I am interested in how people arrive at their political beliefs and linguist Lakoff has some ideas on the subject. Yet, he’s also steeped in lef-wing Statism, so it’s interesting to see what “frame” he uses to view government. He explicitly says it’s that of a nurturing parent. Great, so he sees adults as children.

Fellow linguist Steven Pinker harshly critiques Lakoff in The New Republic.

I also recommend The Myth of the Rational Voter by Bryan Caplan and Mike Huemer’s Why People are Irrational About Politics”.

Great thesis, well-articulated. Cognitive linguistics—who knew such a field existed? Fascinating.

My only quibble is that the cobbled-together speech and essay format gets repetitive, since Lakoff keeps explaining his central message over and over—and that at times he sounds like he is explaining his ideas to children (he says to get his more academic “Moral Politics” for a fuller treatment of the subject, and claims that this was intended to be an easy-to-read guide).

I’ll be reading this again after I chew on what sunk in the first time through. (It’s a slim 119 pages, so that won’t be hard.) The most interesting argument in the book is that Americans see the country as an extension of their family, so their models for raising a family extend to what they think is the best approach for the country. Lakoff puts forth two basic models—the strict father model and the nurturant parent model. Most people have both models; it’s a question of what their active model is and whether that active model translates to their politics as well.

My dad just sent this to me. I’m looking forward to reading it during my commute this week.

Great book.

Great book for reframing conservative language and refuting their arguments. I’m really enjoying it.

extremely helpful

The left is further in their death rattle grasping for straws and hoping to shift blame for their own out of touch ideas.

Inspiring!

Lakoff, in a collection of some of his speeches, puts forward his theory of “framing”, the linguistic device used to devastating effect by the Republican Party. By dictating how issues are addressed, the Republicans have left the Democrats struggling and sputtering in any attempt to dictate the terms of debate. Lakoff’s goal is to give the Dems the intellectual framework to use the Republicans’ tools against them.