Pacific Sun interview with David Fenton

The Pacific Sun interviewed David Fenton on his memoir, The Activist’s Media Handbook. Here’s an excerpt:

Daedalus Howell: Why do you think the left dropped the ball so dramatically (when compared to the right) when it came to its messaging?

David Fenton: People on the left usually come from studying the humanities, the law or the sciences. They are taught a view that great ideas and concepts basically “sell” themselves by their sheer intrinsic brilliance. The great Berkeley linguist George Lakoff calls this “the enlightenment fallacy.” On the right, many people come from business school. They study cognitive and marketing science and must learn to sell products and services to advance their careers. So this is their natural orientation. Also, we know from cognitive science that it is the repetition of simple messages which changes the brain—and thereby changes public opinion. In the sciences, for example, people are rewarded for complexity, not simplification, and certainly not for repeating themselves. So basically progressives tend not to like what works. Plus they see “selling” as dirty and manipulative. I hope they wake up, since perception is today’s reality to a large extent. And the left needs to please stop using inscrutable so-called “woke” language that the public just doesn’t understand.

Click here for the full interview.