by Manon Welles
But if someone attacks you one-on-one, ridicule is a good way to hit back twice as hard. I’m opposed to the trend of using overtly racist remarks, whether online or in person. Some think they’re pushing back against PC culture by doing so, but you risk losing supporters while giving the enemy ammunition to use against you. Successful ridicule comes from a place of power and dignity, not from making your side look bad.
It’s also important to mention that SJWs made a fatal flaw in the way they’ve tried to attack their opponents nowadays. They should have listened to Alinsky, who advised his radicals to refrain from using worn-out words like “white racist” and “fascist pig.” But the Left today is so uncreative — probably because these words have worked for decades — that now they know nothing more to call people. Already people have noticed that they’re like the boy who cried “racist” at every little thing until it became meaningless. Because of this the Right has started to counteract these insults of “racist” or “sexist” by completely blowing them off and not even addressing them, or even laughing in the person’s face for saying something so contrived.
If someone calls you sexist, racist, homophobic or Islamophobic for your views, there’s no reason to panic (unless it’s at work). There’s no need to defend yourself. Treat anyone who uses these names as the complete idiot they are.
Ridicule creates anger, nervousness, fear and impulsive lashing out. Take Marco Rubio as an example. A couple weeks before the 2016 Florida primary, Rubio started relentlessly attacking Trump. His rallies sounded more like a comedy routine than a speech. He told multiple jokes in a row, but his timing — combined with the fact that he was doing a poor imitation of Trump’s own strategy of ridicule — may have been the final blow that knocked him out of the race. Rubio was on the defensive when he went after Trump, and it was obvious he was doing it from a place of fear.
In contrast, Trump uses ridicule from a place of strength, not from a place of weakness. When he made comments like “Jeb! is a mess” in the ninth GOP debate, it showed such complete disregard for one of America’s most powerful political families that it worked. Around that time, Trump fought back after Jeb! made some negative comments about Trump to CNN's Dana Bash. Trump told CNN's Wolf Blitzer that Jeb! was “an embarrassment to his family” and pointed out that he “doesn't even use his last name in his ads.” Trump added, “ He's a sad person who has gone absolutely crazy. I mean, this guy is a nervous wreck. I've never seen anything like it." [57]
If you’re skeptical about whether ridicule — rightly used — is successful, just look at who won the Republican primary.
Rule No. 6: A good tactic is one your people enjoy.
Whatever tactics you decide on, they need to be fun. Obligation are hard enough to keep, and even moreso when they’re boring. Plus, it’s tiresome for leadership to have to continually prod people into action.
This is one reason Leftists hold so many protests. For an SJW, going to a protest is a way to virtue signal, to let everyone they’re a virtuous person without having to actually do anything. How many Leftists do you know who are sponsoring refugees to live in their own homes, and pledging to pay for everything themselves so the refugees can forego living on the taxpayers’ dime? Probably zero. But Leftists love to attend pro-migrant rallies to agitate for you and me to pay for them. Feeling morally superior without having to do anything is fun for them, especially if they can get on the news holding their “progressive” sign or post photos of themselves on Facebook or Instagram.
SJWs came out in droves to protest against Trump because it was fun — it was a big party where they could bully people. The only time it became unpleasant — except when they were getting arrested for hitting police horses [58] and pepper sprayed for throwing large rocks at police and their horses [59] — was when journalists and Trump supporters pummeled them with questions they couldn’t answer, making them look like idiots on the few news channels that covered it. But sometimes it’s more fun for SJWs when they do get harassed by the cops. Then they have a story to tell for years about how they were a “victim.”
Conservatives have traditionally been opposed to these types of antics. We’re pretty law-abiding, and we have careers where getting on the news assaulting police officers could be disastrous. So instead of being violent, conservatives have peaceful protests or form conservative think tanks, which are invaluable for their studies but hardly something millennials (or even old folks) get excited about.
Trump has changed this to a large extent. When I went to one of his rallies, despite being about to collapse from standing in line for three hours, it was a blast. We chanted to get protesters kicked out, and afterwards shouted “get a job” and “build that wall” at the anti-Trump crowd who had lined up by the exit. Imagine a White House Correspondents’ Dinner with President Trump — it would be a blast.
Trump has always known the importance of having a good time. “It never stops,” he wrote in The Art of the Deal , “and I wouldn’t have it any other way. I try to learn from the past, but I plan for the future by focusing exclusively on the present. That’s where the fun is. And if it can’t be fun, what’s the point?” [60]
This certainly came through in his presidential campaign. Supporters have never enjoyed a candidate as much as Trump. Even with Obama’s massive support in 2008, his campaign was more about grievances and resentment of others than it was about having fun. But in 2015, Trump fans started making videos that are essentially just compilations of Trump’s humor — his imitation of “Little Marco” drinking water, mocking Hillary Clinton’s screeching voice, and poking fun of Rand Paul’s height (“Rand, I’ve had you up to here,” Trump said, holding his hand to indicate Paul only came up to his chest). [61]
Supporters loved shouting out “Mexico!” when Trump asked, “Who’s going to pay for the wall?” They loved it when Trump asked, “Do we hate the media?” For the first time, conservatives had some cool slogans of their own to chant back at the Left.
