican who receives only a small fraction of California voter support.
Read 6 tweets

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