Book
Review by Kam Williams
Win
Bigly
Persuasion
in a World Where Facts Don't Matter
by
Scott Adams
Portfolio/Penguin
Hardcover,
$27.00
304
pages
ISBN:
978-0-7352-1971-7
“On August 13, 2015, I
predicted on my blog that Donald Trump had a 98% chance of winning
the presidency based on his persuasion skills... Persuasion is all
about the tools and techniques of changing people's minds, with or
without facts and reason...
Why did I say Trump had
exactly a 98% chance of winning... Trump is the best persuader I have
ever seen in action. The wall is a perfect example. Consider how much
discipline it took for him to... be willing to endure brutal
criticism about how dumb he was to think he could secure the border
with a wall...
During the presidential
campaign, it seemed that candidate Trump was making one factual error
after another. Social media and the mainstream media... called him a
liar, a con man, and just plain stupid... [But] Trump often stuck to
his claims after the media thoroughly debunked them...
It was mind-boggling. No
one was quite sure if the problem was his honesty, his lack of
homework, or some sort of brain problem...
I am a trained
hypnotist... Based on my background in that field, I recognized his
talents early... Trump is what I call a Master Persuader."
-- Excerpted from pages
1-2 and19-23.
How
did Donald Trump win the 2016 presidential election? All the experts
confidently predicted he would lose only to serve up an unconvincing
explanations like low Democrat voter turnout in swing states when
they were shocked by the outcome.
But
there was never a doubt in the mind of Scott Adams who confidently
predicted a Trump landslide soon after he declared himself a
candidate. And who is Scott Adams? Not a pollster or a political
pundit. No, he's a syndicated cartoonist.
If
the name rings a bell, that's because he's the creator of Dilbert,
the popular comic strip revolving around a beleaguered white-collar
worker. But Scott is also a hypnotist, and he knew who would win when
he observed Trump skillfully employing all the tricks of a master
persuader.
Adams
argues in Win Bigly that, by design, Donald would sprinkle his
speeches with seductive catchphrases like, "Believe me,"
"It's true," and "Many people are saying..." It
didn't matter that he often contradicted himself and outright lied.
For,
according to the author, humans have a design flaw in that we are
terribly susceptible to manipulators well-versed in mind-control
techniques. And sure enough, Trump did enjoy a lopsided victory, at
least in terms of the Electoral College.
A
sobering post mortem on the presidential election suggesting that
half the American populace might be under the spell of a modern-day
Machiavelli.
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