Even before I learned of Donald Trump’s numerous appearances on World Wresting Entertainment, I started referring to his approach to politics as “the WWE theory of politics”. His latest move to skip appearing at a debate because he didn’t like the moderator is another classic Vince McMahon move.
Assuming Trump is the nominee and Rubio does not pull this off somehow, we need to be prepared for the WWE theory of politics in the general election. So what is the key lesson of the WWE theory?
Substance doesn’t matter, it’s all about style and emotion. To win you have to pay attention to both. Specifically you have to worry about appearances, and you have to avoid responding emotionally, or else you feed into the narrative of a conflict between equals as opposed to the debate on substance.
While it is easy to dismiss the WWE theory as stupid, this is not the first time we have seen it before:
WWE co-founder and former CEO Linda McMahon was investing tens of millions of dollars of her personal fortune trying to become the state’s first Republican senator in more than two decades.
But after an increasingly negative campaign, McMahon lost to Democrat Christopher S. Murphy by 12 points. It was her second 12-point Senate loss in two years. Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal defeated her in 2010 and now faces an easy path to re-election in 2016.
So why do big names from the WWE like McMahon and Trump think that they can win at politics?
Crowd manipulation:
Crowd manipulation is the intentional use of techniques based on the principles of crowd psychology to engage, control, or influence the desires of a crowd in order to direct its behavior toward a specific action. This practice is common to politics and business and can facilitate the approval or disapproval or indifference to a person, policy, or product. The ethicality of crowd manipulation is commonly questioned.
Crowd manipulation differs from propaganda although they may reinforce one another to produce a desired result. If propaganda is "the consistent, enduring effort to create or shape events to influence the relations of the public to an enterprise, idea or group", crowd manipulation is the relatively brief call to action once the seeds of propaganda (i.e. more specifically "pre-propaganda") are sown and the public is organized into a crowd….
World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), formerly the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) employs crowd manipulation techniques to excite its crowds as well. It makes particular use of the polarizing personalities and prestige of its wrestlers to draw out the emotions of its audiences.
You can see some more hints of this when Trump encourages violence against protesters at rallies.
Crowd psychology:
Crowd psychology, also known as mob psychology, is a branch of social psychology. Social psychologists have developed several theories for explaining the ways in which the psychology of a crowd differs from and interacts with that of the individuals within it. Major theorists in crowd psychology include Gustave Le Bon, Gabriel Tarde, Sigmund Freud, and Steve Reicher. This field relates to the behaviors and thought processes of both the individual crowd members and the crowd as an entity. Crowd behavior is heavily influenced by the loss of responsibility of the individual and the impression of universality of behavior, both of which increase with the size of the crowd….
“Just as little as people believe in the depth of their hearts that the Jews are the devil, do they completely believe in their leader. They do not really identify themselves with him but act this identification, perform their own enthusiasm, and thus participate in their leader's performance. ... It is probably the suspicion of this fictitiousness of their own 'group psychology' which makes fascist crowds so merciless and unapproachable. If they would stop to reason for a second, the whole performance would go to pieces, and they would be left to panic."
So how do we beat Trump? Simple, avoid responding with emotional arguments about how mean he is, which fits the narrative. Instead make his supporters stop to think with simple logic or reason. Once they stop to think instead of yelling, the whole charade falls apart and Trump loses support:
-The First Amendment declares freedom of religion. Do you believe in the Constitution and the First Amendment? If so wouldn’t banning people from the US based on religion violate the Constitution?
-Budget deficits are still very large. Cutting taxes by $10 trillion dollars will increase budget deficits. Do you support increasing budget deficits by $10 trillion dollars when billionaires benefit the most?
-The last time 12 million people were rounded up and sent away was during the Holocaust. Don’t you think it will be difficult to round up and send away 12 million people without causing suffering?
These might not be great examples but the key is don’t respond in anger, get them to stop and think!
Sunday, Jan 31, 2016 · 1:18:41 AM +00:00 · topdog08
Several commenters have correctly pointed out that breaking through and getting people’s attention is not going to be easy.
In my view in order to get our message across we will need:
1-To be loud not quiet about our concerns, but don’t trade insults.
2-Agree things are bad, but explain why Trump would make it worse.
3-Repeat all our attacks the same way Trump does until they sink in.
4-Use extreme comparisons to show Trump is wrong without going so far that it looks like a personal attack and not a logical argument.
5-Create our own events to drive the narrative, such as challenging Trump to meet with our candidate and some Muslims he would ban from traveling, or some undocumented workers he would deport.
6-Never back down from a challenge, but avoid falling for a trap, like giving Trump a line that he can repeat over and over after a gaffe.
7-Yes use smaller words not bigger words or complex explanations.
8-Use story telling effectively so people can relate to real life examples and use extreme examples.
9-Make your case in a visceral way like you are standing in the ring with Trump not in a courtroom.
10-Don’t be afraid to praise your own ideas, you know Trump won’t be shy about praising his own.