Frank Luntz and why the term "Concentration camp" works

I don’t post a lot of threads and this one may die on the vine, but here goes!

When I saw the phrase “Concentration Camp” come out of AOC’s mouth, I initially shuddered a little bit. It was inflammatory and evoked images of death camps that the Nazis ran during WWII.

And, of course, the GOP attacked as they are prone to do.

But all of a sudden, survivors of Concentration camps and Holocaust experts, plus survivors of Manzanar came out of the woodwork to agree with her phrasing.

And I immediately thought of Frank Luntz.

Here was a guy who said…

"80 percent of our life is emotion, and only 20 percent is intellect. I am much more interested in how you feel than how you think. … If I respond to you quietly, the viewer at home is going to have a different reaction than if I respond to you with emotion and with passion and I wave my arms around. Somebody like this is an intellectual; somebody like this is a freak.

And what he meant by that is that by triggering emotion you can change the perception of and reaction of the population at large.

So don’t call it an Estate Tax, because if you inherit an estate you are wealthy and not like us. Call it a “Death Tax”, that sounds a lot more unfair because everyone dies.

Likewise don’t call it global warming, call it climate change. Yes, he did that one too.

He said…

“It’s all emotion. But there’s nothing wrong with emotion. When we are in love, we are not rational; we are emotional. … my job is to look for the words that trigger the emotion. … We know that words and emotion together are the most powerful force known to mankind.”

https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/interviews/luntz.html

In that vein, isn’t what AOC is doing very similar? She is looking to evoke emotion and the term “Concentration camp” works a lot better. You can see by reactions on both sides that it works.

She should continue to use it and the rest of the Dems should follow suit.

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:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl: do you see the irony?

His 20% intellect is way too high.

my job is to look for the words that trigger the emotion

A moment of raw honesty.

Yes, exactly what her coaches told her to do. It works well.

They have been for years.

Good to see some truth for a change. Propaganda works.

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The interesting thing to me is the admission that logic just doesn’t work and the abandonment of the pretense. This despite all claims to the contrary.

We have known it was all based on emotion for a long time.

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You misquoted me on your second point, those are Luntz’s words not mine.

And perhaps 20% is too high, you have a good point there.

But I honestly think she made that initial response emotionally, she is prone to doing so. She isn’t some Machiavellian genius, she’s young and passionate and says things that DO get her into trouble.

But she nailed this one.

This is something the GOP has mastered in the last few decades, mostly due to Luntz’s works. And if Luntz had to label this because a Democrat was in the White House, Concentration Camp is the first thing that would come out of his mouth and subsequently every single Republican once they saw this term had power.

It does that when I quote your quote of him. I’ll fix it.

She has coaches. She is a microphone.

Propaganda 101.

And yet they didn’t when Obama did the same exact things that I ever saw.

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Yes we know that because the GOP perfected this.

Remember “We don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud”?

Everyone in the GOP started spouting that the moment the phrase was conceived.

Discipline in messaging leads to acceptance by the public at large, find a term with punch and then say it over and over and over and over again.

The Dems have never been good with this, perhaps they should start.

I think the term ‘concentration camp’ works is because it is accurate. “a place where large numbers of people, especially political prisoners or members of persecuted minorities, are deliberately imprisoned in a relatively small area with inadequate facilities.”

Again, they both do it. It’s propaganda 101 and goes back to the dawn of politics.

Dems are much better at incrementalism.

See? It works.

You don’t have to fix it, just as long as you know I didn’t say it I am fine.

And every politician has advisors, she is no different. For such a young woman she is doing a very effective job from what I see on the work she does in her conference questioning.

And it’s propaganda by definition, it is language used to evoke emotion, but that is what Luntz perfected and the GOP benefitted from for decades.

As far as Obama goes, from what I recall he did not separate families but if a child came over unaccompanied they were held in a separate facility. I do think they were quicker about it and more humane though. I don’t believe he took babies from Mothers though. Plus, it’s always bad argument that “They did it first!”

“Racist”! “Bigot!” “Homophobe!” “Don’t care about old people!” “It’s because they’re brown!” “Women!” “Cruelty!”

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Persecuted minorities?

Anyone who crosses the border is a minority and persecuted?

Are are they political prisoners?

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Yes, she has good coaches.

As for Obama

It’s not a bad argument when the other side is “they do it only”.

Plus, it’s always bad argument that “They did it first!”

That’s the liberal response to half the things said on here.

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I suppose if there was an adequate barrier this stupid discussion on emotive reaction with Nazi terminology goes away.

Never enough…Always the bad guys.

So sad.

:children_crossing:

Want to throw granny off a cliff!

I stand by my post.

Apparently you don’t want to explain further. It’s ok. The messaging thing isn’t working too well for you.

The difference here being is that they have not been disciplined and not been methodical when they do that, thus not being effective in their language. It doesn’t stick and it is easily ignored. In many ways it hurts their effectiveness.

But when the GOP says “Dems want to take your Medicare away” as a whole, when Obamacare was passed, it was effective. Luntz did that too. Despite the ACA extending the life of Medicare for decades the GOP effectively used the term “Death Panel” to push the narrative a completely different direction.

And yes, Luntz did “Death Panel” too.

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Wrong- it’s been explained to you. Sorry if it’s over your head.