Berkeley Linguist: Trump “has the power to control tens of millions of brains via tweets”
Prof. George Lakoff: “As a cognitive scientist, I can tell you … constant repetition of Trump’s messages embeds them deeply in the brains of millions of people”
You probably have not heard of George Lakoff, a progressive linguistics Professor Emeritus at Berkeley.
But you have heard of Elizabeth Warren.
Particularly Warren’s “you didn’t build that on your own” speech, which picked up a theme also expressed by Obama, that people who are successful only got that way because of the efforts of others and government, so they need to give some of it back:
Warren and Obama didn’t build that concept on their own. The verbiage is remarkably similar to that expressed earlier by Lakoff, something I pointed out in July 2012, Obama and Warren cribbed “build it” narrative from progressive Berkeley Professor:
You also have heard of Donald Trump. And his Twitter account.
Scott Adams attributes a particular genius to Trump’s instinctive tactics, verbiage and tweeting, where Trump’s opponents see only childishness and idiocy:
Back to Lakoff.
Lakoff is no fan of Trump, and he focuses on language, so it’s interesting to get his take on Trump’s tweeting, which Adams has referenced.
Lakoff elaborated on Twitter on the effectiveness of the repetition of Trump’s tweets, and how Trump controls both the narrative and the cognition of his messages. It’s worth the read through how this progressive linguist evaluates Trump’s tweeting.
This chart provides a guide:
Here’s the sequence:
[Featured Image: Trump tweet for Cinco de Mayo 2016: “I love Hispanics!,” retweeted 92,677 times as of this writing]
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Comments
Obama spies, DNC denies, Clinton colludes with domestic and foreign intelligence assets and Kiev to influence the election. Water Closet.
Selective-child.
Deep Plunger was a disenfranchised Democrat, recently departed.
Recycled-child.
That said, it’s unseemly to abort a viable president in the sixth trimester.
Pro-Choice.
LOL Good points!
This makes Professor Laff-off and Berkeley look like
VOO-DOO U!
So is Lakoff openly admitting that if you remove Twitter access from Trump people in Lakoff’s camp or tribe can regain the control of the message they so desperately want??
Pitiful admission.
Both Alinsky Rules and Trump’s tweet require being ahead in the OODA loop. If you get behind, you are playing catch up….
The funny thing is that Lasker actually is pretty much correct, he understands what Trump is doing with his tweets. But what Lasker doesn’t grasp is that the media and the left HAVE to respond like their tails were on fire to every single thing Trump says – they can’t bear to let anything he says slide. And so Trump has got them all wrapped around his finger, and they all dance to his tune, every day.
Yeppers….the easiest way to beat the tweet, is to ignore it. They can’t.
And that’s ….
What’s the word? …
I have it on the tip of my tongue ….
Genius?
Indeed it is the media’s job to react. They do not have the right not to. What Lakoff proposes is an organized conspiracy by the press to silence the President, and that would truly be unacceptable.
But Lakoff doesn’t see it or doesn’t care, because he just wants to bring down the President. As an academic, he has the platform to say it. But the press is not allowed to participate in it.
They’re not opposed to organized conspiracy. See ‘JournoList’
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/JournoList
They do not have the right not to. […]
the press is not allowed to participate in it.
What the **** are you talking about? What country do you think you’re living in, where there are restrictions on what reporters can and can’t do?
then they can’t cut the mustard.
pass the popcorn
😉
That “Fake Republican Investigations” meme is real big in Progressive circles. Frankly, it smells like “not being able to walk and chew gum at the same time.” There are multiple aspects of the “Russia thing” and Progressives don’t want the whole story (either).
Lackoff, you jackoff: enjoy the next 7 years of hell, as we did with that corrupt, treasonous islamofascist fraud contrivance, obama, the likes of you foisted on our country.
Reap what you sow, buddy.
It’s just a tragedy a president who is faithful to the Constitution is your version of hell. Fortunately, it’s your tragedy, not ours.
May your kind move to North Korea and live our your lives in a reeducation camp.
“. . . constant repetition of Trump’s messages embeds them deeply in the brains of millions of people”
That’s what so bothers the left. They’ve using that propaganda technique for years [isn’t that right, Dan Rather, Walter Cronkite?]. Now they discover two can play that game, sometimes even winning.
