George Lakoff

Professor Emeritus at UC Berkeley.
Best-selling author of The ALL NEW Don’t Think of an Elephant.
Co-author of FrameLab newsletter on Substack. http://georgelakoff.substack.com
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Last Notes

2024-08-09 21:25:16

Trump is a danger to the nation.But he's also a Big Loser.
And that's the one thing this would-be dictator fears the most. Here's why it matters:
https://www.theframelab.org/trump-is-a-loser-heres-why-it-matters/

2024-06-11 18:29:30

Brain Change is Social Change
https://files.sfba.social/media_attachments/files/112/598/929/594/810/299/original/d2f53703fb6ea1a1.jpg

2024-05-21 17:00:27

Trump is telling us exactly what he plans to do if he gets another term. He is framing his return to power as an authoritarian effort, and he is overtly using Nazi language and symbolism to drive home the point.
This wasn't a mistake. It isn't a joke. American freedom and democracy are on the line in 2024. The main headline in Trump's ad asks: "What's Next for America?" Trump's answer: authoritarianism and fascism.
More at FrameLab: https://www.theframelab.org/unified-reich-trump-campaign-goes-full-nazi/

2024-04-10 19:03:53

Ninety-eight percent.
That’s an estimate of how much of human thought is unconscious. Most of your ideas, thoughts and opinions exist in your brain without you having any awareness of them.
And these unconscious thoughts are powerful.
Read more at FrameLab: https://www.theframelab.org/p/the-power-of-unconscious-thought

2024-03-06 17:04:26

12 Traps for Democrats to Avoid🧵
1. The Issue Trap: Don’t get trapped in issue silos. Unite around common values such as Freedom and a government Of, By and For the People.
Full Link at FrameLab: https://www.theframelab.org/p/twelve-communication-traps-democrats

2024-03-01 16:11:41

Alexey Navalny was one thing Vladimir Putin can never be: heroic.
Navalny’s murder, carried out by Putin’s agents in an Arctic Circle prison on February 16, is a testament to this fact. The dictator could only beat him by killing him — or so he believed.
Even now, Putin continues to fear his murdered opponent. He refused for weeks to hand Navalny’s body over to his family for burial. The punishment for Navalny’s crime continued even after his death.
Let’s always remember the “crime” for which Navalny gave his life: the act of believing in democracy and freedom. His audacious and insistent hope that Russia could one day be free from the chains of corruption and dictatorship terrified Putin.
The mere act of using his voice to inspire others apparently constituted an existential danger to the dictator. https://www.theframelab.org/p/putin-failed-to-conquer-navalny-or

2024-03-01 06:28:31

While Putin has not been successful in conquering Ukraine, he’s clearly had more luck capturing the Republican Party. The alignment between Trump’s GOP and Putin’s Russia becomes clearer with every passing day.
It's an existential threat to the USA. https://www.theframelab.org/p/putin-failed-to-conquer-navalny-or

2024-02-21 22:34:45

When you repeat a lie, you spread it.
When you spread a lie, you strengthen it.
When you strengthen a lie, you become an accomplice to it.
In this disinformation age, we must do better.
Avoid falling into simple propaganda traps.

2024-02-19 01:01:53

Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter gives him direct access to tens of millions of brains. He is making a zealous effort to change and control those brains by flooding them with hate and misinformation.https://www.theframelab.org/p/algorithm-warfare-how-elon-musk-uses

2024-02-10 02:18:45

'Redpilled," QAnon, Anti-Vaxx: Conservative versions of 'woke' https://www.theframelab.org/p/redpilled-qanon-anti-vaccine-conservative

2024-01-15 16:18:13

People do not necessarily vote in their self-interest.
They vote their identity.
They vote their values.
They vote for who they identify with.

2024-01-10 18:51:55

The Public provides freedom.
Individualism begins after the roads are built, after individualists have had an education, after medical research has cured their diseases.

2024-01-10 04:24:41

There is no such thing as a self-made person.
Every business person has used our vast public infrastructure, which the taxpayers paid for, to make their money

2024-01-02 18:48:01

Understanding Trump (again).
A cognitive scientist's analysis of why Republicans can't get enough of him, and how he uses your brain to his advantage. https://framelab.substack.com/p/understanding-trump-again

2023-12-03 22:25:43

Ban repeat liars from live interviews.
Never put a lie in the headline.
Use a truth sandwich when reporting on lies.
-Don’t take the bait (stop rewarding drama with visibility)
Abandon the social media algorithm (don’t let X dictate the news cycle)
What other basic rules can help the political press avoid the mistakes of 2016 in 2024?
Read more at the FrameLab Newsletter:
https://framelab.substack.com/p/trump-2024-has-the-press-learned?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2

2023-11-29 18:10:51

"The Orwell Test" (for identifying propaganda or disinformation)
1. Facts: Is the information supported by facts that can be confirmed through established methods of validation, meeting legal, scientific or logical standards of proof?
2. Source: Is the information from a provider with a history of accurate reporting?
3. Method: Does the source use professional and accepted techniques of factual reporting without relying on deceptive tactics or logical fallacies?
Read more on the FrameLab Newsletter, and please subscribe (it's free). https://framelab.substack.com/p/the-orwell-test?utm_source=profile&utm_medium=reader2

2023-10-07 23:43:47

From NBC News:
Michael Benz, a former Trump State Department official whose work has been cited in congressional hearings and promoted by Elon Musk, has become a go-to voice for Republican criticism of government and social media censorship in the past year. But before his stints in government and as a pundit, Benz appears to have been a pseudonymous alt-right content creator who courted and interacted with white nationalists and posted videos espousing racist conspiracy theories, according to recordings, livestreams and blog posts reviewed by NBC News.
https://framelab.substack.com/p/vile-racist-frame-game-exposed-as

