When Fighting Hate, Logic Doesn't Matter

I maintain this blog as a way of working out what I see in the world. It's an exercise in imperfect logic and an imperfect assessment of objective reality. I also realize that while logic can posit and test hypotheses, it doesn't convince anyone.

People buy based on emotions. Selling, as Zig Ziglar said, is nothing more than a transference of feelings. If I can get you to feel about my product the way I feel about it, you will buy it if at all possible.

Listening to my favorite podcasts like Andrew Klavan, Ben Shapiro, Dave Rubin, Gad Saad and others, I love to follow along with their logical analyses. It's great fun, but it changes no minds. A video of George Floyd being killed by a cop convinces people. Conservatives like myself can instantly whip out stats about black-on-black crime, but stats are a poor substitute for graphic images.

An Unimportant Election

Perhaps it's an act of denial, but I'm coming to the conclusion that this is not an important election. It doesn't matter who wins so long as a large portion of the country is obsessed with fighting hate. Hate, as far as I'm concerned, doesn't exist. At best, it's a 3rd-order problem. Hate or leprechauns, if a sizable chunk of the people think it does exist and they're part of a Great Movement to fight it, you're not going to change their minds with percentages and analysis. They can't hear you.

Assume Trump wins, but the Left is still fighting hate. Those riots aren't going to stop. The rioters see themselves as warriors in a cause.

Assume Biden wins, but the Left is still fighting hate. Those riots aren't going to stop. The rioters see themselves as warriors in a cause.

Trump may be a lightning rod, but Biden isn't much better. Mayor Ted Wheeler in Portland and that wuss in Seattle are only fractionally different from the rioters and they're still rioting. I doubt more than one person in 200 could name the policy differences between the mayors and the rioters. Whatever it is, there's a huge emotional gulf between them. The rioters hate hate and the mayors are part of a structure of hate. At that point, what can they do but turn to violence?

Change Hearts, Not Minds

The stats are all well and good, but it's the emotional drivers behind them that will make the sale. I rant about black families because I love kids. I don't care about your race, I just want to see happy, little boys playing Little League. I love happy, little girls playing soccer. When I was a younger man, coaching those teams was heavenly for me. 

Ain't nobody playing nothing in the hood these days.

That's the argument to make. Dump the stats and tell the story. I want to see black kids playing sports with their dads because it's full of teh awesome. To do that, you need more dads and less violence. A lot more dads and a lot less violence.

Now tell me I'm racist.

A foretaste of Heaven. Don't you want it for everyone?