I’ve recently read Scott Adams’ fascinating book Win Bigly. The book examines the United States presidential election of 2016 from the point of persuasion.
Adams had been predicting from as early as August of 2015 onwards that Donald Trump would win the United States presidential election of 2016. He predicted a Donald Trump win because he recognized Trump as a “Master Persuader”. Even on the election day, Trump’s chance of winning the presidency was predicted as low as less than 2%, but he went on to be elected as the president of the United States, just like Adams had been predicting for a long time.
Adams was no political pundit, he is actually a cartoonist, but he correctly predicted the result of the election because of his extensive background in persuasion, where almost all of the actual political pundits failed to predict the winner.
The Persuasion Filter
By applying what he calls “the persuasion filter” to the job of correctly predicting the winner of a presidential race, Adams has demonstrated a magnificent proof to the masses about the power of persuasion.
You should read Win Bigly even if you are not interested in politics because persuasion is not limited to politics. It’s everywhere.
According to Adams, facts don’t matter to humans in making their decisions. Humans are irrational.
I See Persuasion Everywhere
After reading Win Bigly, my senses are more attuned to persuasion. I find the book fascinating because it opened me a whole new way of looking at the world: From a persuasion filter.
I began to recognize some not-so-blatant persuasion when I see it playing before my eyes.
Would You Like To Drink Olive Oil?
I’ve spent the last couple of months in Turkey with my family. There’s an extremely popular doctor turned dietician here, called Canan Karatay.
People are always talking about her in Turkey because diet is a frequent subject of conversation and she is popular for her diet advice.
If you look at the world from the persuasion filter, it’s easy to see why she is popular.
For example, look at this video of her drinking olive oil on national television:
Armed with the knowledge of how persuasion works, it wasn’t difficult for me to recognize that this is excellent persuasion because if you do something as inordinate as drinking olive oil on national television, everybody will talk about you. And that’s exactly what’s been happening in Turkey.
On the surface, people are talking about how dumb it is to drink olive oil and call her a clown (sounds similar?), but what they don’t know is they are getting persuaded by this charlatan to freely use copious amounts of olive oil in their meals.
The fact is, olive oil is extremely high in calories and you shouldn’t be using it in copious amounts in our meals. If you do that, you will certainly be fat. But people don’t make their decisions based on facts. They are persuaded by this charlatan that olive oil won’t make them fat.
I had to personally intervene and make my mother put less olive oil when she’s cooking our meals at home. Now, she is surprised that she effortlessly lost 7 pounds of weight in just one month after she started carefully restricting the olive oil she puts into the meals she cooks. My brother lost more than 10 pounds too.
Would You Like To Smoke Just To Prove Other People How Independent You Are?
A few weeks ago, I and my mother were having a talk about how people were smoking cigarettes everywhere in the past, including inside airplanes, buses, and even hospitals.
Then, my mother talked about the times when women got into the smoking habit in droves. She said, previously, smoking was a male-only thing. Later, women started to smoke en masse because they started to think smoking makes them express their freedom.
Well, I know where that idea of freedom comes from. Read this article to learn how Sigmund Freud’s nephew Edward Bernays branded cigarettes as “Torches of Freedom” and sold them to hordes of women.
“Torches of Freedom” my ass. These women thought smoking cigarettes made them free and independent but in reality, they destroyed their health, wealth, and -ironically- freedom. They were persuaded by a smart marketer. When they were hallucinating about how free and independent they looked, they were, in fact, setting themselves up for premature death.
Would You Like To Die At The Age Of 75?
Have you ever heard a person talk about how it’s unnecessary to live after the age of 70 or 75, so it’s best to die around that age?
I have listened to many of them. All these people think it’s their informed decision but it’s not. It’s propaganda. It’s persuasion. They were successfully persuaded that it’s best to die at the age of 70-75.
If you want to know how, read this article entitled The End Goal Of Western Progressivism Is Depopulation, by Roosh V.
The relevant link referred to in Roosh’s article is this: Why I Hope to Die at 75, written by Ezekiel Emanuel.
If I didn’t see and hear people who talk about dropping dead at 70-75 years of age, I wouldn’t believe that you could persuade a person to willingly die when they hit a certain age. It’s unbelievable but it happens. That’s how powerful persuasion is. In the matter of persuasion, nothing is off the table.
Pretty scary, right?
More Ways To Die
Last year I penned an article entitled Being an Average Man Will Kill You.
The article starts with the words “You think I m joking? I’m not”.
Now, hopefully, it’s clearer to you that what I wrote in the article is not a stretch by any means.
People die all the time fighting for other people’s wars, working to make other people rich, putting their health in the hands of malevolent health authorities, buying food and drugs that make them obese or kill them slowly.
You Are Bombarded By Persuasion Every Day
Newspapers, television, movies, internet, school, workplace, you name it, everywhere you go is filled to the brim with brainwashing and persuasion.
Mainstream media (MSM) is the most powerful tool for mass persuasion.
MSM plays into people’s weaknesses. Your fears, aspirations, weaknesses are constantly and ruthlessly being exploited.
Even at school, you can’t escape from brainwashing.
Feminism, communism, (in fact nearly every -ism), religion, politics, diet, exercise and so on… Everywhere you look there’s persuasion.
How To Make Informed Decisions Instead Of Getting Persuaded
Think of the subjects you have mastered. Think of how 99.9% of the other people, including the so-called experts, are complete idiots about the subjects you have mastered.
You can be sure you are a complete idiot about the subjects you haven’t yet mastered.
You can’t master everything but at least try to master the things that matter the most.
Here’s a list of actions to stay protected:
- Truth is ugly but necessary. Be in search of the truth.
- Think, examine, validate, get educated on the decisions you make about the most critical parts of your life such as health, wealth, family and relationships.
- Stay away from the mainstream media.
- Be vigilant. Always be skeptical. Know that your well-being, even your life is at stake.
- Believe in yourself before you believe in anyone else.
- Be a persuader instead of being a persuadee.
- Question everything before you make a life-changing decision. Ask yourself: “Am I being persuaded or am I making an informed decision?”
Until next time.