Stealing the left's techniques but not their hyperseriousness

[Dave Ridley]

No one has discussed this much but I've been thinking a lot about the ways we are co-opting the techniques of the left for a new purpose...We're using street protests but the goal is liberty rather than increased spending.    We're doing this because left wingers have done pretty well using these approach, and because it is also the only reliable way to make an impact with our small numbers.   It's good to try and break their monopoly on things.

However despite all their domination of street theater and media, leftists have really shot themselves in the foot a lot these last 20 years...with their own street theater.  Their hysterical tone has been reputiated often by the public in presidential elections.    I think a lot about that and about how to avoid falling into the same traps that have snared them.

My theory is that it's an uneven sales job...that the leftists are great at getting in front of the buyer but they alienate her with strident and annoying "you must buy" behavior.   They're always saying the world is going to end when it isn't, always foaming at the mouth and spouting off factual errors, always making it personal and vindictive.   They're not the only ones who do this, but they do it the most.   And people in the Center see through it, vote against it. 

These are the mistakes I perceive, which we need to avoid as we find our voice.   We have to make sure we don't take ourselves too seriously, that we are using humor effectively and having fun rather than just being angry.   And we need to be perceived as doing these things.

Here are some things I've seen happen which "worked" in terms of presenting this image:

The creation of that "Now Escaping Massachusetts" sign...beautiful!   Hilarious!  Don't change a thing....
The time when the Keene Sentinel came to our UN flag burn and reported we were "all smiles."
Whoever came up with "Internal Robbery Squadron" should get a medal ....

Here are some things that sound a little too strident to me or remind me of the overserious left:

"Break the Chains of Statism"  - not saying erase it just that it sounds almost leftist in tone, kinda full of dogma, unnecessarily serious.

(actually that's the only one I can think of off the top of my head...)

Sometimes with limited space on a sign it is really tough to be funny, but if you're smiling and waving that does help.

Backing off of your message, however, or playing something down does not endear you to any one.  It's like in that movie Clear and Present Danger where Harrison Ford says to the president...the press is about to ask you if you were friends with that dead drug dealer.  And you're about to downplay your ties.  That's wrong. Instead, when they ask if he was your friend you say no he was my *best* friend.  And if they ask whether you were best friends you say "no we were *lifelong* best friends."  Give them nowhere to go.....

[John]

Not "almost leftist".
The "Cut The Chains of Statisim" idea did in fact come from the left - From the Students for Individual Liberty.
Remember where we were?  The Ma. border.

Remember when the left knew what we were talking about?
Remember when we knew them?

We're good at talking to the right these days, but we must also reach back to our freinds on the left.
Remember when they knew us?

Liberty will not win if we don't ALSO reach our brothers and sisters - or should I say sons and daughters - on the left.

Ever ask why some think that this is just a "far right wing" thing?  Hmm?
"Kinda full of dogma"?  "Unnecessarily serious?

Dude, check out the pictures.  We were smiling, waving, and having lots of fun.  Lots of humor & fun my freind - lots of good humor & good fun.

[Russell Kanning]

The simple signs seem to work the best, but the real key seems to be the fun we have whiledoing something in public.
If we would have had 50 people decked out like John with the big flag thing going, we would have had quite a scene.

[Lloyd Danforth]

I was a member of SIL. I don't remember thinking we were on the left.  We were libertarians.  There was some chain stuff on some of the literature, but, nothing that could be construed Left. Maybe you're thinking SDS.
lloyd

[John]

I was a member of SIL. I don't remember thinking we were on the left.? We were libertarians.? There was some chain stuff on some of the literature, but, nothing that could be construed Left. Maybe you're thinking SDS.
lloyd

I am thinking of SIL as (solid) libertarians who came from the left.  (Is that correct?)  You know much more about that than I.  (I was never a member.)

Anyway, a shirt that I still have from an LP convention in DC some years ago says, "SMASH THE CHAINS OF STATISM" above a picture of a man (with a sledge) busting a chain over a huge anvil (labeled S.I.L.)  Beneath the picture it says, "Students for Individual Liberty".

Was SIL one of the groups which merged to become the ISIL?

[Lloyd Danforth]

I think it was 'Society For Individual Liberty'? It is still active as 'International Society For Individual Liberty', still run, I think, by Jarrett Wollstien.

[Kat Kanning]

Vince Miller is the president.  Not actually fond of those guys, as people.

[Dave Ridley]

Watching the demonstrators at the Inaugural today I was reminded how repetitive and *boring* leftists are when they protest.  And shrill.  Not near as effective as speaking softly, having fun, and carrying a big gun LOL. 

[Russell Kanning]