Every point he made about Trump’s use of these techniques is true of the obama administration . For example when ben rhodes bragged about the “echo Chamber”. trump is just one voice but “journolistas” were many voices coordinating secretly.
Seems like Trump isn’t as dumb or deranged as they falsely accuse. Far from it.
Remember, they’re also talking about us.
Yes, this has all been very obvious right from the beginning of the campaign. Remarkable numbers of people simply can’t grasp the significance of the tweets; therefore they imagine that there’s nothing of significance there. Lackoff hs improved on that unimaginative conviction … but he still doesn’t seem to grasp anything close to the larger implications.
As I read it, his thesis is that the Progressive media/political apparatus falls into the trap of thinking—
(1) Trump’s tweets are just goofy. What the hell kind of President acts like that?
Therefore (2) Trump must be a goof.
Lackoff adds more steps to the chain of reasoning—
(3) He persists with the notion that Trump’s a goof, but
(4) realizes that his tweets are purposeful and very effective;
Therefore, (5) to nullify their effect, he proposes that they be ignored.
And this is Lackoff’s error. If Trump’s tweets are purposeful and effective, then (1), the first observation—that they’re just goofy—is dead wrong. And therefore (2), the conclusion that Trump is just a goofy guy who wastes time with goofy tweets, is unsupported … i.e., also dead wrong. Lackoff’s persitent assumption that Trump’s a goof, (3), is of course also unsupported and, like most wild fantasies, probably entirely bogus.
In any case, (5) is a non-starter. As has been clear for nearly two years now, the Press, the Left, and the Dems can’t control themselves. They’re moths to flame, papparazzi to Princess Di, women to expensive shoes. It’s not a rational process, and so is not subject to rational control.
But of course Trump can’t know that, because he’s a goof … right? And that’s the unexamined prejudice which blinds Lackoff to what’s actually happening.
Lackoff’s biggest error is trying to destroy his own country.
Imagine if lackoff had to work in the private sector? — OUR biggest error is allowing this dangerous fool to remain employed in our schools.
When is the timeline to take back our schools? Where is Betty DeVos these days?
BINGO!
The problem with Lakoff’s idea, that the press coordinate to ignore the President’s communications, is that the press is not allowed to do that. And they shouldn’t be.
Lakoff’s right, Trump is a great communicator. But he can only propose an illegal un-American idea against it. Not too surprising actually.
the press is not allowed to do that.
What the **** are you talking about? Who doesn’t allow it? They have the same freedom of speech as everyone else, and therefore can do whatever they like, including “coordinating to ignore the President”, if they choose.
The more these deranged commie free-loaders attack Donald Trump, the more The Donald’s supporters see what deranged commie free-loaders the attackers are – and what a hero Donald Trump truly is.
Keep it up, wackoff.
He’s so right and so wrong at the same time.
Yes, they are all being played, and NO, they will not stop being played. Trump Derangement Syndrome has become a real thing, and the left, MSM are all sick beyond relief.
DJT lives rent free in all the above and especially #NeverTrump
lost souls.
ROFLOL
https://opinionsandexpressions.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/rofl.gif
Sick? No, just stunningly ignorant and corrrupt.
Hey, maybe that is sick.
“Trump Derangement Syndrome” is their narcotics – seriously.
Poor baby wants to take away Trumps tweeter, no need for that pesky constitution and it’s freedom of speech thingy.
Hey jackoff, suicide is all the vogue now.
Rush will have fun with this tomorrow.
He’s been saying pretty much the same thing about the Tweets for over a year. It’s his strategery, stupid.
Add in that this came from Lackoff (rhymes with …….)
Compared to Trump, Alinsky was a piker.
So is Lakoff pissed off that he fell right into the Trump twitter trap? Sure sounds like it.
Sounds almost similar to what Scott Adams has been saying all along. But he’s just a cartoonist…
Final thought for the evening: this is all about stirring up violence to pressure Trump resign. This is all about the threat to our free elections. Costa Gravas couldnt come up with a better plot.
If these people.win, we will effectively be enslaved.
Dont give them an inch. Not even a millimeter.
Felony leaker Adam Sciff just picked up the verbal attack on Trump for his character- doing exactly what this jackoff lackoff is accusung Trump of.
Had that schmuck Sessions been doing his job, the likes of Schiff would be facing criminal charges, and the likes of berkley fascists like lackoff would be less apt to be shills for the ghost of josef stalin at federally funded schools.
