“Twitter Activism” (and all its related forms) relies on persuading as many people as possible on a particular point of view.
Persuasion is just another word for influence or selling.
And there is a maxim in sales that say “only say and do things that prospects can believe.”
Otherwise, you’ve lost that person forever.
And what does that mean?
You’ve lost the sale.
Simply, you haven’t been able to influence or persuade.
The reason for this is what Saul Alinsky, the famous community activist wrote this in his seminal work Rules For Radicals: You’ve gone outside “the experience of the people.”
They can’t and won’t believe you.
Alinsky was an amazingly effective social activist because he understood this premise.
When I see Twitter Activists say absolutes: “all X” or “all Y”, prospects may find it hard believe that statement.
In philosophy (in my undergraduate degree I did a Major in Philosophy) this is a logical fallacy called the “fallacy of defective induction”: giving a universal character or application to something that is clearly not true (where it would be impossible to verify “all X” or “all Y” to draw that conclusion.)
All you need to do is find one exception, and the argument falls flat.
99 out of 100 is not “all.”
If they had said “most X” or “97% of Y” as an alternative, prospects could believe that statement, even if the statement directly talks about the prospect.
That’s the power of logic.
And you can continue with your persuasion because prospects are still listening to you.
Yet if you generalize, you become way less persuasive and you’re efforts are mostly wasted.
The easy way to solve this is:
- Draft your argument for yourself;
- Draft your argument for your prospects; and
- Draft your argument for your prospects what are the cynics.
The third iteration is where you get rid of any defective induction you may have claimed.
Be smart with how you present arguments and you’ll win.
Language matters in persuasion.
Don’t pretend like it doesn’t.