https://metaphorproject.org/tools/american-breakthrough-language/

https://metaphorproject.org/tools/

We will still publish blogs on topics of major concern from time to time, of course.  But the speed at which events and breaking news happen today, and the shortness of most people’s attention span make this change necessary.

We will still publish blogs on topics of major concern from time to time, of course.  But the speed at which events and breaking news happen today, and the shortness of most people’s attention span make this change necessary.

First of all, there are those who 1. believe the climate crisis is real, but fear social, familial, and professional ostracism if they even say the words “climate change” or “human-caused climate change.” 2. They are usually surrounded by people who have been misled into believing it’s all a hoax by their peers, religious leaders, news sources, fossil fuel industry lies, and Congressional representatives. 3. Next come people whose financial and/or professional prospects depend in the near future on the fossil fuel industry doing well financially—industry executives, institutional investors and so on. 4. Add politicians dependent on the fossil fuel industry for political contributions and jobs in their districts. 5. Then there are whole countries whose economies are heavily dependent on fossil fuel sales—Saudi Arabia, Russia, the U.S., among others. (Don’t spend any time wondering why Putin has lassoed Trump and the GOP—Russia needs oil and gas sales, and the GOP serves the global fossil fuel industry!) Russia and all the other fossil fuel dependent states need to do what they can to keep fostering the global energy economy we have now, the one that still runs heavily on fossil fuels.

A depressingly long list, isn’t it? And you probably knew about them all. But we can’t begin to think clearly and strategically about effective framing aimed at the #ClimateHoldouts unless we see the whole picture at once. It’s good to think about how to appeal to each of these different audiences, but until we have a pretty broad across the board consensus, we are still heading straight into the final fire on this planet.

What could create powerful top-down leverage to complement the grass roots push up that is growing everyday, all over the world? In general “bottom up” strategies are moving ahead right now, because at the local level people are starting to see and feel economically devastating #ClimateDamage. But while piecemeal regional, state and local action is vital and necessary, by itself it’s too slow for the late hour we’re in now. We all know it. We must have the kind of national and international leverage that can move us all very fast toward the changed energy economy we need for life to survive on this planet. We need business CEOs, whole industry sectors, and international institutions like the IMF, the World Bank, and the World Economic Forum on board, all rowing in the same direction. These are the powers that can move national political parties and ultimately national governments to do the right thing. They are also the ones who can swiftly change the idea of what is and what is not acceptable, even for ordinary non-tycoon #ClimateHoldouts.

How do you bring something like that to pass? Sometimes it takes a determined whistle-blower, a battle of business titans to do it, and a new opportunity to make money, plus a catchy frame to raise broad public awareness. Two examples come to mind: the way we got Detroit to include seat belts in cars, and the way we got an international accord to phase out chlorofluorocarbons. In the seat belt case, Ralph Nader was the whistleblower with his 1965 book, Unsafe at any Speed, and insurance companies lobbied for seat belt laws, prevailing over reluctant auto manufacturers. The catchy frame was, of course, “unsafe at any speed.” The American public always wants safety. As for the chlorofluorocarbons, the whistle-blowers were two scientists, Sherry Rowland and Mario Moline, who published a 1974 article about the damage they caused, and by 1978 the EPA banned commercial manufacturing and use of CFCs and aerosol propellants in the U.S. However, DuPont lobbied against the ban and any further regulation until 1986 when they got a patent for a substitute. Then they too began lobbying for a total ban on chlorofluorocarbons, aided by the famous “hole in the ozone” that was discovered in 1987. There you have the new profit incentive and the catchy frame. That “hole in the ozone” frame was actually a metaphor for the serious damage taking place, not a literal scientific description. But the idea of a “hole” in our atmosphere was deeply alarming to people.

We will need something as powerful as that to catalyze turning the #ClimateCrisis around. And it will have to be “nonpartisan.” Even Greta was recently quoted as saying this. Right now of course everything in the U.S. seems partisan, so it’s hard to imagine such a phrase. We also need something everyone can understand.  Right now the most universal idea in the U.S. and the world is the importance of making a profit or increasing sales or the fear of failing to do it. So here are some trial frames: “In the ‘20’s #ClimateSafeProfits will grow; #ClimateDamageCosts will explode.”   Another way to frame it could be this: “In the ‘20’s let’s grow ClimateSafeProfits and cut #ClimateDamageCosts.” American audiences fear costs and still love safety.  If we can make these frames or even better ones like them go viral, our language can increase public pressure on all the #ClimateHoldouts, whoever they are.  As for the whistle-blowers, we’ve had plenty of those already. The only other thing we need now is the battle of business titans.

