Making a stronger play for the persuadable

I’ve talked about what I call “red meat” political posts before.  They’re fun to write.  Generally I think of a zinger or two I’d like to use.  That can be a fully-formed sentence that pops in my head, or it can be as simple as two words together I like the sound of.  Then I write a post for them, and there they are.  Judging from comments, they’re fun to read, too—if you agree with them.  (My mind was trained to think this way back in the days of hsv.general, where such was rewarded.)

However, when it comes to political commentary, such posts aren’t very far up the difficulty scale, which means there are a lot of them out there.  More importantly, they’re almost never persuasive.  They simply make both supporters and opposers dig in.

I think there are people out there to persuade, and I’d like to try harder to have their ears.  I’m going to challenge myself to continue to write with emotion on the issues about which I feel strongly, but to temper the inflammatory rhetoric with which I have historically paired that emotion.  Further, I intend to include more hard support (citations, references, and so forth), where applicable.

I read columnists who regularly and effectively convey anger and sadness without resorting to discursive gasoline and a match.  I think that trait is worthy of emulation, and I’m going to give it a shot.  The post immediately preceding this one mostly gets there, I think.

I appreciate the attaboys and claps on the back when I write a red meat post, but I already know I can get them.  I think I aspire to much less of that, and much more a URL of mine being pasted into an email, underneath “This made me think.”

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2 thoughts on “Making a stronger play for the persuadable”

  1. I do lurve me some cut-n-paste, myself.

    Honestly, it’s more fun for me to get the disagree-er (?) and have a good discussion than it is to get ten “i agrees.”

    (Not that it isn’t welcomed in these challenging times to know that someone else occasionally shares my POV.)

    Reply
  2. Kemtee, I hear you. I’m hoping for more discussion as well. I welcome thoughtful dissent, and I’m not so sure my recent posts have encouraged such.

    Reply

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