Tim Daughtry, both an activist and psychologist, talks about the new understanding of the unconscious, and how it affects political discourse.
For the Left and the Right have quite different ways of looking at the world.
The left “has learned to use our language to push their goals,” he said. This framing subtly changes the debate.
To conservatives, tolerance is “live and let live.” To the left, it means, Don’t offend me.
The Left, he says, “is turning our own rule book against us.”
The Left is saying that freedom is “absence of worry.” “This is a huge battle going on,” he said. Plus, “a lot of this battle is taking place outside the realm of conscious awareness.”
Moreover, every word has a cascade of images linked to any word — often to the detriment of conservatives. Especially because 98 percent of our thinking takes place on the unconscious level.
Once conservatives are tagged in the unconscious mind as the party of the rich, that colors all debates. Much of what we really believe is driven by stereotypes, stories, narratives. The “long march” through our institutions has changed the culture.
It’s the immersion theory — “they soak you” in the images and culture.
We can engage the Left in the culture wars, he said. Conservatives have to “think strategically and go on offense.” And we have to protect freedom of speech and religion.
Example: what if we had bumper stickers saying “fight liberal intolerance.”
Socialism is about coercion, he said, but millennials have never been told that. Conservatives have to spread that message.
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