Monday, February 01, 2010

Question Authority

Trying to appeal to logic and persuasion is very admirable, but the Tea Party crowd isn't motivated by logic.  They're motivated by tribal identification, anger, fear and paranoia.  They are conditioned to willfully march in lockstep to whatever the abusive daddy figure says - in this case, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and the Republican Party.  Obedience to Daddy reigns supreme - Big Brother is Infallable and The Party Can Do No Wrong.

It's like trying to have an honest discussion with the Crazy Cat Lady.  You can be as sensible and persuasive all you want.  Cat Lady will just shout incoherently and throw cats at you.  You can wait until America's broken health care system sends us all to the poor house, and we're cooking rats in trashcan fires underneath the bridge.  They will still throw cats.

To get these people to even consider your point of view, you must convince them to do the one thing they fear most: Question Authority, and then Question Themselves.  That is the castle whose walls you must breach.

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