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A review by steph_84
Don't Think of an Elephant! Know Your Values and Frame the Debate: The Essential Guide for Progressives by George Lakoff
4.0
This book is for progressives who identify as progressives. If you don’t identify as progressive this book isn’t for you: as evidenced by many of the reviews by centrists and right-wingers who gave the book one or two stars!
It’s very important reading for anyone wanting to progress liberal issues, explaining how to frame issues and respond to the very-successful framing by conservatives so that their ideas seem like “common sense” to anyone not paying attention. I tweeted once that anyone who used the phrase “common sense” was probably a pushing a right-wing agenda. This book explains why that’s true... for now. It’s a good kick up the bum for progressives to be more strategic.
The downsides for me were:
1. There’s quite a lot of repetition. The editing could have been tighter. The ideas were interesting but in practice I got distracted by other books along the way rather than wanting to read it all in one go.
2. I know it’s by an American author but wow it’s really REALLY American. The assumption that Americans are superior to everyone else led to a fair bit of eye rolling and eyebrow-raising on my part, and I was alarmed at how even progressives were assumed to be pro-military. Most of the advice applies to other western countries, but not all.
3. The original book was written in 2004 but my version was updated in 2014 with a few notes throughout, which was an odd mix. For such a popular book I’d like to see a proper update with contemporary examples and ideas.
Irritating phrases aside, the Left really needs this book. We are losing the war and need to change strategies. I plan to implement these strategies and have already started talking to others about it.
It’s very important reading for anyone wanting to progress liberal issues, explaining how to frame issues and respond to the very-successful framing by conservatives so that their ideas seem like “common sense” to anyone not paying attention. I tweeted once that anyone who used the phrase “common sense” was probably a pushing a right-wing agenda. This book explains why that’s true... for now. It’s a good kick up the bum for progressives to be more strategic.
The downsides for me were:
1. There’s quite a lot of repetition. The editing could have been tighter. The ideas were interesting but in practice I got distracted by other books along the way rather than wanting to read it all in one go.
2. I know it’s by an American author but wow it’s really REALLY American. The assumption that Americans are superior to everyone else led to a fair bit of eye rolling and eyebrow-raising on my part, and I was alarmed at how even progressives were assumed to be pro-military. Most of the advice applies to other western countries, but not all.
3. The original book was written in 2004 but my version was updated in 2014 with a few notes throughout, which was an odd mix. For such a popular book I’d like to see a proper update with contemporary examples and ideas.
Irritating phrases aside, the Left really needs this book. We are losing the war and need to change strategies. I plan to implement these strategies and have already started talking to others about it.