If you think that the titans of global finance will just laugh these phrases off at first, that’s probably true. But deep down in their guts they will know it’s true. They also know that the rest of the world won’t drag its feet to start making even more #ClimateSafeProfits, especially China. And they know that some of their own financial leaders already see fossil fuel investments as “stranded assets,” that is worthless  very soon. BlackRock, a leading manager of investment funds, has announced new environmental sustainability criteria for investments and started a fund that focuses on long term business value. A few days later Chris Hohn, CEO of the $30 billion hedge fund, TCI Fund Management, announced he is pressuring the boards of companies the fund invests in to fire CEOs who don’t make “credible” emission reduction plans. If they don’t, Hohn says, TCI will sell its shares. The SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) has granted permission for a new “long term” stock exchange to counter the frenetic, short-term, and destructive effects of today’s form of capitalism. Individual companies like Microsoft are taking action to become more sustainable, and business leaders like  Marc Benioff, chief executive of SalesForce just described capitalism as we know it today as dead in his Davos 2020 call for a new “stakeholder capitalism.” Moreover, the EIB, the European Investment Bank, has already announced they will be making no more fossil fuel investments after the end of 2021. I know—it’s easy to be cynical about all this and to feel that it is too little too late or just green wash, but calls for new regulations and taxes also sound unrealistic in the face of the government we have. At least some of these business entities are talking the correct talk and even taking some actions. That trend is likely to snowball faster than turning all of DC blue overnight. In fact, the financial industry has the power to bring the fossil fuel industry to its knees and move politicians too; our job is to egg the financial industry on. And talking about #ClimateSafeProfits and #ClimateDamageCosts is a good way to get more of the public pushing the finance titans. So let’s all get at it!
——————————-

Susan C. Strong, Ph.D., is the Founder and Executive Director of The Metaphor Project, http://www.metaphorproject.org, and author of our book, Move Our Message: How to Get America’s Ear.  The Metaphor Project has been helping progressives mainstream their messages since 1997. Follow Susan on Twitter @SusanCStrong, on The Metaphor Project on Facebook, and check out her TEDx talk too.

Want to comment on this post? Please go to one of the following sites where my pages have comment capability. Thanks!

http://opednews.com/author/author14224.html

http://www.dailykos.com/user/SusanCStrong 

Let’s start with the “the red button.” When Trump was elected in 2016, one of the things that people feared the most was that he would be the one to push to “push the red button.”  Given the fact that he asked his campaign advisors that very year about the possibility of using our nukes, this was a reasonable fear. When he was told it would be a big mistake, his answer, “Then why do we have them?” did not reassure anyone.  However, the risk of Trump himself setting off a nuclear exchange is   overshadowed by a deliberately hidden reality. As Daniel Ellsberg revealed in his 2017 book, The Doomsday Machine, many military officers in the two biggest nuclear- armed countries actually have red buttons of their own.  You could describe the situation as “a red button in every silo.”   Ellsberg shows that this far-flung delegation was  deliberately concealed from Congress, the American public, and the   entire world.  All of these red buttons are always “on,” not just the one in the White House. That’s hair trigger alert on—“launch on warning.”  Push one by mistake, and there is no going back, no time to check the actual source of an apparent threat or to think twice. There have already been many nuclear close ones over the years since the 1940’s, including one triggered by a flight of Canada geese.

But there’s another equally dangerous nuclear metaphor out there. That’s the phrase “nuclear winter.”  What’s wrong with that? I’m a veteran of the anti-nuclear protests back in the 1980’s. I understand the power of the phrase in its original time. But things have changed. Today the most powerful Armageddon image in the public mind is our global ecosystem destroyed by fossil fuels. In that context, talking about nuclear “winter” is a mistake. “Winter” usually evokes something temporary in people’s minds, followed by “spring.” Even worse, the Chernobyl area where the Russian nuclear power plant melted down is well-known to be harboring some life now, however compromised.  Entrepreneurs are beginning to promote tourist visits to it. But the idea that any kind of “spring” would follow a nuclear exchange is false.  It would also risk a full-scale nuclear war.  The effect of a modern nuclear war anywhere on earth would be omnicide, given the way wind moves in our atmosphere. #NukeDoomsday = omnicide, not just “winter.”  

So while we’re demanding that our presidential candidates address the climate emergency, we must also say: “Talk about how you plan to stop a #NukeDoomsday! This is urgent right now, because    nuclear restraint is rapidly breaking down, amid sharply rising international tensions.  Trump and Putin destroyed the INF treaty, amid mutual charges of cheating on it. Our government is going ahead with new types of nuclear weapons, including the infamous “battlefield” type.  And The Russians have announced that underwater nuclear drones will be placed on their new class of giant subs.  Plus the North Koreans just launched a new, nuclear missile capable submarine.

What do we want our candidates to promise to do? In The Doomsday Machine, Ellsberg lays out a wish list of initial risk reduction actions the U.S. should take.  These steps, he says, would not compromise basic nuclear deterrence. They are:  1. Take our own nuclear weapons off hair trigger alert, inviting all nuclear-armed nations to follow suit 2. Stop building even more devastating new types of nuclear weapons.  3. Declare a policy of no first use.  In addition, we should restart nuclear weapons reduction negotiations with the Russians and with Iran over their new enrichment steps.

