Focus On Them
For better or worse, I’ve been scrolling through social media a lot since Minneapolis was invaded. I have a few tips for content creators.
1: Measure the Outrage
Expressions of outrage and woundedness are not unimportant. They form a genre that should be carefully cultivated and protected.
But
You risk burnout. Allies are just as wounded; finding sympathetic hearts is rewarding, but acknowledge that there is a next step. The middle-to-right consumer is not interested. If anything, that reader might consider it a good thing that libs are feeling wounded. An unvarying chorus of outrage and woundedness risks consumer burnout and loss of credibility.
2: Be concrete
When Katie Phang mentions Trump, she mentions him as a felon, a 34-time felon to be exact. It’s good to be reminded, but it is not so effective as it seems. If the rule of law is in doubt, or in flux, convictions lose meaning. J6 criminals were pardoned; many – even those who despise the J6 insurrectionists – don’t remember what the exact charges were. Don Lemon was recently arrested for charges related to his coverage of the church protest in Minneapolis. The right-wingers who cheered the arrest would not be able to name the charges. He’s just a bad guy who was somewhere he shouldn’t have been, so of course he should have been arrested. My point: we don’t understand our own legal system anymore. That leads to loss of faith. And calling someone a felon means very little to most people.
3: Don’t Separate Yourself
“If this doesn’t make you scared, I don’t know what will.” How many times have I heard this line in videos? It’s patronizing. Sure, we are all frustrated by the passivity of Congress and the American people in the face of this crisis. But when you express your frustration in this way, it motivates no one. Allow people to come to their own conclusions when well-informed.
4: Morality is Human
Blunt cries that something is immoral achieves very little. The human mind challenges imperatives. Unless you are parroting someone’s previous conclusion, your imperative only arouses resistance in that person. Humans are stubborn and rebellious, and that can be irritating when you are trying to persuade. But if you have faith in humanity, their independence can be rewarding. Place the facts before people and see whether their moral conclusions are the same as yours. Morality is as fundamental to our mental apparatus as breathing is to our physical apparatus; your moral conclusions are not privileged, any more than your breathing is. And, by the way, when someone denies your facts, they are tacitly acknowledging your morality. Declaring that he didn’t do what you say is immoral is an admission that the act is immoral. All that is left is the proof of the fact, not the moral persuasion.
5: Focus on Them
All this to say, take yourself out of the message for the most impact. Talk about the wrong-doers. Bring it to them, and speak concretely. Put them on the spot. Let people judge their actions. Maybe I have become partial to Euro-snark, but I found this video to be refreshing.