Scott Adams: In his own words
Trump gave his nomination acceptance speech last night. I grade it an A-. It wasn’t a speech for the ages, but it was presidential enough. As convention speeches go, it was solid. As I have already blogged, all Trump needs to do is NOT act like a crazy racist for the next…
Read MoreWhen you are trained in the ways of persuasion, you start seeing three types of people in the world. I’ll call them Rational People, Word-Thinkers, and Persuaders. Their qualities look like this: Rational People: Use data and reason to arrive at truth. (This group is mostly imaginary.) Word-Thinkers: Use labels, word definitions,…
Read MoreIn a recent blog post I complained about the impossibility of buying a truck that fits my needs. I asked readers to tell me how they were able to succeed at buying a truck whereas I have found it to be impossible. The impossible part is simply getting the truck I want,…
Read MoreMonitoring Mosques People are outraged because Newt Gingrich suggested that the U.S. government should start monitoring mosques to thwart terrorism. Outrage is a perfectly reasonable response to Gingrich’s proposal if you’re dumb enough to think the government isn’t already monitoring mosques in the U.S. How do I know the government already monitors…
Read MoreTrump’s biggest problem in this election so far is that most racists appear to be on his side. At least it looks that way to the public. That awkward perception allowed Team Clinton to brand the Trump campaign as the racist team. Clinton’s strategy of racial politics has been effective….
Read MoreIs it my imagination, or has Trump been relatively non-controversial lately? Do you remember how Trump got lots of free publicity in the past year by saying approximately one outrageous and controversial thing each week, like clockwork? And do you remember how you thought his outrageous approach could never be…
Read MoreI’ve been trying for several months to buy a Chevy Truck, for a variety of functional and recreational purposes. It turns out you can’t do that. Yes, I was surprised too. To be fair, I do see people buying Chevy trucks all the time, but I call them victims, not…
Read MoreSome of you watched with amusement as I endorsed Hillary Clinton for my personal safety. What you might not know is that I was completely serious. I was getting a lot of direct and indirect death threats for writing about Trump’s powers of persuasion, and I made all of that…
Read MoreThe primary goal of government is its own credibility. That notion needs some explaining. Governments do many things, including building roads, providing social services, defending the homeland, and more. But no matter what the government is trying to accomplish, its macro-responsibility is to maintain its own credibility. Governments without credibility…
Read MoreDo you remember the detailed policy proposal that came out of the Clinton campaign last week? Neither do I. I’m not saying it didn’t happen. I’m just saying that if Clinton said something about her policies, I didn’t notice. The Clinton campaign has wisely ditched facts and reason for pure…
Read MoreFor months I have been saying mostly good things in this blog about Trump’s powers of persuasion, and mostly bad things about how the Clinton campaign does persuasion. And yet Clinton has a solid lead in the polls, assuming the polls are accurate. How can that be? The quick answer is that Clinton’s side…
Read MorePerhaps the biggest unreported story of this presidential election is the humiliation of the American male. Unless I’m blinded by confirmation bias – which is entirely possible – it seems to me that the humiliation of American men is now institutionalized in the media. Check out this commercial for dishwasher detergent….
Read MoreOn average, Democrats (that’s my team*) use guns for shooting the innocent. We call that crime. On average, Republicans use guns for sporting purposes and self-defense. If you don’t believe me, you can check the statistics on the Internet that don’t exist. At least I couldn’t find any that looked…
Read MoreRegular readers of this blog know I’m a trained hypnotist. I’ve been studying the ways of persuasion – in all its forms – for decades. My background in persuasion is the reason I recognized last summer that Trump would exceed most people’s expectations. He was pitch-perfect on persuasion technique. If…
Read MoreMy mother often quoted an old-timey saying: “You can get used to hanging if you do it long enough.” That’s good homespun psychology. Humans will see nearly anything as normal if they are exposed to it long enough. I’m sure ISIS fighters feel they are acting in a normal way after…
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