Jared Fuller

This post has been a long time coming and it may serve as the perfect way to tick you off today (Nobody likes being told they may be wrong in how they approach life, especially activism)

Please do allow me to elaborate:

Your pet issue (whether it be war, spending, debt, the Fed, etc) is NOT everyone else's pet issue.

Right? Doesn't it just make sense? I would hope so, it's an extremely easy concept to grasp.

If you spend 90% of your time trying to convince someone of your opinion on a certain topic, then you're probably a lot less likely to listen to someone else's views on a different subject matter. I witnessed this time and time again as people alienated potential voters for Ron Paul in the 2008 election cycle.

The correlation is that the same can be said for the other person--you alienate them, they alienate you, all the work has been in vain.

We don't want any of that.

So where am I going with this? Easy, just to a little place of explanation to help you in the liberty movement, to be exponentially more effective.

Here are my Articles of Perception, feel free to comment on them, I may even think to add them to the list if they are solid enough (they are very similar to how Year of Youth operates in its strategic/marketing approaches):

Year of Youth's Articles of Perception

1. In politics, as well in any form of argument, how people perceive you is everything.
   
2. Your pet issue is not everyone else's pet issue.
   
3. If you're 100% correct about a subject of opinion, but your interlocutor(s) (audience engaged in conversation) perceive you as incorrect, you have failed in communicating your points.
   
4. Failure in communication almost always has to do with how you approach changing someone's mind, and not the content of the argument itself.
   
5. Argument structure is just as important, if not more than, as the content of the argument.
   
6. Arguing frameworks are much more effective than arguing particulars (e.g., the importance of localizing government [a framework] over the relevance of, for example, intellectual property rights [a particular]).
   
7. Find common ground before you find differences, then go from there. It is much better to start from points of agreement, than points of contention.
   
8. If you are perceived as wrong, crazy, insane, etc., you will be treated as such.
   
9. Sometimes it is better to use questioning (i.e., Socratic dialectic) than mere argument. Arguments with no questioning generally end in aporia.
   
10. If you are perceived as boring (e.g., uncool), it may not even matter how right you are.
    
11. Make everything relevant to your audience. If it is irrelevant, they will likely not even care in what you have to say.
    
12. If you anger your audience, they will disagree with you, almost always.
    
13. The perception of others is more important than your own. Understand where your ideological opponents are coming from. Understanding their perceptions is more important than having a logically sound argument.
    
14. Sometimes, it is better to listen than to talk. If you are understanding of your interlocutors, they will be more keen to see your points.
    
15. And my personal favorite:Filet Mignon looks much more appetizing than puree of beef. The content is the same, the presentation makes all the difference in the world.

I hope these articles that I have developed for Year of Youth will help you in spreading the message of liberty. For certain, they are very applicable and have revolutionized how I communicate with people.

I am certain that if you heed their veracity, you will be a much more effective activist.

And that's what we all want: to be more effective!

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