Number 1, taking our nuclear weapons off hair trigger alert would buy precious time in a crisis. It would address the most shocking revelation in Ellsberg’s book: that the power to launch is widely delegated throughout a far-flung network, which, like all things human, is dangerously subject to human error.  In the meantime, we must start birddogging our candidates and legislators about the “red button” and  “nuclear winter” myths now, using language that tells the truth about the risks we actually face: a red button in every silo and instant nuclear omnicide: #NukeDoomsday.
————————
Susan C. Strong, Ph.D., is the Founder and Executive Director of The Metaphor Project, http://www.metaphorproject.org, and author of our book, Move Our Message: How to Get America’s Ear.  The Metaphor Project has been helping progressives mainstream their messages since 1997. Follow Susan on Twitter @SusanCStrong, check out her TEDx talk, and like, follow & review The Metaphor Project on Facebook.

Want to comment on this post? Please go to one of the following sites where my pages have comment capability. Thanks!

http://opednews.com/author/author14224.html

http://www.dailykos.com/user/SusanCStrong 

So far the debates have demonstrated the tendency of Democrats to rely heavily on policy talk (or bickering) in promoting themselves. Of course we do want to know what they propose if elected.  But when October 2020 rolls around, and more people are paying attention, it will likely be candidate charisma and the official 2020 Democratic campaign slogan that matters the most. More than ever now, people need shorthand. That’s why I’m suggesting “Move America Forward!,” without any negative follow up phrases beginning with “not.”

Though some political analysis suggests that going negative in a campaign works, I think this election is an exception. We are already so deep in negative territory all the time now. People are already so outraged and depressed that they don’t need to hear more bad news. They need hope and something to dream about again.  True, they should hear exactly what candidates plan to do about everything, from jobs, fair pay, healthcare, climate safety, immigration, and all the rest.  But when the real campaign is on, even those policy ideas need to be expressed as very succinct slogans.  (To get even more help in generating ideas for these, please visit the full complement of Metaphor Project tools and resources found on our site. Check out our primer, the American Framing Steps, too.) It isn’t too early for activists to start working on their own issue slogans.  Research shows that politicians often end up adopting language that was first generated by activists well-briefed on an issue. This is especially true of activists who are open to framing their messages in a way Americans can easily get.

And don’t hesitate to try to improve on my main campaign slogan suggestion, “Move America Forward!”  Just be sure you test all your own creations against our Criteria for Successful Mainstream Framing. (For ideas about how to counter GOP/Trump issue framing, see my newly updated blog,
“Springing the GOP Trap.”) Let’s win in 2020 everywhere we can, by going positive and “speaking American” ourselves!  Pass it on!
———————————
Susan C. Strong, Ph.D., is the Founder and Executive Director of The Metaphor Project, http://www.metaphorproject.org, and author of our book, Move Our Message: How to Get America’s Ear.  The Metaphor Project has been helping progressives mainstream their messages since 1997. Follow Susan on Twitter @SusanCStrong, check out her TEDx talk, and like, follow & review The Metaphor Project on Facebook.

Want to comment on this post? Please go to one of the following sites where my pages have comment capability. Thanks!

http://opednews.com/author/author14224.html 

http://www.dailykos.com/user/SusanCStrong 

These days every morning brings a new shock to the republic, as Mr. Trump and the GOP drive Americans into bigger and bigger traps. Trump’s most outrageous caper yet, the federal shutdown over his ignorant and ineffective steel wall, is just another case in point. But even if Trump is ultimately impeached or decides to resign, retiring to rest on his laurels as the biggest conman of all time, we are still in trouble today, tomorrow and in 2020. What kind of trouble? Besides still having a GOP senate and VP? I mean message framing trouble.

Of course, Democratic and progressive slogans must convey our commitment to the best American values. But there are all kinds of ways to do that and also to make a mess of doing that. So I’m going to suggest a special verbal strategy to apply and some slogan-forming pitfalls to avoid, starting right now. (Basic tools and resources for implementing these suggestions can be found at Metaphorproject.org).Because the Right has long been smarter and quicker about following the most effective framing rules, it often falls to the Left to try to try to counter frame what they’ve already launched. What is counter-framing? It’s the technique of countering a Right wing sound bite with a more effective “truth bite” of our own. There are three main methods for doing this. (In what follows I’ve supplied examples of successful versions from the past, and a suggestion or two we might use or tweak now.)

Some Counter-framing Rules of Thumb

If a GOP sound bite or phrase evokes a familiar American story, one that implies a commonly accepted set of moral or social values (among some quarters anyway), you can do one of three things:

1. Come up with your own phrase or metaphor to evoke a different, but equally familiar American story, one that implies your set of moral values.
2. You can tweak their phrase in a meaningful way, by changing it just enough to evoke a different but equally familiar American story. It should be one that implies a set of moral values that will carry your message. This technique is a bit riskier, because the tweak must create a genuinely different feel than the GOP sound bite. Too close to the original and you are just helping the Right
   by reminding everyone of what they already said, not what you want to convey.
3. The third method involves creating a brand new combination of frames. This method is often used for calling attention to issues still outside much public awareness.

