George Lakoff
Professor Emeritus at UCBerkeley. Best-selling author of The ALL NEW Don’t Think of an Elephant.
- Tips to keep democracy alive in 2025: 1. Be Brave. Avoid helpless/hopeless talk. Authoritarians want you to feel powerless because it makes their work easier. Courage, faith, and optimism are essential. Fascism feeds on cynicism and pessimism. Starve it. www.theframelab.org/how-to-thriv...
- The Misunderestimating Trap: Many progressives think that people who vote conservative are just stupid, especially those who vote against their economic self-interest. Some believe that if we tell them the real economic facts, they will change how they vote. 🧵 www.theframelab.org/twelve-commu...
- From the point of view of the brain, which is all you have for understanding the world, you're always using metaphors for understanding God. You have no choice. Here’s why: www.theframelab.org/god-metaphor...
- If the facts don’t fit one’s worldview, one of several things can happen: • The fact may be changed to fit your worldview. • The fact may be ignored. • The fact may be rejected and possibly ridiculed. • Or the facts, if threatening to your worldview, may be attacked.
- Persistence is the best resistance.
- Some lessons from the 2024 election disaster. Listen (and subscribe!) to the FrameLab podcast (w/ @gilduran.bsky.social) podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/2...
- 🇺🇸Unions create freedom. 👷♀️Workers are profit creators. 👵 Pensions are earned. #LaborDay2024
- Kamala Harris's joy = power. The key to effective communication is not just to present facts and figures, but to connect with people on an emotional level. Emotion shapes our thoughts and decisions more than logic. FrameLab podcast w/ @gilduran.bsky.social : podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/2...
- Trump is a danger to the nation.But he's also a Big Loser. And that's the one thing this would-be dictator fears the most. Here's why it matters: www.theframelab.org/trump-is-a-l...
- J.D. Vance is promoting a book that uses GENOCIDAL language to frame Democrats as "unhumans." In a previous era, this might have ended his political career. But in 2024, such dangerous extremism is trendy in the MAGA GOP. More from @gilduran.bsky.social: www.thenerdreich.com/unhumans-jd-...
- Violent language invites violence. Such language changes brains and can result in real consequences. And no one has done more to inject violent language into our politics than Donald Trump. Analysis w/ @gilduran.bsky.social www.theframelab.org/donald-trump...
- Brain Change is Social Change
- Some voters are confused about their moral identity and have trouble deciding. Much effort goes into persuading these swing voters to pick a side. The strategy often involves masking extreme GOP policies as "moderate." More at FrameLab w/ @gilduran.bsky.social www.theframelab.org/moderate-wea...
- Trump is telling us exactly what he plans to do if he gets another term. He is framing his return to power as an authoritarian effort, and he is overtly using Nazi language and symbolism to drive home the point. More at FrameLab with @gilduran.bsky.social www.theframelab.org/unified-reic...
- Ninety-eight percent. That’s an estimate of how much of human thought is unconscious. Most of your ideas, thoughts and opinions exist in your brain without you having any awareness of them. And these unconscious thoughts are POWERFUL. More at FrameLab: www.theframelab.org/p/the-power-...
- The Republican Party has become an existential threat to American democracy. www.theframelab.org/p/putin-fail...
- When you repeat a lie, you spread it. When you spread a lie, you strengthen it. When you strengthen a lie, you become an accomplice to it. In this disinformation age, we must do better. Avoid falling into simple propaganda traps.
- Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter gives him direct access to tens of millions of brains. He is making a zealous effort to change and control those brains by flooding them with hate and misinformation www.theframelab.org/p/algorithm-...
- 'Redpilled," QAnon, Anti-Vaxx: Understanding Republican versions of 'woke' www.theframelab.org/p/redpilled-...
- If the facts do not fit a frame, the frame stays and the facts bounce off.
- The public provides freedom. Individualism begins after the roads are built, after individualists have had an education, after medical research has cured their diseases.
- There is no such thing as a self-made person. Every business person has used our vast public infrastructure, which the taxpayers paid for, to make their money
- We live in an era of moral warfare. This moral warfare — a struggle between different systems of morality — will decide whether the United States remains a democracy or becomes an autocracy in the coming years. Welcome to Moral Warfare 101: framelab.substack.com/p/moral-warf...
- Rules to help journalists avoid the mistakes of 2016 in 2024: - Ban liars from live interviews - Never put a lie in the headline - Use a truth sandwich - Don’t take the bait - Abandon the social media algorithm Others?https://framelab.substack.com/p/trump-2024-has-the-press-learned
- Framing is the art of changing minds — that is, changing brains. But once certain issues have been framed in the brain, they can become impossible to change. This is especially the case with anything related to a person’s worldview, morality and identity. framelab.substack.com/p/framing-10...
- New metaphors are capable of creating new understandings and, therefore, new realities.
- Deeply embedded in conservative and liberal politics are different models of the family. Conservatism is based on a Strict Father model. Liberalism is centered around a Nurturant Parent model. These models give rise to different moral systems ... different choices of words and modes of reasoning.
- Freedom of speech is the cornerstone of all freedom. But not all speech qualifies as “free speech.” But there are different kinds of speech, and some kinds of speech constitute “speech acts.” Trump and his co-conspirators will learn the difference. More: framelab.substack.com/p/trumps-cri...
- "We're in a propaganda war, but only one side is on the battlefield." @dfenton.bsky.social theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/…
- Never accept conservative framings of the issues, even in arguing against them; offer your own. If you have to compromise with conservatives, start the negotiations from your own moral position—empathy and responsibility.
- In the conservative mind, all policy decisions flow according to the following hierarchy. To understand Republican stances on abortion, racism, homophobia, worker rights, etc., just consult this chart. It's all there.
- The goal of the anti-vaccine troll — or most trolls — is to simply get its messages repeated to as many people as possible. Forcing people to refute false assertions is a tried and true method of getting a message repeated. framelab.substack.com/p/why-its-silly-to-…
