The FrameLab Book Club is launching in 2025! First on the list: “The Political Mind: A Cognitive Scientist’s Guide to Your Brain and Its Politics” by Dr. George Lakoff.
Nearly 400 readers have signed up to participate! This online book club will feature personal insights from Dr. Lakoff, as well as an ongoing Q&A with readers.
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It happened.
Donald Trump defeated Kamala Harris. A twice-impeached convicted felon who has promised to act as a dictator will return to the White House in 2025.
There’s no way to sugarcoat this nightmare scenario. The consequences of this election will unfold for decades to come. They will likely prove destructive to the very fabric of American democracy – and to the survival of life on Earth itself.
Trump is the greatest threat we have ever faced. Yet he will return to power by a vote of the people. Whatever the fate of our nation is, it involves getting through this. We must be up to the task.
Understandably, there’s plenty of blame and finger-pointing to go around. The Harris campaign painted a rosy picture to the very end. Many trusted pollsters and pundits predicted a Democratic victory. They said the fundamentals were favorable to Harris. They said turnout would work in her favor. They said anti-Trump Republicans and women would make all the difference.
They turned out to be very wrong.
Republicans scored a shocking win. The “Blue Wall” crumbled as Trump won battleground states. Republicans took the Senate and the House. Many pollsters and pundits who expressed exceeding confidence about Harris’s chances are now in panic mode. And the Democratic Party is gravely damaged as the nation heads into an uncertain future.
At FrameLab, we didn’t make predictions. We tried to be optimistic but acknowledged the grim possibility of a Trump victory. The fact that he remained strong in the polls was a warning sign. Trumpism has grown stronger, not weaker. Defeating this new iteration of Trump – overtly fascist – will be the moral and political challenge of our times.
Read the full post at the FrameLab newsletter (and please subscribe for free!):
To stay abreast of Dr. George Lakoff’s latest work, please subscribe to the FrameLab Newsletter (it’s totally free!).
In the current essay, “Kamala Harris and the Strategy of Joy,” Dr. Lakoff talks about the important role of emotion in political campaigns:
“Joy is powerful because it plays on your emotions. And your emotions are everything in politics.”
“If you feel good about somebody’s political views – if joining with them, voting for them, etc., makes you feel good, makes you feel happy – that’s the most powerful thing there can be in politics. If they identify with something deep inside you, with who you really are most deeply, that’s what this is about.”
“This is about politics that identifies with who people are, what they need. You know – what their values are, what their everyday life is like – all of those things. And that’s what Kamala has been able to pull off, which is remarkable. That’s what a political leader really needs.”
And you’d prefer to listen, Dr. Lakoff discusses the Kamala Harris’s use of both joy and the freedom frame in the latest episode of the FrameLab podcast. Available on Apple, Soundcloud, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Please subscribe!
From George Lakoff and Gil Duran at the FrameLab Newsletter:
Moderate and centrist are political weasel words. Their definitions vary widely because there is no such thing as a moderate or centrist ideology. There is no united “middle” or “center” in politics, no single set of ideas on which all moderates or centrists agree. Some support abortion rights, but others oppose them. Some support marriage equality, but others don’t.
For example, Nikki Haley was often described as moderate. Yet the Republican former presidential candidate wouldn’t get many votes in San Francisco. Neither would Elon Musk, who has called himself both a “centrist” and a “moderate” while simultaneously acting a superspreader of right-wing ideas and conspiracy theories.
More to the point: Both Haley and Musk are now backing Donald Trump’s 2024 presidential campaign. Clearly, they have simply been trying to mask their extreme authoritarian politics as “moderate.”
Click here to read the full post: ‘Moderate’: The weasel word masking extreme politics by George Lakoff and Gil Duran at FrameLab.
And please subscribe (it’s FREE) to keep up with Dr. Lakoff’s latest work.
Big news: FrameLab just hit a major milestone — 10,000 total subscribers! Thank you so much for reading. If you can afford it, please consider becoming one of our paid subscribers. Because your support makes a big difference. — George and Gil
Part 3 in the Moral Warfare 101 series:
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. They just seem to automatically be there. From “The Political Mind: A Cognitive Scientists Guide to Your Brain and Its Politics”:
“The science of mind has lit up the vast landscape of unconscious thought — the 98 percent of thinking your brain does that you’re not aware of. Most of it matters for politics. The mind we cannot see plays an enormous role in how our country is governed. Yet most unconscious thought does not just automatically or magically appear in your brain. It is implanted and shaped by the world around you. Framing plays an important role in shaping, and maintaining, your unconscious beliefs.”
These unconscious beliefs help determine our deeply-held moral, social and political beliefs.
Powerful metaphors and frames, often repeated by politicians and the media, sink into our unconscious and create a concept of “common sense” — even when the ideas behind them are the opposite of sensible.
Read more at the FrameLab Newsletter, which just hit 10,000 subscribers!
FrameLab: The Power of Unconscious Thought
From the FrameLab Newsletter:
While Putin has stalled in Ukraine, he appears to be making significant gains here in the United States of America.
On February 20, federal authorities revealed that the man at the heart of scurrilous allegations against the President Biden — Alexander Smirnov — admitted to having lied about Biden at the behest of Russian intelligence. Smirnov’s lies, designed by Russian intelligence agents, became the basis for Republican investigations targeting the president and his son, Hunter Biden.
While Putin has not been successful in conquering Ukraine, he’s clearly had more luck conquering the Republican Party. The alignment between Trump’s GOP and Putin’s Russia becomes clearer with every passing day. Thanks to the Smirnov affair, we now see how quickly and easily Putin’s lies become Republican talking points.
Click below to read the latest post from FrameLab, the newsletter co-founded by Dr. George Lakoff:
The latest target of the Republican Party’s feverish and conspiratorial wrath: 34-year-old pop music megastar Taylor Swift.
Why do Republicans see Swift as a threat? The simple answer: She is a powerful young woman who challenges the traditional social hierarchy.
Please read the entire post at the FrameLab Newsletter.
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George Lakoff 