Thread by @sunnshiiny

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FINKELSTEIN METHOD

Years ago I came across this article that laid out the Finkelstein Method of negative campaigning used globally by cons and libertarians.

The article is convoluted so I made a few slides to capture the main points.

buzzfeednews.com/article/hnsgra…

This remains the best article I have found to describe Finkelstein’s Method. Primarily, Finkelstein was a number cruncher and campaign aid to some of the most caustic, authoritarian and destructive politicians to get elected in the past 60 years across the globe.

When you consider the impact this man had on shifting the public’s perception of liberalism, it’s astounding.

But it gets less mysterious when it’s revealed he was an Ayn Rand protégé in the late 1960’s.

Ayn Rand is one of the people who promoted hedonistic egoism, libertarian ideology promoting that life’s meaning be derived from shameless selfishness. It’s ironic that Christian nationalists embrace the selfishness and claim it is as biblically inspired.

It’s not.

But Finkelstein is responsible for more than just negative campaigning. He also developed and promoted INDEPENDENT EXPENDITURE. Which was the precursor to Citizen United.

It’s foolish for people to believe this wasn’t part of the long game plan by authoritarians.

Globally.

While Finkelstein assisted far right ideologues to replace liberals in the US during the 1970’s, infrastructure to actively undermine Canadian democracy was set up in the 1970’s.

You’ll recognize the names of people who have actively undermined Canadian democracy for decades.

By the 1990’s, Israel was accessing Finkelstein’s methods to undermine democracy.

Shortly after the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin, an unknown rose from obscurity to win Prime Minister.

Finkelstein went on to aid Eastern European libertarians to gain power.

Finkelstein was well known for getting unpleasant & unpopular libertarians elected, but with Orban’s reelection in 2008, he developed clear strategy to regain lost power.

Finkelstein died in 2017 after Trump won the US presidential election, but not before sharing his methods.

Finkelstein started with THE PREMISE that every election is decided before it even begins.

By the time adults can vote, their ideological preferences are mostly set in place. Thus, it’s easier to demoralize than change voter intention. That’s where the negativity originates.

The idea is to make politics so unpleasant for liberals and progressives that they develop apathy after becoming severely demoralized.

Demoralization does work as voter suppression. Negative reinforcement makes the left ignore voting to preserve sanity.

verywellmind.com/what-is-negati…

For demoralization to be effective there are five main factors to introduce.

1. CREATE AN ENEMY

Those who vote for the far right are encouraged to hate the ‘enemy’.

Constant accusations and scandals are introduced. Reality is irrelevant. Stoke the fire and incite hate.

2. DEMORALIZE THE OPPONENT’S SUPPORTERS

Those who vote left choose to ignore politics because of the chaos, gut wrenching fear and constant stress.

The stress is so intense it trigger fight or flight.

Easy to witness left accts using epithets and name calling. This is why.

3. USE FEAR AS FUEL.

3 issues create maximum political polarization:
Drugs
Crime &
Race.

These issues are expounded relentlessly by complicit pundits, politicos and ‘journalists’. The left responds in fear to false accusations.

Child sex crimes are the worst demoralizer.

Finkelstein learned over the years how to manipulate elections. But re-elections were sometimes lost.

A fail safe he developed was

4. BE THE VICTIM.

Regardless of past sins, be the victim and you win the sympathy and votes of the public.

What does it mean to be the victim?

5. KEEP THE BASE ENERGIZED.

It keeps supporters in a closed and insular echo chamber filled with hate, entitlement and rage focussed on eliminating an ‘enemy’ from power.

The perception of freedom for the base is existentially threatened.

We have all witnessed these elements in CPC and provincial con rhetoric and political ads.

We have all witnessed complicit media, journalists, pundits and academics advancing conspiracy theories to scare the electorate into demoralization or rage fuelled fear.

That’s how Finkelstein works.

It’s not perfect. It doesn’t make a win 100%, but it boosts the impact of negative campaigning when it’s packaged and delivered in this method.

The 2016 US presidential election demonstrated how Cambridge Analytica used personal data collected from Facebook to target those most vulnerable to this method. (Left and Right)

Huge numbers of left leaning voters (Democrats & Independents) didn’t bother to show up to vote.

Huge numbers of people who didn’t typically vote showed up and voted for Trump in key electoral districts.

Finkelstein’s method is the strategy cons rely upon to win elections. They can’t win using the policies they offer because the majority of people don’t benefit.

Hate convinces people without hope, but lots of fear, to choose social status among peers over beneficial policy; false promises, conspiracy theories & austerity over adequate healthcare, national security & confirmed reality. Blatant lies are irrelevant to rage filled voters.

The strong emotions of fear, rage and disgust remove the ability to use critical thinking and make politics unpleasant & harmful to our mental and physical health. That’s demoralization.

Examining Canadian voter turnout over the past century makes it relatively easy to suspect.

However, reviewing voter turn out rates across the globe as the Finkelstein Method was exported is verging on confirmation.

So how to fight the Finkelstein method?

That’s incredibly easy and excruciatingly difficult.

Commit to voting and stop interacting with negativity.

Easier said than done.

But I no longer get angry at PP. He wants me angry. I undermine his narrative by informing others how to ignore PP and his party’s efforts to enrage the left and create stress so we stop voting.

Our path to victory is to inspire the apathetic to vote.

It doesn’t even matter who they vote for. Just showing up to vote will eliminate CPC dominance in most provinces. And while it won’t remove Rural Prairie delusions of rage and fear, it will severely diminish their impact.

This information combined with Silicon Valley tech fascism is the ultimate cause of the move towards authoritarian control of global resources and political power.

Making this FDC report very relevant for Canadian politics.

https://twitter.com/ericgarland/status/1836771326868025717