This particular word magic loses a lot of its power if you manage to somehow bypass it to reveal the human underneath.
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Fighting tribal/trained responses that see you as The Enemy by responding with similar tactics only works if you have the power to fight...
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... if you are too much weaker, you only succeed in deepening their commitment to seeing you as The Enemy, for no gain.
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If your enemy has a conscience (you'd be surprised), finding ways to subvert their training and be visibly Human is far more powerful.
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There are a lot of circumstances where this doesn't work (it is generally inefficient against nazis and other hardcore ideologues), but eh -
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- it is certainly more effective than bemoaning the lack of education and refinement on the part of an opponent that is more powerful.
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Calling Trump voters deplorable, shouting NOT YOUR WOMEN or otherwise entrenching antagonism towards people who could be won over... loses -
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- any gain you could have made, and keeps you firmly in the weaker position, as college-activism-as-leftism roundly demonstrates.
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With what we know alt human deciding making, it amazes me that people choose to antagonise rather than empathise.
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Well, I say that - I think the game in many cases is to wind up your opposites and make them 'other' your allies.
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I disagree. Given what we know about human decision-making, it's obvious that people are generally poor at strategic thinking.
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Well exactly; most people don't make decisions in a logical fashion, so they are vulnerable to particular rhetoric.
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The most basic kind seems to start with: I'm like you, I understand you - THEY don't understand you. (Obvious eg Trump).
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