23 May

The Overton Window of public discussion. Debates are 'framed' (I use that word a lot - this is why). Ideas that get listened to have to be within a 'window' around that acceptable-sensible part of the continuum. From there they can become popular, and then policy. Extremists discovered in the 1950s that they could take unthinkable new ideas, and push them into the Overton window, as shown in the diagram. They set up think tanks, media networks and shock jocks, to discuss the unthinkable and radical ideas. These seep into the mainstream (through outrage at first), where they get discussed as outrageous. But this discussion is what gradually opens the window to them, normalises them. This is also key to Trump's strategy for electoral success. And why the SKY news, Daily Teles and 2GBs of the world run outrage journalism 24 hours a day, to relentlessly widen this window. People who believe in the 'political centre' are the people who open the window for the extremists, as the whole idea of the Overton window is to shift extreme views into the mainstream, by constantly moving the centre.