Republican Politics, Mexican Standoffs, and Brain Scans
or alternatively "Jack's Magnificent Rise"
So I've been saddened by politics in canada. Republican style attack ads are the flavour of the day. We've watched democratic presidential candidates trying to deal with the aggressive attack ads over the last, and i feel that it's demonstrated three things.
1) Aggressive accusations in Attack ads, no matter how dumb the claim, are effective. people think: "if it wasn't at least a little true, why would they be saying it?"
2) If the politician who is attacked does not "fight back" with tactics involving denying, refusing to speak about it, and attacking back as aggressively as they can; then the accusations will stick. It's playground psychology, but if you get hit by a mudball, we need to see you throw a mudball back, or the mud will stick.
3) the first person who strikes, if they hit hard enough, will have the upper hand when it comes to their public credibility.
so it's distasteful but it has worked.
you can think of it as an old-west style showdown. If you live in a world where attack ads are the norm, the first person to get to their gun will win.
and the Conservative Party of Canada has embraced the practice whole heartedly.
Right now the leader of the liberal party is, generally perceived as being 1) a bad leader, 2) creepy, 3) arrogant, 4) someone who has come to canada in order to be king.
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So I've been saddened by politics in canada. Republican style attack ads are the flavour of the day. We've watched democratic presidential candidates trying to deal with the aggressive attack ads over the last, and i feel that it's demonstrated three things.
1) Aggressive accusations in Attack ads, no matter how dumb the claim, are effective. people think: "if it wasn't at least a little true, why would they be saying it?"
2) If the politician who is attacked does not "fight back" with tactics involving denying, refusing to speak about it, and attacking back as aggressively as they can; then the accusations will stick. It's playground psychology, but if you get hit by a mudball, we need to see you throw a mudball back, or the mud will stick.
3) the first person who strikes, if they hit hard enough, will have the upper hand when it comes to their public credibility.
so it's distasteful but it has worked.
you can think of it as an old-west style showdown. If you live in a world where attack ads are the norm, the first person to get to their gun will win.
and the Conservative Party of Canada has embraced the practice whole heartedly.
Right now the leader of the liberal party is, generally perceived as being 1) a bad leader, 2) creepy, 3) arrogant, 4) someone who has come to canada in order to be king.
( Collapse )