We're constantly bombarded with wording that favors the rich. The major media is full of it and most major politicians speak it. You get it in ads and public relations materials. You'll hear it from your boss and elsewhere. How can we fight this tidal wave of pro-corporate bias?
Well, yes, progressive views aren't as wide-spread as we'd like. But considering the enormous pressure exerted on working people by the proponents of the rich, we have to ask why hasn't that tidal wave had more effect than it has? Where is the counter-offensive coming from?
At least in part, I think it's simply everyday conservations with people we know. The friends and family of working people are working people too. They talk about their real life experiences as working people. Those experiences run contrary to the false views the media and politicians try to feed them.
There are two essential facts about talking to family, friends and co-workers. First, there's a lot of quantity to compete with how much of the time one hears the media, politicians and the like. Second - perhaps, most important - we have positive emotional bonds with these people. We want to believe them. We identify with them. We sympathize with them when they experience the hardships of working people. Even when a working person has some respect for a news anchor or an elected official, they don't take to heart what they say the way they do with their family and friends.
To take this further and win the messaging war decisively, we need to influence these informal talks with family and friends. When we try to reach out to working people, we should do so in words, images, stories and narratives that can filter into those day-to-day chats. We need to talk in words that working people would use talking with friends. Speak in a way that can easily travel from mouth to mouth through the community. That is how we will win the hearts and minds of a strong majority.