Some Counter-framing Rules of Thumb

1. Come up with your own phrase or metaphor to evoke a different, but equally familiar American story, one that implies your set of moral values.

My first example comes from January 2010. Just as the fight over financial reform was getting started, I could see the Right’s “regulations destroy business/jobs etc.” frame coming.  I feared that Democrats would also start talking about “regulation,” in which case the fight would be lost before it started.  So I suggested a different, but equally familiar counter frame: “rules.” I said “Say ‘rules,’ not regulation.” Although some people might have already been saying “rules” before this suggestion got out there, the use of “rules” instead of “regulation” went viral on our side after that. The story “rules” tells, of course, is about everybody “playing by the same rules,” or “playing by the rule of law.” It may start as a sports metaphor, but it’s one the Left can love, because of the moral values it implies. This frame is still very powerful in 2019, especially since the GOP, Trump, and his swamp crawlers in the cabinet are working overtime to destroy all the rules that protect our health and safety. For example, you can say now: “Restore the rules that keep our #water(air, soil, etc.) sources clean! Stop #Trump’s EPA giveaway to #CorporatePolluters!” Americans are especially strong on things being clean.

2. You can tweak their phrases in a meaningful way, by changing them just enough to evoke a different but equally familiar American story.

A dramatic example of counter-framing a Right wing slogan by tweaking it comes from the summer of 2006. At the time the Right’s Iraq War mantra, “stay the course,” seemed stuck in everyone’s brains. We couldn’t seem to find our way out of it, so to speak. One or two attempts by Democrats to launch a tweak of it about six months earlier had failed. But in July of 2006 we got lucky. For a large coalition of peace organizations that was getting ready to launch a fall campaign, I suggested using the phrase “change course.” I also invited people to come up with their own versions of it. Many did, when that frame started to go viral. It suddenly spread like wildfire through the punditry, the press, and the politicians. In the end, it gave General Petraeus cover to change his strategy in Iraq, from shooting Iraqi chieftains to paying them to help us, a better idea, anyway, in the middle of a really bad war. This example also illustrates another principle of counter-framing: getting lucky with the moment you launch your tweaked phrase. A lot of factors combined to make the first week in July, 2006 the right moment.

Right now this frame, change course, might work for what Trump and the GOP need to do: change course! It’s an example of a metaphor that provides a name for a way out of the Trump trap we’re all in right now, including the President. To win, Trump needs to change course! How about we make it easy for him to be smart, change course and save face? Of course, saying no to mafia style hostage-taking shutdowns is essential. And proposing 21st century alternatives to a steel wall is good. But Trump doesn’t pay attention to policy details. So how about we give him a kind of “wall “that could look like an out to him: Say: “Mr. President: Change course and win! Choose a HIGH TECH  #SmartWALL” to spot ALL illegal entries: by land,
air, or sea!”

3. The third method involves creating a new sound bite of your own, by combining two familiar terms not usually seen together. This is especially useful for framing issues unfamiliar to some parts of the American public.

To use this method, combine two words or phrases that are already part of the American values lexicon, in a completely new way. Some notable recent examples include the phrases “marriage equality” and “gun safety.” Marriage is still highly regarded in the U.S., and of course, equality is a fundamental American value, even if we don’t make it happen very much in reality. The success of the “gun safety” example comes from applying the phrase to broad issues of gun legislation, far, far beyond its original use in classes on handling gun operation safely. However, Americans prize safety about as much as cleanliness. And the phrase framed gun reform legislation in a much more effective way than by calling it “gun control.”
(Americans don’t like ‘control’!.) The real beauty of it was that all responsible gun owners understand the safety idea and could accept it because it was already part of their world.

So what type of new phrasing could we create to help us out right now? Here’s one that applies: “Mr.President, stop #TrainWreckShutdowns! Keep America on track!”  Recently many people have used the “train wreck” image about our recent shutdown in long sentences. But phrasing it as a single, succinct phrase combined with the familiar “on track” political metaphor makes the “train wreck”a lot more literal. The combination raises the energy of both images. We could also say: “Congress, stop #TrainWreckShutdowns! Keep America on track!” as Mitch McConnell and other legislators are reported to be considering bipartisan legislation to keep the government funded, no matter what.Encouraging them all to make it happen seems like a really good idea.

What can you invent? Put it out there on social media to see if it flies! But do pay attention to the following tips!

Some Warnings about typical Left Framing Traps

There are three big slogan framing traps the Left falls into on a regular basis.

