Scott Adams: In his own words
Last night Donald Trump appeared on Jimmy Kimmel and said he would debate Bernie Sanders so long as the profits from the debate go to charity. Sanders quickly agreed via Twitter. There’s your headline for a few days, or more. Let me tell you how clever that was. By agreeing to debate…
Read MoreSlander is illegal, but hard to prove. And if you lose your case in court, it can be super-expensive. You’ll end up paying your own court fees and those of your opponent. In other words, the government can’t help you if someone slanders you in public. You’re sort of on…
Read MoreTrump has pulled ahead of Clinton nationally in both the new FOX poll and the Rasmussen Poll. And Trump passed Clinton in favorability according to the newest national poll on that topic. The Megyn Kelly interview (including the hyping of it ahead of time) marked Trump’s third-act turn. By the way, Anderson Cooper of CNN…
Read MoreHere’s a good summary on Business Insider of the top 14 likely VP picks for Trump. See if you can predict who Trump will choose. Few things are harder to predict than a VP choice because the situation stays fluid until the actual selection. And frankly, I don’t know much about the…
Read MoreI added a new book to my Persuasion Reading List. The book is Impossible to Ignore: Creating Memorable Content to Influence Decisions This is a must-read for anyone interested in influencing an audience. The book explains the science behind making things memorable and shows you how to do it. And memory is…
Read MoreNow that Donald Trump has effectively wrapped up the Republican Party nomination, let’s talk about the general election. Clinton’s campaign chair, John Podesta, has started to make the case that Trump is too “risky” to be president. That signals a shift from arguing about policy and experience to pure persuasion. That’s a big…
Read MoreRegular readers remember I blogged that Megyn Kelly got her new haircut because of Trump’s influence. This article seems to confirm it. You also know I predicted that Megyn Kelly would do an interview with Trump that would mark Trump’s third-act solution. That interview is scheduled for May 17. It is worth noting that…
Read MoreAccording to the news, the United States is stepping up its use of cyber attacks and psychology against ISIS. For example, our cyber forces are creating fake messages to send ISIS fighters to the wrong places. Update: Here’s more about current efforts. But the funniest part is that the U.S. military is…
Read MoreIn Iran you can vote for anyone for President so long as that person has been approved by the Ayatollah Khameini. We Americans call that system a dictatorship. Voters in America recently discovered that they live under an Iranian type of system and didn’t know it. In the primaries, voters…
Read MoreIn case you missed it, I appeared on Real Time with Bill Maher on Friday and explained that Trump is more Master Persuader than crazy clown. It’s worth watching. If you want to learn more about some of the psychological phenomena I mentioned on the show, I recommend this new book called Impossible to Ignore….
Read MoreI realize a number of my blog readers don’t think climate change is a problem. Hold that objection until the end. — Let’s say you think climate change is the biggest threat to humanity, and you also think Trump believes climate change to be a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese,…
Read MoreIf you’re wondering why Dilbert looks different today, it’s because I asked CNN anchor and host Jake Tapper to be my guest artist for the week of 5/23/16. I wrote six daily comics for the week and Jake did the art. You can see them on the home page starting with the first one…
Read MoreThe other day I explained to you that Trump was using “stamina” as a linguistic kill shot against Hillary Clinton. The genius of it – persuasion-wise – is that every normal candidate has some low-energy days. Everyone gets hoarse from too much speech-making. Everyone takes bathroom breaks, and other kinds of…
Read MoreThe founders of the United States designed a system in which voters elected smart people and those smart people ran the country. They called it a republic. Over time, money corrupted the system. Rich people became the real power. The rich controlled the media, and that was enough to control…
Read MorePerhaps you are familiar with this famous quote: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” – George Santayana The idea here is that patterns in history repeat. That might be true. Or it might be false. I have no idea. But I’ll tell you one thing…
Read More