They loved chanting Lyin’ Ted (and calling Cruz the name to his face). They even loved the protesters, whether it was to get crazy SJW footage for YouTube compilations or filming them assaulting Trump supporters, proving to the world that the anti-Trump crowd was the most violent.
While we can’t sit around waiting for Trump to come to town to have fun, there’s a lot to be learned from these tactics. Direct engagement with the Left, like holding counter-protests, is more fun than stuffing envelopes. A letter to the editor that uses humor and ridicule is more fun for readers than one listing facts. Starting an absurd campaign and making it look like the Left is behind it is more fun than a serious campaign. Picking a prominent Leftist as a target to focus attacks on is more fun than fighting against “high taxes.” Use your imagination and brainstorm with your core group to determine what’s both fun and within everyone’s comfort zone.
Rule No. 7: A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.
Alinsky wrote: “Man can sustain militant interest in any issue for only a limited time, after which it becomes a ritualistic commitment, like going to church on Sunday mornings.” This is one reason why SJWs switch issues as quickly as they change sexual partners. They don’t want to talk forever about how cafeteria workers at Clemson University dished out tacos while wearing sombreros at the school’s “Maximum Mexican” night (the Senior Associate Vice President of Student Affairs apologized for it after SJW outrage for cultural appropriation). [62] So they have to turn to something else, like how the Oscars are “too white.” [63] And so it goes, following the news cycle, creating a constant stream of offensive excitement for SJWs.
Trump seems to understand this tactic intuitively. He constantly told his supporters:
“We’re going to win so much, you’re going to be so sick and tired of winning. You’re going to come to me and go, ‘Please, please, we can’t win anymore.’ . . . And I’m going to say ‘I’m sorry, but we’re going to keep winning, winning, winning. We’re going to ma
ke America great again.” [64]
Trump was fortunate to have 17 opponents to take out in the primary. Cycling through Ben Carson (“ he took the knife and went like this and he plunged it into the belt!” ), Little Marco, low-energy Jeb!, Lyin’ Ted Cruz, and 1-for-38 Kasich, it was such a roller-coaster ride of high-energy antics that supporters didn’t have time to get bored. Every week or two another person was eliminated and Trump was onto something new. It was variety and the subject matter never became a drag.
Changing up tactics has the added benefit of keeping you or your issue in the news cycle. One criticism I have of conservatives is that they don’t know how to have a good time while also getting media coverage (and hence, new supporters). The Right needs to take a clue from the stunts pulled by SJWs and start holding their own fun events (though I’m sure they’ll have a bit more class).
A few people are already doing this successfully. Mark Dice takes to the boardwalks of California to film people signing fake petitions, like one to get Karl Marx on the ticket as Hillary’s vice-president. In many of his YouTube videos he just asks questions like “what is the meaning of Memorial Day?” and numerous people agreed it was to celebrate the Wright brothers. In another video he tried to sell a 100-ounce bar of silver (worth about $1,600 at the time) for $25 and got no takers. [65]
Conservative activist James O’Keefe has drawn viewers and news coverage with his undercover videos. The most popular was in 2009, when he and Hannah Giles, another conservative activist, posed as a prostitute and her boyfriend and made recordings of employees at ACORN (Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now) giving them advice, including how to avoid detection by authorities for tax evasion, prostitution and human smuggling. Donations to ACORN, including federal funds, dropped dramatically, leading to the group’s closure the following year. [66]
Another video by O’Keefe showed NPR executives talking to people they thought had ties to the Muslim Brotherhood who wanted to donate to NPR. A 2012 video showed O’Keefe’s associates obtaining ballots for the New Hampshire primary by using the names of deceased voters. In 2014, he dressed up as Osama bin Laden and crossed back-and-forth across the border between the U.S. and Mexico to “show that our elected officials were lying to the American people” about border security. [67]
O’Keefe got his start while a student at Rutgers University, where one video shows a food service employee earnestly taking his complaints about how Lucky Charms was offensive to his Irish Heritage. Another stunt at Rutgers was holding an affirmative action bake sale, at which whites were charged super high prices and blacks got discounts. O’Keefe often turned for inspiration to Rules for Radicals . [68]
The anti-consumerist group Adbusters keeps people interested by making fake advertisements, like one featuring the Camel cigarettes’ camel icon as “Joe Chemo” in a hospital bed. They’ve created campaigns like Buy Nothing Day (the day after Christmas, the biggest shopping day of the year, where supporters pledge to buy absolutely nothing) and Buy Nothing Xmas, a series of free Christmas e-cards that encourage people to forgo buying presents at Christmas.
Even standard forms of activism can be fun, so long as they don’t drag on too long. Use this rule when trying to decide how long a Patriot rally should be, such as changing out the two-hour long schedule to be 45 minutes of speakers followed by a potluck. Change up your monthly lecture series by occasionally holding meet-and-greets and activism brainstorm sessions. Standard tactics like making phone calls and writing letters are fine, so long as they don’t go on too long.
