Very interesting. Wikipedia: “Priming the public with fringe ideas intended to be and remain unacceptable, will make the real target ideas seem more acceptable by comparison.” This is a slightly different strategy than the Daily Kos article describes.
What I read doesn’t say this, but I think part of the Republican Overton window strategy is to have lots of loose cannons like Rush Limbaugh who state extreme positions. The Republican party can say “You naughty boy, Rush!” and disclaim everything he says, but still benefit from it.
This also shows the dangers of such a method—if Rush gets too powerful, it goes from “You naughty boy, Rush!” to “You naughty boy, critic of Rush!”, like what’s happening now with respect to Michael Steele. And too much extremism can result in evaporative cooling.
They don’t necessarily have to be—but then it should be easy to identify the radicals, as they go off to start their own groups.
If there is another group close to the moderates, say another political party, they may go join that one since that would be more straightforward than waiting for the extremists (who also may have more affective attachment to the label) to leave.
If this is a 3rd theory, a working model that is consistent with all them would include short range attraction (group response), medium length repulsion (outgroup response) and long-range attraction (going closer isn’t so bad because you’re so far from the fringe).
Interesting feature of dragging the window: the tactics that move it are aimed outside it. They’re completely unsaleable—but still have a factual impact.
Google “Overton Window”.
Very interesting. Wikipedia: “Priming the public with fringe ideas intended to be and remain unacceptable, will make the real target ideas seem more acceptable by comparison.” This is a slightly different strategy than the Daily Kos article describes.
What I read doesn’t say this, but I think part of the Republican Overton window strategy is to have lots of loose cannons like Rush Limbaugh who state extreme positions. The Republican party can say “You naughty boy, Rush!” and disclaim everything he says, but still benefit from it.
This also shows the dangers of such a method—if Rush gets too powerful, it goes from “You naughty boy, Rush!” to “You naughty boy, critic of Rush!”, like what’s happening now with respect to Michael Steele. And too much extremism can result in evaporative cooling.
Evaporative cooling?
Evaporative cooling.
Why would the moderates, rather than the extremists, be the high-energy particles?
Because otherwise the metaphor doesn’t work.
They don’t necessarily have to be—but then it should be easy to identify the radicals, as they go off to start their own groups.
If there is another group close to the moderates, say another political party, they may go join that one since that would be more straightforward than waiting for the extremists (who also may have more affective attachment to the label) to leave.
If this is a 3rd theory, a working model that is consistent with all them would include short range attraction (group response), medium length repulsion (outgroup response) and long-range attraction (going closer isn’t so bad because you’re so far from the fringe).
Interesting feature of dragging the window: the tactics that move it are aimed outside it. They’re completely unsaleable—but still have a factual impact.