1. Using the “x is not y” formula. Examples of this formula are “Corporations are not people,” and “Money is not speech.”  First of all, modern cognitive science has shown that people seldom hear or take in the “not.” So what you are doing is actually reminding them that “corporations are people,” and “money is speech.” This is exactly what Professor Lakoff meant when he wrote Don’t Think of an Elephant. Moreover, the “x is not y” formula is a dangerous void for two more reasons: a) it is negative and doesn’t suggest another idea or what to do instead, and b) it uses the verbs “is/are,” which are just equals signs—no action, no life, no color, no effectiveness and no leadership either.
2. Measly tweaks that just remind hearers of the original phrase. For a long time I’ve watched in horror as the Left repeated  “Obamacare” over and over, perhaps rebelliously oblivious to the fact that the word actually calls up strong resistance in many Americans. Then some people on the Left started saying “Obama cares” instead. But just try saying that out loud at normal conversational speed. Can you tell the difference? No, you can’t. This is a measly tweak that does more harm than good. Much better was a different phrase that came next: “I love Obamacare.” (It’s stronger than “I like Obamacare.”) That format makes a clear change in the meaning. But best of all: just say the Affordable Care Act!

3. Turning a tin ear to the public sense of a word or phrase, and talking only to
   ourselves, in “Leftspeak.” My best example of this is “single payer.” When people ask me about this phrase, my answer has always been, “You mean ‘unmarried payer’?”They get it when I say that. Medicare for All is vastly better. Everyone knows what Medicare is. However, because there are now so many versions of Medicare for All, it’s now vital to make the proposal you favor specific: “Medicare for All:Buy-in,” “Medicare for All +50,” “Free Medicare for All,” and so on. Think Americans will take the time to pore over your favorite candidate’s Medicare for All platform details? Think again: if you can’t say it clearly in one breath, your idea is doomed and it will destroy the candidate you favor too. (These sentences were added on 7/06/19.)Whatever you decide to do about framing your messages, best of luck! Our country desperately needs better progressive messaging right now and in the crucial years to come!

Want to comment on this post? Please go to one of the following sites where my pages have comment capability. Thanks!

http://opednews.com/author/author14224.html 

http://www.dailykos.com/user/SusanCStrong 

As most Americans understand our freedom, it’s about our rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But the deeply corrupt #AltGOP now in control of the White House, Senate, and Supreme Court aims to violate these and our other basic constitutional rights. Their agenda includes attacking the right to free speech, both personal and in the media. They are challenging our freedom of religion, which should mean no attacks on other people’s religion and no state religion. They are hoping to cut protections the Affordable Care Act provides against being refused life-saving care.  As for freedom from fear, they consistently encourage unfair personal attacks on us by our highest officials and our neighbors on the basis of ethnic and gender identity. And they are doing everything they can to strip us of the right to vote too.

Of course the GOP wasn’t always like this. Many landmark environmental rules and other socially beneficial measures were actually approved in the past by GOP Congress members and presidents. The old-style GOP had at least a discernible moral core, however imperfect.  In Robert Reich’s 2018 book, The Common Good, he lays out a capsule history of how, since the 1980’s, the GOP and corporate America fell into the #AynRandTrap of radical, shortsighted selfishness. They have been systematically destroying American moral fiber from the top and ruthlessly preying on everyone else. As Reich shows, this form of national self-destruction has cost us trust in government, in each other, and trust in all the institutions and leaders of our society. A country this sick cannot last long without decaying into a Hobbesian war of all against all. This is in fact what President Trump is calling for if he is not reelected. Rwanda in America—a prospect far worse than any of the horrors of our own Civil War.

Of course, the first stimulus for a return to sanity has already happened: the 2018 election. With any luck, the 2020 election will serve as even more of a corrective.  Speaker Pelosi has spelled out what      the 2020 Democratic platform must include: the same type of “kitchen table” issues that worked in 2018. But in the face of the #AltGOP’s attempt to own the idea of American “freedom,” it seems to me that we also have to spell out exactly what #TrueAmericanFreedom means. And we must call out the ways the #AltGOP is trying to destroy what they claim to own.  Part of that step is calling for a national moral revival that transforms the selfish, corrupt behavior of our business and political leaders.  In her best-selling book,  Daring Greatly, well-known Social Work Research Professor Brené Brown has laid out specific, doable steps for sincerely and openly  “bridging the gap” between our highest ideals and our everyday behavior. Her experience is that the process she has developed works.

But we ourselves also have to do a bit more to be clear about what #TrueAmerican Freedom means. It’s about how we talk. We must scrupulously avoid the specific language traps the GOP has set for us. I have long been warning our own people about these traps, which will unquestionably be high profile in the 2020 election fight. For years I have watched in horror as supposedly intelligent members of the Democratic Party, liberals of all kinds, and every type of progressive mindlessly repeat such GOP-launched or GOP friendly frames as “Obamacare,” “carbon tax,” “gun control,” and the most senseless of all in my view, “single payer.”

