Progressives tend to assume change comes from 'bringing the crowd along' in endless discussions. But major…

Progressives tend to assume change comes from 'bringing the crowd along' in endless discussions. But major change comes when things 'go viral'. Rapid imitative behaviour, where large numbers of people get behind a cause, seen as a rival to another group with its own cause. /1 https://t.co/8b6aOYdSya

The 'team sports' I often Tweet about. 95% of a group will imitate/emulate 5% of the people in a group, and quickly. Driven by the desire to challenge another group they see as their enemy. Why Peter Dutton et al replace public policy with picking fights. 'Culture wars'. /2

They know it galvanises large numbers of people, extremely rapidly. Going for small modular nukes (which don't exist) will really smash the 'Greenies'. That sort of thing, usually unsaid. If good people want to change society back to sanity, they'll need to think the same. /3

You need manias, metaphorical 'gold rushes' that cause a mass movement of passion towards some imitative rivalry. We already do it with housing, the desire to get rich quick and have a higher status than next door. You need to engineer FIGHTS. Skilfully. /4

To transform your issue - like Covid or climate - into a team sport, where people want to join your team to bash the other team. The other team being a caricature of actual people and their beliefs, a comic book, strawman enemy. Progressives (rightly) find that distasteful. /5

Because overdo it and you engineer social collapse. Nothing but fights, team sports. But we're heading there anyway, by only one side doing this. We desperately need to counterbalance their crap. /end