2023-09-26 17:57:47

Metaphors, moral systems and the politics of the brain play a big role in how we analyze the world at FrameLab. As our list of readers has grown over the past year, it occurs to us that not everyone is equally familiar with these concepts. And for others, a refresher is sometimes helpful. Read more here: https://framelab.substack.com/p/framing-101-metaphors-moral-systems

2023-09-02 00:11:06

Republicans understand that rationality doesn’t work. They understand that people actually think in terms of frames and metaphors and images and emotions. So they’re great at marketing their ideas, even when they're not based on facts.
Through constant repetition, they have falsely framed the Republican party as superior on economic matters -- despite decades of facts proving otherwise.
They have framed this false idea millions of brains.
And when the facts don't fit the frame, they bounce right off.
Until Democrats and progressives learn and embrace cognitive science, they will continue to lose ground to the false framing imposed by Republicans.
https://files.sfba.social/media_attachments/files/110/992/179/922/089/756/original/8a35995e307c5f6b.png

2023-09-01 19:45:26

Freedom of speech is the cornerstone of all freedom. But not all speech is the same, and not all speech qualifies as “free speech.”
As the indictments pile up against Trump and his co-conspirators for their efforts to overturn the 2020 election, we have seen a concerted effort by Trump to claim a ridiculous defense based on “freedom of speech.”
Free speech, according to his cockamamie theory, means he can say whatever he wants to say, regardless of the consequences. He falsely equates his leadership of the criminal conspiracy to destroy American democracy with the act of having a mere opinion or belief.
This defense is unlikely to hold up in a court of law — and it doesn’t hold up in the field of cognitive linguistics, either. Cognitive linguists have long understood that there are different kinds of speech, and that some kinds of speech constitute “speech acts.”
More at FrameLab:
https://framelab.substack.com/p/trumps-criminal-speech-acts-vs-free

2023-07-03 21:22:12

Never accept conservative framings of the issues, even in arguing against them; offer your own.
If you have to compromise with conservatives, start the negotiations from your own moral position—empathy and responsibility.

2023-06-30 20:24:32

In the conservative mind, all policy decisions flow according to the following hierarchy.
To understand Republican stances on abortion, racism, homophobia, worker rights, etc., just consult this chart.
It's all there.
https://files.sfba.social/media_attachments/files/110/634/553/469/543/642/original/35081a7260ce01ee.jpg

2023-06-28 18:53:27

Trolls win by making the difference between lies and truth seem like a matter of opinion.
Don't take the debate bait!
Engaging someone with zero credibility or validity only helps them to gain status and spread lies. By trying to negate their false ideas, you'll end up activating them. More at FrameLab: https://framelab.substack.com/p/why-its-silly-to-debate-robert-f

2023-06-23 16:39:47

The Republican Party has launched an all-out war against fact checkers and those who study disinformation.
Using lawsuits and congressional hearings, their campaign against the truth seeks to scare fact checkers and disinformation researchers into silence.
The objective is clear: To make it impossible to distinguish between lies and truth. https://framelab.substack.com/p/gop-war-on-truth-targets-fact-checkers

2023-06-18 21:59:40

Don't take the bait! Debating someone with zero credibility or validity only helps them to gain status and spread lies.
By trying to negate their false ideas, you'll end up activating them. They win by making the difference between lies and truth seem like a matter of opinion.
https://files.sfba.social/media_attachments/files/110/566/988/937/410/473/original/2b5bdc6f1172a851.jpg

2023-05-23 15:11:24

Conservative language tends to activate a swing voter’s conservative morality. Similarly, liberal language tends to activate a swing voter’s liberal morality. The repeated use of conservative or liberal moral language is often the decisive factor in whether an independent uses a liberal or conservative moral system for a given election.

2023-05-19 23:08:18

If you don’t care what happens to other people — if you only care about yourself — why would you care to live in a democracy?
https://framelab.substack.com/p/george-lakoff-why-is-empathy-central?fbclid=IwAR2DdQJzi4oVA_u12dtBTBlkOujrv2_sCLOcLGlQBRu_5FPuUfelKGcNhOQ

2023-05-11 21:32:58

Joe Biden's decision to focus on freedom as the theme of his 2024 campaign is quite shrewd.
By emphasizing this fundamental American value, Biden taps into a moral framework deeply embedded in the American psyche. It's about time!
https://framelab.substack.com/p/framing-freedom-bidens-2024-campaign

2023-04-05 18:55:06

When you repeat a lie, even to debunk it, you help to strengthen and spread the lie. When you negate a frame, you evoke the frame.
Remember this when someone provokes you with an absurd lie. Are you falling into a trap?

2023-03-20 17:03:34

Our previous FrameLab post, “Time to Get Woke About Woke,” analyzed the meaning of the term "woke" and how it has been co-opted by Republicans as a catch-all label for anything associated with liberal moral values.
This post delves into a more insidious tactic employed by Republicans, which involves denouncing perceived progressive radicalism while simultaneously promoting and glorifying their own radicalism. Read more:
https://framelab.substack.com/p/redpilled-qanon-anti-vaccine-conservative

2023-01-25 19:06:56

Ultimately, it will prove impossible to beat Elon Musk by remaining on the platform he controls.
He and his goons control the most powerful aspects of the site. They can, and will, use it to empower authoritarianism, hate, misinformation and white supremacy.
They are just getting started. By continuing to operate within the framework they control, you will be at a disadvantage. More at FrameLab:
https://framelab.substack.com/p/with-trump-returing-to-musks-twitter