Let’s start with “Obamacare.” This is a word specifically created by the GOP to kill the Affordable Care Act. Never call the ACA “Obamacare.  Since we’re on the subject of healthcare, let’s move on here to “single payer.” To the average American, that is a meaningless phrase that suggests you are talking about “an unmarried payer.”  Then there’s Medicare for All. While it’s a lot better than “single payer,” it is still, by itself, with no modifiers, very dangerous in the coming election. Lately there has been a rapid proliferation of different kinds of proposals, all labelled “Medicare for All. If there’s one thing Americans desperately fear today a recent Kaiser poll found, it’s losing the health insurance or healthcare they already have. Confusing people about what you mean by that phrase is a recipe for sure defeat at the polls. The cure? Come up with a simple add on to the phrase, like “Medicare for All+50,” if your proposal is buy in after 50 years of age, or “Medicare for All: Buy-in,” and so on. Think Americans will sit still to pore over the details of how the proposal you call “Medicare for All” will be set up? Think again: if you can’t say it clearly in one breath, your idea is doomed and will destroy your candidate too.

Then there’s “carbon tax.” Never trust anyone arguing for a “carbon tax.”  Call the “carbon fee and citizen dividend idea” a ”tax” and it will be DOA. Yes, I know it’s a drop in the climate-fix bucket, but it could be a first wedge in the denial door.  And while you are upgrading your language about this issue, be careful to say “climate damage,” and “climate damage costs.” People understand damage, and we all know money talks. Drop “climate change.” It’s a phrase that sounds way too mild these days. And now for one of my favorite peeves: calling for “gun control” when what we want is “gun safety” or “gun sense.” Yes, I know folks are angry and want to control those guns. But “gun control” is the NRA’s favorite frame, because they use it to scare even responsible gun owners into voting against the “gun safety” or “gun sense” they would otherwise favor, knowing as they do exactly what guns can do.
With new levels of self-awareness about the words we use, we Democrats, liberals and progressives can finally stop shooting ourselves in the foot.

Now for the good news. As I have often reminded my readers, America is a punch-back fighter. The sight of American high school students rallying to push our government to act on rules for gun safety and climate action is a case in point. Though they don’t get civics courses in school anymore, they know perfectly well what their rights as Americans are. Their courage and patriotism in the cause of  #TrueAmericanFreedom is another big step in the massive turnaround we need.  Let’s do all we can to restore #TrueAmericanFreedom here in the “land of the free!” That starts by calling it by its right name.
————————————————————-
Susan C. Strong, Ph.D., is the Founder and Executive Director of The Metaphor Project, http://www.metaphorproject.org, and author of our book, Move Our Message: How to Get America’s Ear.  The Metaphor Project has been helping progressives mainstream their messages since 1997. Follow Susan on Twitter @SusanCStrong, check out her TEDx talk, and like, follow & review The Metaphor Project on Facebook.

Want to comment on this post? Please go to one of the following sites where my pages have comment capability. Thanks!

http://opednews.com/author/author14224.html 

http://www.dailykos.com/user/SusanCStrong 

A 2018 Review: During 2018’s difficult political conditions, we kept our Twitter and Metaphor Project Facebook  pages active with suggestions for framing issues as they arose. Some of the most popular of these included “Endless War Inc. pays the NRA,” “Earth Deficit” as a framing suggestion for the Global Footprint Project’s Overshoot Day campaign, and ideas for frames to use in communicating about #MeToo, #Kavananaugh on rule of law, McKibben on climate issues, nukes and nuke treaties, and the migrant caravan. The tweet permanently pinned at the top of my Twitter page, advising American Framing when contacting our representatives, has received more than 3064 views to date. It includes an #Indivisible hashtag.

In 2018 we also published well-received blogs on a wide range of topics. Some examples include encouraging all to follow those who #StepUp to counter GOP mischief, how to use the phrases # SharedSecurityWorks & #PreemptiveWarFails, an update on “Framing Our Climate March Messages to Persuade,” “Framing it American Now, Summer 2018,” and “GOTV Plus: Revisiting How to Frame It American Now” in the fall. All of these were publicized on social media and are still current on our site.

You too can help the cause of better progressive framing by spreading awareness about what the Metaphor Project offers. And our book, Move Our Message: How to Get America’s Ear is still available (check out this website for venues). It would make a good gift any time of the year, now that our political situation has more wiggle room!

In closing, we deeply appreciate your following our work in the 21 years the Metaphor Project has been active to date. We look forward to serving you and the rest of the progressive community with timely and relevant American Political Framing suggestions and training in 2019!

Best wishes for the coming year,

Susan C. Strong
Executive Director
The Metaphor Project

https://metaphorproject.org/.
metaphorproject@earthlink.net

As I mentioned in an early 2017 blog, http://metaphorproject.org/getting-heard-beyond-the-choir/, Americans generally want to “protect our freedom, things to be fair, people in government and out to play by the rules, economic prosperity that benefits everyone, and our communities to be clean, safe, and secure. We all want practical solutions to our problems that work for everyone, and we all want to be able to keep up with other countries in the global economy.” So even though we may seem very divided and suspicious of each other now, there is also a growing number of citizens who think we are “on the wrong track.” Moreover, we still have the rigged economy, relative wage stagnation, and widespread fear about our economic future that led in part to the 2016 voter revolt. Add to that the already astounding damage of Trump’s ignorant, out of date tariff ideas (see this excellent article for details), unchecked by a terrified and supine GOP.  Then there are other new voter worries: about GOP threats to our healthcare coverage re pre-existing conditions, rising gun violence in our schools, and the robber baron GOP tax bill. Rampant corruption via misuse of office in D.C., and even more sickening, vicious ICE child abuse on our border complete the picture. So there is lots of widely shared concern that could find a voice in November.

