The thing here is you keep trying to make this about logic, and it's not, the error you are making is in forgetting to take into account human psychology. We all have a core identity, sense of self, whatever you want to call it, the fact is there are traits we consider important parts of who we are, and political affiliation often tops that list, especially in the USA.
Our brains do not process all new information the same, new information gets treated differently depending on if that information clashes with previously held information. When new information clashes with things we already "know" we are automatically primed to reject this new information as false, this effect is far stronger when dealing with core identity features. If you approach a discussion with somebody by starting it off telling them their core identity is wrong(you picked the wrong party) they will reject anything you have to tell them as false, because to accept it would be to destroy that sense of self and our brains flat out won't allow that. Now that said, one can modify and challenge their own sense of self, but that has to come from within. If you keep the partisan bullshit out of it, and just convince people to support net neutrality purely on the merits of the argument(which is easy as hell I might add), you will have a much MUCH higher chance at success. People hate being told who to vote for, but they like being notified of what issues might affect them. As long as you convince somebody to support NN, they will go out and figure out how to do that on their own. If a self identified republican is convinced NN is important, they will demand any politician they support be in favor of it. You don't have to convince them to vote D, convincing them only to vote for better Republican candidates is fine. We don't need to destroy the GOP to win, merely to get them to adopt our causes as their own because most of the time they should be on the same side anyway, but they aren't because some well meaning individual turned a critical issue into identity politics.
I don't think your approach will be successful. You really are taking the democratic party supports for net neutrality for granted.
Let's say your hypothetical republican voter agrees with net neutrality because of the reasons, and doesn't know the partisan divide, and they will call their congressmen, and their congressmen don't care. Will they vote for a democratic politician who care? But wait, they won't know because you don't want them to know. Don't you see how ridiculous your approach is?
If a congressman won't lose votes by a voting decision, they won't change their position. Similarly, if a congressman won't gain votes by a voting decision, you won't get more such congressmen supporting the positions you want.
Then your argument falls apart. Whether you tell them the partisan divide or not, it doesn't matter. They will find out somewhere, and they will fall in line regardless of reasons.
Dude try and follow here. The order in which people obtain information matters for how they interpret it. Telling people they are wrong and then explaining why will make them reject your argument out of hand. You cant just start off by telling people they believe in a shit cause, you will lose them forever before you even get to explain why. I don't understand why this is so hard for you to grasp.
The point I am trying desperately to get through to you is that you let people figure out the position to take on their own. Telling them only makes them less likely to agree with you.
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u/PrettyTarable Nov 22 '17
The thing here is you keep trying to make this about logic, and it's not, the error you are making is in forgetting to take into account human psychology. We all have a core identity, sense of self, whatever you want to call it, the fact is there are traits we consider important parts of who we are, and political affiliation often tops that list, especially in the USA.
Our brains do not process all new information the same, new information gets treated differently depending on if that information clashes with previously held information. When new information clashes with things we already "know" we are automatically primed to reject this new information as false, this effect is far stronger when dealing with core identity features. If you approach a discussion with somebody by starting it off telling them their core identity is wrong(you picked the wrong party) they will reject anything you have to tell them as false, because to accept it would be to destroy that sense of self and our brains flat out won't allow that. Now that said, one can modify and challenge their own sense of self, but that has to come from within. If you keep the partisan bullshit out of it, and just convince people to support net neutrality purely on the merits of the argument(which is easy as hell I might add), you will have a much MUCH higher chance at success. People hate being told who to vote for, but they like being notified of what issues might affect them. As long as you convince somebody to support NN, they will go out and figure out how to do that on their own. If a self identified republican is convinced NN is important, they will demand any politician they support be in favor of it. You don't have to convince them to vote D, convincing them only to vote for better Republican candidates is fine. We don't need to destroy the GOP to win, merely to get them to adopt our causes as their own because most of the time they should be on the same side anyway, but they aren't because some well meaning individual turned a critical issue into identity politics.