Are there any democrat prinipals left who are not criminals, traitors or absolute morons?
Get ready – the second American revolution is picking up speed.
Trumps tweets are the laser pointer to the cats in the media. They just can’t resist.
Newt Gingrich recently wrote, “Reporters need to chase rabbits. Trump give them rabbits to chase.”
1) Trumps tweets give him power to control the narrative. Controlling the narrative is a core Alinsky principle.
2) A lie needs constant support to stay alive. The evidence of a lie needs constant coverup. Silence is not an option for the left. They know it.
3) Think about the “Fake News” label invented by the left. They will pissed off forever that they lost control of that one.
Lakoff’s problem is moral in nature: He wants to save the lie from Trump and he is smart enough to see Trump is using the tools of the left to destroy the left. Lakoff does not want to end up needed a real job.
His pain is sweet music.
Great comments!
Everyone should read them ….. well except Laff-Off and his Dictatorship worshiping cronies!
George Lakoff’s is an ardent progressive and a supposed expert in creating and using memes, narratives and other linguistic tricks to manipulate the population: He would have been at home in Stalin’s Soviet Union. Orwell wrote entire books about Lakoff’s (and Stalin’s) tradecraft. I imagine that he is pi$$ed because he thinks that Trump has deliberately used his tricks without any acknowledgement.
I see it differently. I think Trump simply came up with a basket of obvious issues that resonate strongly with a sufficient percentage of the population that got him elected. They were lying on the ground for any Republican candidate to pick up but because they had become so politically incorrect that his Republican competitors were too scared to address them. Trump’s tweets simply get him attention and cheap publicity – the equivalent of PT Barnum’s feeding outrageous stories to newspaper columnists.
So Lakoff is in part correct. The best antidote to Trump’s tweets is to ignore them. But as others have noted, that requires his opponents to come up with messaging to fill the void – but it is too late. Apart from the sex harassment issue, Trump has essentially smashed the credibility of the MSM. He has made the general population more skeptical. The “fake news” meme works because there is so much real fake news.
The Progressive-Left were the first to systematically develop these elements and bombard the populace with them. Their guru Saul Alinsky was able to succinctly codify them for easy broadcast and absorption.
Therefore, if George Lakoff’s analysis was correct, then we should be living under a permanent Progressive-Left regime.
I’m sure his thesis sounded good on paper. Doesn’t seem to work in the real world, though.
Agree. Unfortunately for Lakoff and his preferred metaphors, facts and reality get in the way.
An absolutely crystal clear illustration of what the Progressives have done through the MSM for decades.
By using the MSM as a propaganda tool for Progressive thought, the Progressives have been able to influence, if not outright control, the thought processes of nearly 50% of the people in this country. Victimization, dependence upon the government and the acceptance of social practices which are destructive to the unity of this nation have been literally beaten into the minds of people in this country since the 1920s.
What this man is decrying is the loss of control of the public narrative due to the rise of social media. When anti-Progressives, DJT for one, discovered that they could communicate with a large segment of the population without their words being filtered by the MSM, the Progressives went ballistic. They have spoken of regulating social media. They have consistently decried the lack of traditional civility in the use of these media by the President. The biggest threat to the Progressives and their control of information technology is the narrative of fake news, which has proven to be true, which the President has promulgated using this uncontrolled media.
This loss of power is so terrifying to the the Progressives, that they have now taken the chance that people will not see that they are complaining about the use of their own tactics and strategies against them.
Touche!
They also used it to destroy the “family unit.”
Nobody’s brain is ‘controlled’ by a tweet. People can, however, be persuaded by any form of communication. That is Lakoff’s real objection: DJT’s tweets have a point, and people get them. Lakoff merely resents DJT’s ability to get his points across.
Trump “has the power to control tens of millions of brains via tweets”
As if the media don’t have “the power to control tens of millions of brains via newscasts”
So …… they’re jealous?
Controlling minds through language is SO the territory of the left.
Next big word/phrase that Lackoff needs to learn: Dunning Kruger.
Lot of that going around.
“Embeds them into the brains of millions of people
Ah, I thought this parody of the Yale LOL forsenic psychologist who just made her profession a laughing stock.
But no, it appears that another one wants to stick his fork in the outlet.
Hey go on maybe something different will happen from last time. go ahead
Yeah … Turnip does … but only it they went to Berkeley or a school like it … or were raised by someone who did …