True, there are GOP extremists on the right who are cool with all of above, but the real task we have is finding out what our own particular audiences want. There are tried and true rules for doing that.  The first step in thinking about that is being clear about our audience’s hopes, feelings, and the language they use to express themselves. What they may also be feeling right now is despair and hopelessness, as well as rage and helplessness.  If we feed people’s rage and despair with an angry, negative, sarcastic, or ironic remark, it won’t move them to vote. What’s needed most is talk about what we want instead.

So after we’ve after we’ve gotten clear about where our audience is, we need to reconnect with a vision of the American future we all want. Fleshing out the details of how our positive vision can solve a current problem is vital. Describing who could carry out these tasks and how they might do it is a key part of GOTV.  Remember to stick with words that are colloquially “American.” No abstract multisyllabic, Latinate words like those two.  Our talk must also be free of a lot of facts, stats, or historical references. It should be aspirational instead, a quality that communications research has shown works best. For example the word “rules” evokes a key part of the Ideal American Identity story, our being a country ruled by law, with fairness and equality of opportunity for all. So we can say things like “Restore/Bring back/ Save/Protect the rules that keep America clean/safe/pure/protected from bank/Wall Street/corporate/abuse/ etc.” Or…. “the rules that keep America fair,” and the ones that “protect equality of opportunity for all.”

To help everyone find the right American words to express our stories, the Metaphor Project offers two lists of memory joggers, The American Story Elements and American Metaphor Categories. These tools can help us recall suitable language, (images, popular metaphors, catch phrases) we already know implicitly. They can stimulate us to identify others as well. Combining these with our positive solutions   in a brainstorming process can create “American truth bites” that take a variety of forms. Some may use tried and true variations of familiar phrases (“change course” instead of ”stay the course”), while others reframe familiar phrases more effectively (“Say gun safety, not gun control!”) Instead of saying “no X,” which cognitive scientists tell us is heard as just “x,” we can say “Y [something we want], not X.” It also works to combine familiar elements from widely disparate sources to create a brand new idea (“community rights” or “marriage equality”). Then there’s creating new words and ideas by combining familiar elements in a single new word (“frankenfood” from Frankenstein + food).

Thinking about what we are saying and how it might sound to someone else is key.  Venting, being negative, subtle, sarcastic, or ironic fails to create positive momentum in a dire political moment like this.  We need to be objective when we decide if our GOTV messages can meet the following tests: Can they go viral? Are they truly mainstream, not just party or progressive jargon, self-defeating in-group humor or insults? Are they concrete, not abstract? Do they evoke a familiar ideal American story and point to a positive idea?  VIP, do they have rhythm? Say them out loud to find out, before using them anywhere! (To see more about how these and other criteria for successful American political framing, see How to Write Slogans That Move)

Now more than ever, we must “speak American!”

Susan C. Strong, Ph.D., is the Founder and Executive Director of The Metaphor Project, http://www.metaphorproject.org, and author of our book, Move Our Message: How to Get America’s Ear.  The Metaphor Project has been helping progressives mainstream their messages since 1997. Follow Susan on Twitter @SusanCStrong, check out her TEDx talk, and like, follow & review The Metaphor Project on Facebook.

Want to comment? Go to:

http://opednews.com/author/author14224.

http://www.dailykos.com/user/SusanCStrong 

To be most effective, messages require a keen awareness of the audiences for them. First, it’s our politicians. Then it may well be the people who voted for Trump when Bernie was driven out. Add to that those who used to be Democrats but voted for Trump out of disgust with the party’s policies re trade, jobs, and its habit of cozying up to the 1%. To get real change, we must bring a great many more of these Americans on board. These people may not be so set on using climate change denial as a way to be identified as Republican.  But we must also try to find ways to reach those whose stance is climate change denial from mere party loyalty, not deep conviction.

Political analysts say that if enough GOP politicians came out for taking preventive climate change action, the rest would follow. The August 4, 2018 issue of The Economist cites several examples of GOP politicians who support carbon tax proposals now, if balanced by tax cuts (“A Slow Thaw”). It’s also important that such proposals be promoted in a way that avoids the “language of repentence, guilt, and [doing] with less, which doesn’t work well in the conservative community,” said Bob Inglis, a former GOP congressman from South Carolina.   We know it’s grass roots pressure that actually moves politicians to change their stance, but it must be framed in a way the audience can hear. (Even better would be a change to calling for the “climate fee and dividend” version being proposed by the Citizens Climate Lobby, which would return all fee funds collected to all American citizens.)

