The most powerful word in the English language is BECAUSE.
After witnessing the trouncing of facts, logic, and reason in last Tuesday’s primary election, it’s time to take a hard look at what it’s going to take to convince Chicago’s voters that things should be better. While there is no panacea, the bottom line is that messaging matters.
Ben Shapiro is famous for always saying, “Facts don’t care about your feelings.” Unfortunately, facts are not terribly persuasive.
Whether greater or lesser known, Scott Adams more accurately told us that, “Feelings don’t care about your facts.” What Scott was trying to tell us is that, feelings are more persuasive than facts.
If you want to persuade people to vote for you, they need to feel good about it. And it’s time that right-thinking Chicagoans wrap their heads around this fact: in every battle of feelings, democrats win.
You cannot fight human nature. People come with some pretty big feelings. And when left unchecked, feelings will dominate over facts every time. What Mr. Adams was really saying – and modern psychology has proven – is that humans are not rational creatures. Instead, we are rationalizing animals. That is to say, we observe the world before us and then rationalize what we see to match our feelings.
Thinking people see this every day in the language of the modern Chicago liberal. Pay attention and you’ll notice sentences (full paragraphs even) loaded with feelings and absent of any facts. Lots of platitudes about “helping” and “enabling” and “building” but not a lot details about the results.
For the modern liberal, it is the intentions that matter, not the results. However, as grandma used to say, “The road to hell is paved with good intentions.” And that’s exactly where Chicago’s leftists’ best of intentions have gotten us.
It’s important to understand that Chicago’s politicians are not deliberately attempting to ruin the city. They are simply following their – however misguided – good intentions. This is true even for the most ardent communist among them.
Brandon Johnson does not wake up in the morning thinking to himself, ‘How can I condemn Chicago’s black kids to a life of poverty?’ He does however let his feelings govern his actions regardless of the consequences. Later, when the results of his actions don’t match his intentions, he has a moment of cognitive dissonance. But then his brain rationalizes the result by blaming Trump, or racism, or both. Crisis averted. Big feelings intact. Intentions justified. He quietly tells himself, ‘I am a good man doing the right thing.’ His brain gives itself a hit of dopamine to solidify the memory. Meanwhile 50% of the kids can’t read and several hundred get shot every year.
This is the mental process employed by every leftist and communist not only here in Chicago but nationally and globally. Further, because they have deftly trained their brain to overcome this cognitive dissonance it happens automatically, without them even thinking about it. Inconvenient facts pose as much of a challenge to Brandon Johnson as a marble does a garbage truck.
Liberals, like everyone else, simply want to feel good. That, in and of itself is not necessarily a character flaw. But it becomes an issue when an individual is unable to recognize the consequence of their actions. This ability to rationalize any facts that make them uncomfortable poses, as demonstrated, a serious threat to society.
BECAUSE is the brain’s connector between action and consequence.
Like a four-year-old constantly asking why… what comes after the BECAUSE matters. It’s human nature. We have to know.
The liberal mind understands this innately. They use BECAUSE all the time. But if you listen carefully, you will notice that everything that comes after the BECAUSE is either a platitude or simply incorrect.
“Whether he was fighting for civil rights, labor rights, or to end forever wars, Reverend Jesse Jackson’s ties to Chicago, and why Chicago has come to love him, is because he understood that everybody is somebody.”
“Our city is richer and more vibrant because of the talent, diversity, and unique experiences refugee communities bring to our Welcoming City.”
“The president is targeting cities like Chicago because he can’t defend what he’s done to the economy.”
— Mayor Brandon Johnson
If one engages in the argument against “everybody is somebody” they will lose. Every time. Guaranteed. It is an incredible platitude meaning nothing. But ordinary republicans will regularly enter the milieu and argue against such things where, like a dog chasing its tail, facts and logic do not apply.
We saw this recently in the arguments surrounding illegal migrants. While right-thinking people were talking about the letter of the law everyone on the left was shouting “everybody is somebody”. Liberals trusted their feelings.
BECAUSE is the brain’s nexus between feeling and logic.
If you want to convince anyone of anything you need to appeal to their feelings first. The logic comes later. That is, until you have cracked through the feelings barrier “feelings don’t care about your facts.”
So how do we crack through the feelings barrier?
You have to use the word BECAUSE.
Consider a reporter asking the mayor, “Since Sheridan Gorman was murdered BECAUSE of your continued policies will Chicago repeal its sanctuary city ordinance right away or are you going to wait until more of your citizens are murdered?”
[Psychologically there is more going on in that question than this author can explain in this time and space. There is a presumptive action, presumptive close, and a false choice that if explained completely would turn this into a treatise. Let’s just say it’s a fully loaded question and leave it at that.]
First the mayor’s brain will reset. You will witness the face of someone experiencing extreme cognitive dissonance. But then, after his brain runs over the marble, he will either deny reality itself “there is no connection” or attack the reporter “you racist.” But either way, it will most likely be quite explosive as big feelings don’t deflate easily. No matter how the mayor responds, he says something foolish.
Other politicians and members of the media should be questioned similarly. Give no quarter. Take no prisoners.
And therein lies the main reason why right-thinking people do not question the illogical liberals appropriately. We simply don’t want to deal with the anger and vitriol that comes with confronting idiocy with the consequence of its actions. However the time for passivity is past. Too much is at stake. It’s now or never.
If you’re not taking flak, you’re not over the target.
Let’s see if we can find a couple other examples.
There are rules regarding peaceful protesting BECAUSE when the protest is over we want everyone to get home safely.
Now who can argue with that? If you don’t want everyone to get home safely then you are not peacefully protesting.
Resisting arrest is a crime BECAUSE police officers are not judges and we don’t want them to be. Go peacefully. Let the judge figure it out. You will have your say and your day of justice. And if the police acted unreasonably you will get your recompense.
How about a few more?
Giving anyone a break feels good. Letting criminals out on bail to be part of society makes leftists feel like they’re doing something to help the poor unfortunate souls. Then, when habitual offenders continue to perpetrate additional random acts of violence, liberals refuse to acknowledge that they’re the cause. They need to be told.
Someone needs to tell the governor, Bethany MaGee was set on fire on a Chicago el platform BECAUSE of the liberal policies you and people like you support.
The DMV should not give drivers licenses to illegal aliens BECAUSE it reduces wages for hardworking Americans.
The DMV should not give drivers licenses to people who are not fluent in English BECAUSE it threatens the safety of everyone on the road.
Take note that this methodology is not reserved for politicians. Actually, politicians are not really the problem. The real problem is the voters who keep electing these idiots into office. Thankfully this methodology works on everyone.
For psychological reasons (which we are not getting into here) humans are notoriously herd animals. So if you want to change anyone’s mind you have to break them out of the herd. In order to do this you have to bring back shame. You need to shame their herd. (Remember “a basket of deplorables”?)
With a little bit of practice you will start thinking in terms of BECAUSE and your arguments will be much more persuasive. It might prove to be too little too late BECAUSE the city is so far gone. But the best we can do is try.
