Trump won. Protesting isn’t going to change that fact. And neither side is going to forget that this was one of the ugliest and most surprising elections in memory. So what do we do?
We can go on doing the things we’ve done that only soothes our regret or indulges our ids, or we can learn. And I’m speaking to both sides here. Beating up colored people won’t improve your circumstances anymore than occupying Wall Street will, but learning how not to be manipulated by messages crafted to deceive and mislead might. And they were crafted. On both sides.
Trump may be a bully, but he’s not an idiot. This election just proved that he’s more persuasive than Mark Cuban, Robert Cialdini, Hollywood, MSNBC and Hillary Clinton combined. So the first order of business is to learn what Jedi mind tricks he used to get here.
Remember: magic loses its power once you learn how it works. The glass sheet just under the surface makes the walk on water less miraculous.
It won’t be easy, in fact it actually takes more energy to be objective than subjective. But it will help you avoid days like Wednesday, when you were either harassed because you voted for Trump or harassed because you looked like someone who’d vote for Hillary.
I’m an ad guy, and I’m obsessed with persuasion and behavioral psychology. In the next few days/weeks, I’m going to break down some of the ways both candidates manipulated you. And then we’re going to look at what we can do to keep that from happening by thinking like Sherlock Holmes. Finally, we’ll learn how to fight back.
So if you’re interested, stay tuned.
