Comments on: George Lakoff – Teaching Democrats to Talk to Americans

By: Herb

Herb — Sun, 17 Jul 2005 21:38:08 +0000

Looks like Mr. Lakoff need a little advise. That is:

"Talking to a Democrat is like trying to talk to a drunk"

The drunk, while telling you he is listening, doesn't hear a word you are saying,And if he did listen, is not about to take you seriously.

Perhaps Mr Lakoff is a fugitive from AA that fell off the wagon

By: talboito

talboito — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 19:41:21 +0000

As many time as it has been said, it should be said again. Lakoff's Frame Theory is fairly removed from Psych 101.

It is an interesting an robust psycholinguistic theory that has some promise toward explaining how our concepts are structured. No matter how badly Lakoff confuses his politics, his theory remains sound.

By: paladin

paladin — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 17:14:33 +0000

You are quite right to say that the Democrats are hardly amateurs when it comes to "framing" issues, and they have been doing it longer. Think "affirmative action" (quotas), "pro-choice" (pro-abortion), "welfare" (the dole) and "social security" (Ponzi scheme).

By: Rob M

Rob M — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 15:35:17 +0000

During the 2004 campaign Kerry "framed" himself with the "I voted for the 88 billion before I voted against it". After that it was over. The windsurfing add sucked and had little or no impact.

By: English360 Blog

English360 Blog — Wed, 31 Dec 1969 18:00:00 +0000

, which started with Pinker’s brutal review of Lakoff’s latest book. Pinker’s a Chomsky/generative grammer guy. Lakoff’s done some interesting stuff with generative semantics that has some anti-Chomsky elements, and has recently become an advisor to the Democrats in the US on linguistic “framing” as a communication strategy, as outlined in his best-seller Don’t Think of an Elephant. Lakoff just published again, Whose Freedom?, and Pinker savaged it in a review.