I’ve casually followed his predictions about Trump. It’s so silly.
Far Away From Election when Trump is the #1 news story every day — Trump will win because he is using advanced persuasion techniques!
Post Khan Debacle once Trump is getting beaten badly in polls and looks unelectable—Hillary has now started using advanced persuasion techniques! That is why she has come back! (Hedging...)
Polls Tighten — Trump is back to using advanced persuasion techniques!
Um. No. Sounds like phlogiston to me.
At any rate, Adams is the winner here. I’d never heard of the guy who wrote Dilbert. Now I’ve probably visited his blog 50 times in the last year and clicked around a bit. I’m sure he’s sold plenty of books because of his predictions on the election.
Prediction: After the election, Adams will say this whole “Trump will win” gambit was just a meta advanced persuasion project he’d been running on all of his readers. This fact people believed Trump had special powers was proof that Adams is a Master Persuader. (Unless Trump actually wins...then Adams will say “See! I knew it all along!”) Win. Win. For Adams.
Has there been a description of what specific advanced persuasion techniques Trump has been using? Or why they work powerfully on some people and not others?
Again I only casually follow it, but from what I’ve read of his blog, he explains the phenomenon of Trump in terms of people’s irrationality and Trump’s ability to manipulate them. And then he gives example after example of how Trump does this.
Half of voters are dumber than average. Trump isn’t shy about appealing to them. Or showing respect to them. Their votes count too. “I love the poorly educated.”
It drives Republican Bow Ties insane; they’re more attached to their Bow Ties than winning elections.
I think Trump scores highly on showing respect and solidarity to voters. He attacks individuals, and he attacks non voters, but he respects all voters.
Hillary
I’m with Her.
Basket of Deplorables.
Trump
I’m with You. I’m your Voice.
I respect all of you, even if you don’t vote for me.
I love Xs.
I think Trump scores highly on showing respect and solidarity to voters. He attacks individuals, and he attacks non voters, but he respects all voters.
That seems like an interesting statement. I don’t think Muslim or hispanic voters feel like Trump respects them. You can take many statements of him as sign that he doesn’t respect woman.
Saying that he thinks that prisoners of war aren’t heros, is something that many soldiers would take as disrespecting the troops if it would come from any other candidate.
I guess he fails to respect literally everyone, but he shows respect to enough people who are traditionally disrespected by politicians of both parties.
In other words, instead of the “I am better than you” signalling game, he focuses on the game of getting votes. Most politicians play a mix of both games. (Which is probably better in long term. If Trump happens to lose this election, his chances are gone. On the other hand, if Hillary loses, she can still run for the president 4 years later.)
Adams switches between several claims (which are not incompatible). One claim is that Clinton often screws up, while Trump virtually never does. Maybe Trump only uses basic techniques, but if Clinton and the well-funded primary opponents fail to use even the basics, that’s an interesting fact about the world. And by screwing up, he doesn’t mean failing to engineer statements, but own-goals. Another claim is that Trump’s techniques are more advanced than Adams’s own techniques, but he can’t communicate the difference to people who don’t already have a solid grounding (so he doesn’t try). Adams is good enough to recognize the greatness but not produce it. And Trump tests lines at his rallies to get even better results. A third claim is that Trump is good on his feet (Adams always gives the example of the Rosie O’Donnell response). Maybe Clinton can hire someone to write killer tweets, but she’ll be outmatched at the debates.
I don’t mean to endorse any of these claims, but they seem like reasonable possibilities and what the world would look like under his general claim.
It’s interesting how Scott Adams thought about how making the successful prediction about Trump provides him the opportunity to get huge value.
I’ve casually followed his predictions about Trump. It’s so silly.
Far Away From Election when Trump is the #1 news story every day — Trump will win because he is using advanced persuasion techniques!
Post Khan Debacle once Trump is getting beaten badly in polls and looks unelectable—Hillary has now started using advanced persuasion techniques! That is why she has come back! (Hedging...)
Polls Tighten — Trump is back to using advanced persuasion techniques!
Um. No. Sounds like phlogiston to me.
At any rate, Adams is the winner here. I’d never heard of the guy who wrote Dilbert. Now I’ve probably visited his blog 50 times in the last year and clicked around a bit. I’m sure he’s sold plenty of books because of his predictions on the election.
Prediction: After the election, Adams will say this whole “Trump will win” gambit was just a meta advanced persuasion project he’d been running on all of his readers. This fact people believed Trump had special powers was proof that Adams is a Master Persuader. (Unless Trump actually wins...then Adams will say “See! I knew it all along!”) Win. Win. For Adams.
Has there been a description of what specific advanced persuasion techniques Trump has been using? Or why they work powerfully on some people and not others?
See this at 41 minutes.
That link isn’t working.
Yes. Ad nauseum.
Example.
Related WaPo article.
Again I only casually follow it, but from what I’ve read of his blog, he explains the phenomenon of Trump in terms of people’s irrationality and Trump’s ability to manipulate them. And then he gives example after example of how Trump does this.
Thank you. I’m not sure that Trump’s techniques are all that advanced, but maybe the difference is that he’s more thorough in applying them.
Trumps scores very highly on what I would call “holding the frame”. He uses very simple language in an enviroment where most people wouldn’t.
Half of voters are dumber than average. Trump isn’t shy about appealing to them. Or showing respect to them. Their votes count too. “I love the poorly educated.”
It drives Republican Bow Ties insane; they’re more attached to their Bow Ties than winning elections.
I think Trump scores highly on showing respect and solidarity to voters. He attacks individuals, and he attacks non voters, but he respects all voters.
Hillary I’m with Her. Basket of Deplorables.
Trump I’m with You. I’m your Voice. I respect all of you, even if you don’t vote for me. I love Xs.
That seems like an interesting statement. I don’t think Muslim or hispanic voters feel like Trump respects them. You can take many statements of him as sign that he doesn’t respect woman.
Saying that he thinks that prisoners of war aren’t heros, is something that many soldiers would take as disrespecting the troops if it would come from any other candidate.
I guess he fails to respect literally everyone, but he shows respect to enough people who are traditionally disrespected by politicians of both parties.
In other words, instead of the “I am better than you” signalling game, he focuses on the game of getting votes. Most politicians play a mix of both games. (Which is probably better in long term. If Trump happens to lose this election, his chances are gone. On the other hand, if Hillary loses, she can still run for the president 4 years later.)
That isn’t necessarily true. He can still run another time. He can still run on what Hillary did wrong and on how she stole his election.
Adams switches between several claims (which are not incompatible). One claim is that Clinton often screws up, while Trump virtually never does. Maybe Trump only uses basic techniques, but if Clinton and the well-funded primary opponents fail to use even the basics, that’s an interesting fact about the world. And by screwing up, he doesn’t mean failing to engineer statements, but own-goals. Another claim is that Trump’s techniques are more advanced than Adams’s own techniques, but he can’t communicate the difference to people who don’t already have a solid grounding (so he doesn’t try). Adams is good enough to recognize the greatness but not produce it. And Trump tests lines at his rallies to get even better results. A third claim is that Trump is good on his feet (Adams always gives the example of the Rosie O’Donnell response). Maybe Clinton can hire someone to write killer tweets, but she’ll be outmatched at the debates.
I don’t mean to endorse any of these claims, but they seem like reasonable possibilities and what the world would look like under his general claim.