So the next step in our strategic framing process is being clear about our various audiences’ feelings.  My thinking is that politicians are feeling very nervous right now, in view of the coming election. The other, non-hard core GOP groups described above might be united in horror at something the current administration and Congress are doing. What they may also be feeling is despair and hopelessness, as well as rage and helplessness. Those same feelings are no doubt shared by all shades of Democrats and Independents, as we watch the Administration and Congress destroy not only all previous steps to contain climate damage, but every existing measure to keep our air, water, and coastal seas clean. The August 5, 2018 New York Times magazine just published a bitter  30 year history of fossil fuel industry lying and public manipulation designed to stop all efforts to make the clean energy shift we must have. But feeding people’s rage and despair with angry, negative, sarcastic, satiric, or ironic slogans, no matter how witty, won’t give them (or us) anything new. What’s needed most is the story of what we want instead and our right to it. Stories like that can persuade.

Interestingly enough, the Times’ coverage of our current climate emergency concluded with an epilogue that ended this way: “Human nature has brought us to this place: perhaps human nature will one day bring us through. Rational argument has failed in a rout. Let irrational optimism have a turn. It is also human nature, after all, to hope.”  (p.66)  Irrational optimism, courage, a senses of necessity, plus righteous rage of course, is certainly fueling the federal climate lawsuit by young Americans, Juliana v. s. U.S. Their GOP opponents have ridiculed the kids’ argument that the Constitution guarantees them a life-supporting climate. But any honest jurist not being paid off by or in debt to the international fossil fuel conspiracy would have to agree that Section 1 of the 14^th Amendment does indeed mean that these children, and all Americans, have the right to a climate that allows us a safe life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness on our home planet. (1) Writing slogans and march signs that repeat, expand, and colorfully spell out or picture our right to a safe, livable climate is the best way to go this time. Call it just plain common sense–purple, not red or blue, to stem our worsening climate change damage by  shifting to a clean energy economy, from Main Street to Wall Street. We’ll save money in the end, as the damage will just keep getting worse, if we fail to act now.

But we must also be sure our signs and slogans express the message with words that are colloquially “American.” No  abstract multisyllabic, Latinate words like those two.  Our phrases must also be free of a lot of facts, stats, or historical references. They should be pointing to hope instead, a quality that communications research has shown works best. For example the word “rules” evokes a key part of the Ideal American Identity Story, our being a country ruled by law, with fairness and equality of opportunity for all. So we can say things like “Restore/Bring back/ Save/Protect the rules that keep America clean/ safe/ protected from mega-fires, fierce new heat waves, super storms, bigger and bigger floods, lasting droughts, drowned sea-coast cities etc.”

To help everyone find even more American words to express our stories, the Metaphor Project offers two lists of memory joggers, The American Story Elements and American Metaphor Categories. These tools can help us recall suitable language, images, popular metaphors, and catch phrases we already know implicitly. Combining these with our positive solutions or demands in a brainstorming process can create “American truth bites” that take a variety of forms. (Examples of more climate-related “truth bites” can be found on our site at this link, though I now think “climate change damage” is a better frame than “climate change chaos.”) Another effective type of slogan combines two well-accepted American values to form a new idea; an example of this formula is “community rights.” Then there’s the X, not Y” formula. We need to say what we want first, before we say “no,” as cognitive science has demonstrated that if you say “no” first, people just don’t hear it.

Thinking about what we are saying and how it might sound to someone different from you is key.   We also need to be objective when we decide if our newly formed street messages can meet the following tests: Can they go viral? Are they truly mainstream, not just progressive jargon, self-defeating in-group humor or insults? Are they concrete, not abstract? Do they evoke a familiar American story and point to a positive idea?  VIP, do they have rhythm? Say them out loud to find out, before parading them on a sign. Even though signs carry written language, the brain reads them as spoken language. Watch out for clunkers. We must always try to “speak American” now, no matter what!

—————————
Susan C. Strong, Ph.D., is the Founder and Executive Director of The Metaphor Project, http://www.metaphorproject.org, and author of our book, Move Our Message: How to Get America’s Ear.  The Metaphor Project has been helping progressives mainstream their messages since 1997. Follow Susan on Twitter @SusanCStrong, check out her TEDx talk, and like, follow & review The Metaphor Project on Facebook.
————————-

(1) It seems perfectly clear to me, though of course I can’t prove it, that the most important link between the GOP, Trump, and Russia is a joint desire to support the continued use of fossil fuels, instead of shifting to clean energy sources. After all, Russia is economically dependent on the sale of fossil fuels, and so are some of the biggest international corporations in our world. Russia may even imagine that climate change will benefit their agricultural output, though the Swedish fires of this summer might give them a bit of pause re that idea, as well as the toxic methane rapidly rising from their steppes. Viewed this way, Trump is certainly their tool, but his faux pas are a sideshow, compared to what Russia and the fossil fuel gang really want from the GOP, all officials of the U.S. government, and the American voting public. However, it is more effective right now to frame American officials’ going along with Russian meddling as treason, which it also very much is.

Want to comment on this post? Please go to one of the following sites where my pages have comment capability. Thanks!

http://opednews.com/author/author14224.html 

http://www.dailykos.com/user/SusanCStrong