Psychology is powerful in all aspects of life. Understanding the mind gives immense potential toward persuading others to think how you want them to think. Some have this down so well it’s like a superpower, MIND CONTROL.
We have seen this kind of mind control everywhere in this election. Trump and Hillary have expert persuaders on their teams, scheming voters into seeing the opposition as a dishonest psycho. No one is immune to persuasive tricks. Some of us can spot them, however everyone is susceptible to becoming a victim of a devious persuader. Including you and me.
How are we persuaded to think of candidates in a certain way? Framing. Everything each candidate says and does, the opposition criticizes and says they have ill intentions. Voters believe this because of how the candidates are framed, or, perceived.
Some weird shit is being said about the candidates, shit we know cannot be true. Does Trump hate women and minorities because he wants tighter border security and says mean things about Rosie O Donnel? Probably not, but it’s logical. Either way Trump is going to deny it so might as well run with it. The phrase goes, give an inch, they take a mile. Trump gave an inch (saying some Mexicans are drug dealing rapists and that putting a woman to work can be dangerous) and Clinton took a mile by framing him so that everything he says that even slightly hints to the concept of race or gender is interpreted as Trump being a racist sexist shit bag.
When Trump says Hillary is disloyal to Bill, he doesn’t mean it, but people believe it. Even if they don’t, you imagine Bill sneaking around with other women (which he has) and we think maybe Hillary has done the same in retaliation. Who knows, it’s all made up! But it sort of makes sense and we can logically imagine it, making us feel uncomfortable when we think of Hillary. Is she sick? Maybe, maybe not. But Donny framed her as being sick, so every time she sits down, takes a deep breath, coughs, or shows any lack of energy, SHE’S GRAVELY SICK FOLKS! And we believe this because it matches the frame she has been put in, despite the fact that old people need to take a deep breath or sit down for a minute sometimes because they’re just old.
Hillary has been framed as dishonest because of her email scandal, so Trump frames everything she does as dishonest and it is confirmed by the the truth that she did sneak around with confidential info. Does this mean that everything she does is dishonest? Of course not, but the framing makes us think of her as a dishonest person, so the title makes us look at everything as matching the frame. When he says she’s the most dishonest person to run for office, he can’t possibly mean it. Politicians are known for being dishonest. People in positions of power tend to abuse it. But by saying she’s dishonest, we view everything she does as dishonest, which she denies, but if we believe the framing then we won’t believe her because of her dishonest label. Clever framing works by manipulating your feelings. Once framing is set, it sticks. Feelings are hard to change.
We’ve said this before, this is a dirty election. Who knew the candidates had this many tricks up their sleeves. The good is this, at least both candidates are equally dirty. We have the benefit of being in a fair election, because both candidates are using the same dirty tricks. Is this really an upside? No, I’m just trying to stop myself from crying.
Do you agree? What is your input? Comment and let’s continue the conversation. Thank you.
Scotty Does Know Good 