If you’re part of an anti-refugee group, switch out your usual flyers with ones featuring cartoon pigs, the dog bans and poisonings throughout Europe, [69] or highlighting the massacre of 12 people that happened after the French newspaper Charlie Hebdo published cartoons of Muhammad. While talking about national security or refugees’ staggering use of welfare might be all your “official” group can discuss without reprisal, organize some younger members to get more creative and leave your logo off of those flyers and memes.
Rule No. 8: Keep the pressure on. Never let up.
SJWs know how to keep the pressure on — probably because most are college students or under-employed adults with plenty of free time for agitation. (Of course, that didn’t stop students at Oberlin College from creating a petition asking the school to ban grades lower than C and to let them talk with a professor rather than write an essay, claiming they spent so much time on activism that their grades were suffering.
[70] )
One of the most recent examples of “keeping the pressure on” comes from the University of Missouri. A variety of SJW groups picked Mizzou President Tim Wolfe as their target for supposedly failing to address racist incidents at the school. Apparently someone dropped some cotton balls in front of a Black Culture Center. Then, a gay black student who had been elected the student government president said guys in the back of a pick-up truck shouted racial slurs at him while he was walking near the university. This pushed SJWs over the edge and they held two “Racism Lives Here” protests. [71]
Next, a white student who was drunk walked on stage while members of the Legion of Black Collegians, a black student government organization, were rehearsing for Homecoming. After being asked to leave he used the n-word while walking off. This prompted Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin to record a video message about how racism was heinous and damaging. The group “Concerned Student 1950” was formed later that month, named after the year the first black student was admitted to Mizzou.
A couple weeks later a black student named Jonathan Butler started a hunger strike, vowing not to eat until President Wolfe resigned. Butler, whose family is worth an estimated $20 million, claimed that the president’s car ran into him. A video from Concerned Student 1950’s own YouTube account showed that it was actually Butler who walked into the car. He was also mad that Obamacare had changed the rules for health insurance, meaning graduate students would now receive less money; but Butler chose to blame it on the university.
A week later, black football players joined the movement, vowing to not practice or play until Wolfe resigned. The school was in danger of receiving a $1 million fine if it forfeited an upcoming game. Wolfe resigned the next day, and Chancellor Loftin announced he’d resign at the end of the year. All told, it took less than two weeks from the start of the hunger strike, and two days after the football boycott, for the two resignations. [72]
Despite Wolfe’s comments that “ This is not, I repeat not, the way change should come about. Change comes from listening, learning, caring and conversation. We have to respect each other enough to stop yelling at each other and start listening, and quit intimidating each othe r ” — it was the way change came about at Mizzou. [73] SJWs bullying put two more notches on its belt.
Note that the resignation came before the much-publicized event on Nov. 9, 2015, when several faculty members physically confronted people trying to enter the Carnahan Quad that had been declared a “safe space.” And before the same student body president publicized a false claim that KKK members were on campus and the National Guard had been called in. And before a Concerned Student 1950 meeting was held only for “ black students and students of color,” a move that puzzled many who thought Leftists were fighting against segregation, not for it.
The events at Mizzou — where faculty and students bullied others to get their way — are just oneexample of how Obama constantly praised SJWs during his tenure as president . “There is clearly a problem at the University of Missouri, and that's not just coming from students. That's coming from some faculty,” he said, adding “I'd rather see them err on the side of activism than being passive.” [74]
In contrast, Trump commented on the event saying, “ I think the two people that resigned are weak, ineffective people," adding, "I think that when they resigned they set something in motion that's going to be a disaster for a long period of time.” [75]
Trump’s attitude of not giving in is
one reason he was able to cinch the Republican nomination even though he was constantly attacked by SJWs, establishment Democrats and even Republicans. They kept the pressure on him to the tune of 64,000 negative ads costing more than $75 million in the primaries alone. [76] Had Trump wavered or apologized for something he said, it would have shown enough weakness for his enemies to sense a possible defeat and jump back in with renewed strength. Instead, he flippantly wrote off attacks — like saying they were from the “failing” New York Times — and hit back twice as hard. Just as your opponents will keep the pressure on you, you must do the same back to them.
Trump’s Republican opponents didn’t follow that line, and one by one they finally folded. Ted Cruz tried to fight back against his “Lyin’ Ted” moniker by christening Trump “Sleazy Donald.” He only said it a couple of times before abandoning the tactic. Perhaps if he’d come up with a better name and kept the pressure on, he could have held out against Trump a bit longer.
Keeping the pressure on also involves trying out new tactics, seeing what works, and sticking to that. The key is to attack again before the enemy has a chance to recover from the first blow. This also ensures that even if one strategy is a flop, you can be back in a couple days trying something new. This happens to Trump too, for example, when he called for a boycott of Apple products that went nowhere. It wasn’t a big deal because he was already onto something new. Keeping the pressure on is a matter of commitment, as well as constant attack, constant offense.
Rule No. 9: The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.
This rule describes how by simply threatening an action, your opponents’ imaginations will run wild with ideas of how disastrous it will be. They may even give in without you actually having to go through with it. A threat can cause an organization to waste huge amounts of resources preparing for an event that never materializes, or the threat itself could be demoralizing.