22 February

One of the problems I see with most ‘causes’ is that they end up sounding like whining. They sound complaining and defensive. Most causes have every good reason to complain about something, but as a rhetorical device complaining or whining is usually ineffective because you’re adopting the same ‘framing’ of the issue as the person you’re complaining about. And so they win, they already set up your role in the discussion, as a whiny complainer. I said a similar thing to a female work colleague, who was incensed at an email from a very senior manager that was full of untruths and accusations. She’d drafted a point-by-point response to the accusations. I suggested not doing that, it would just come across as defensive and whiny. Instead reframe the issue, so that in the most polite and powerful way her response would be actually denying the entire framing of what had happened. Adopt a confident and calm assurance, rather than play the role they set up for you and their framing of what happened. Progressive politics has been doing this across every issue for decades, thinking rebutting accusations from the lunatic Right in lovely factual ways is powerful. It isn’t, it’s playing the game by their rules. These are basic rules of rhetoric, an Ancient Greek invention. Everything in life is persuasion.