May 8, 2022·edited May 10, 2022Liked by Antonia Scatton
Well done. I look forward to more postings. No doubt you’ve read Dr. Lakoff and Dr. Elisabeth Wehling‘s book entitled The Little Blue Book. There is a chapter in the book entitled family freedom. Also, in that book there is a section on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its importance. I would love to hear your thoughts on how to incorporate the frame of family freedom. Also, as a pro-empathy voter and human rights advocate, I think we want to keep the idea of American "progress," since progress is also a key concept in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Since framing changes brains, we want to make progress in expanding empathic neural pathways. That's why I am a progressive.
Thank you for helping us to reframe our position and debates on this issue. We need to be effective, not just outraged and afraid, nor bullied into submission by the opposition.
I agree, and find myself struggling with finding approaches that aren't just morally right but also controversial to go viral (which uses algorithms I don't like, but can't fix.)
Personally, I've had a lot of success with two framing approaches, but I feel like these are great at a small scale. How would they be ramped up to have more engagement and reach the less-political people?
1— Women who face a difficult choice, but choose to give birth. Taking away a mother's choice, which never gets repaired, that child who in a Pro-Choice time-line would have a mother living in (for example) poverty of her own choice, now will be raised by a mother who didn't make that choice. It leads to really interesting conversations. Most Pro-Life people I encounter are faith-centered, and don't realize they are taking away a faith-decision.
2— Encouraging volunteerism. This is an opposite of shaming Pro-Lifers over not doing anything. Instead push and challenge them to help with the things that don't violate anyone's choice. Pro-Life is a very, very lazy issue: it lets people act morally righteous from their keyboard (something all sides...). To the extent you can make it an issue where people are expected to lend a hand, it will vaporize.
One of my favorite points to make is that when a college-age friend had a baby, the people who showed up to babysit and help out were about evenly split: some babysitting by Pro-Life people, some babysitting by Pro-Choice people, lots of people showing up, lots of people not showing up. The politicized-Pro-Life frame implies that there are two sides, one more moral than the other. My frame: we're all one community. I think it works better, as a frame, to re-unite, rather than to put fuel on the politicized-Pro-Life frame that there are good people and bad people in conflict, with the left flipping who is good and bad but keeping the frame of religious conflict.
Excellent resource! Because I am not the most creative person, I would love to see/hear how to turn these larger explanations into the most effective short, captivating catch phrases as well for signs, shirts, etc…
Well done. I look forward to more postings. No doubt you’ve read Dr. Lakoff and Dr. Elisabeth Wehling‘s book entitled The Little Blue Book. There is a chapter in the book entitled family freedom. Also, in that book there is a section on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and its importance. I would love to hear your thoughts on how to incorporate the frame of family freedom. Also, as a pro-empathy voter and human rights advocate, I think we want to keep the idea of American "progress," since progress is also a key concept in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Since framing changes brains, we want to make progress in expanding empathic neural pathways. That's why I am a progressive.
Thank you for helping us to reframe our position and debates on this issue. We need to be effective, not just outraged and afraid, nor bullied into submission by the opposition.
I use the term "coerced gestation.”
Thanks for this great article!
I agree, and find myself struggling with finding approaches that aren't just morally right but also controversial to go viral (which uses algorithms I don't like, but can't fix.)
Personally, I've had a lot of success with two framing approaches, but I feel like these are great at a small scale. How would they be ramped up to have more engagement and reach the less-political people?
1— Women who face a difficult choice, but choose to give birth. Taking away a mother's choice, which never gets repaired, that child who in a Pro-Choice time-line would have a mother living in (for example) poverty of her own choice, now will be raised by a mother who didn't make that choice. It leads to really interesting conversations. Most Pro-Life people I encounter are faith-centered, and don't realize they are taking away a faith-decision.
2— Encouraging volunteerism. This is an opposite of shaming Pro-Lifers over not doing anything. Instead push and challenge them to help with the things that don't violate anyone's choice. Pro-Life is a very, very lazy issue: it lets people act morally righteous from their keyboard (something all sides...). To the extent you can make it an issue where people are expected to lend a hand, it will vaporize.
One of my favorite points to make is that when a college-age friend had a baby, the people who showed up to babysit and help out were about evenly split: some babysitting by Pro-Life people, some babysitting by Pro-Choice people, lots of people showing up, lots of people not showing up. The politicized-Pro-Life frame implies that there are two sides, one more moral than the other. My frame: we're all one community. I think it works better, as a frame, to re-unite, rather than to put fuel on the politicized-Pro-Life frame that there are good people and bad people in conflict, with the left flipping who is good and bad but keeping the frame of religious conflict.
I wrote some longer thoughts on approaches to abortion, with some inspiration by Lakoff, here: https://cognitivepolitics.org/sites/default/files/ftpbook/cp_draft.pdf#page=104. I'd love feedback, and ways to get more involved.
Excellent resource! Because I am not the most creative person, I would love to see/hear how to turn these larger explanations into the most effective short, captivating catch phrases as well for signs, shirts, etc…
Brilliant. Thank you for helping us to reframe our messaging so much more effectively