Talking to Fox News Peoplelink
Unfortunately, a large portion of the population is in thrall to a fear-based worldview that has trained them into an automatic rejection of ideas that resemble “socialism,” “progressivism,” and generally any attempt to redistribute wealth (even if they would benefit!) or encourage social equity. In any population there will always be contrarians who persist in believing that the government is evil in spite of the evidence, but we can at least try to improve our chances when trying to get them to join—because, after all, we believe every person has the right to MU citizenship and the benefits thereof!
Fox News, and similar organizations, have convinced their audience that we are in the midst of a “culture war” in which they are the victims of a targeted attempt to destroy their way of life. Of course, if that “way of life” involves maintaining an inhumane and oppressive social and economic system that does nothing to combat existing racial, gender, and other social inequalities, then this is in some sense completely true, because as humans we should want to leave that behind. But Fox News People will react as if we are personally targeting them and preventing them from living the life that they believe they are entitled to.
The idea is therefore to avoid triggering them into irrational defensiveness to which there is no rational cure. The general strategy is to convince them that they can personally benefit from joining the MU, and that they are not required to believe (or indeed, stop believing) in anything, as long as they’re not infringing on anyone else’s rights.
- Say that we are trying to fix “the system,” but never say that we are “progressive,” or “socialist,” or other triggering terms.
- Ask them what their day to day problems are that they want to see fixed, and talk about how we can help.
- NEVER engage on “culture war” issues - it’s hopeless. Say “That’s not the kind of thing we’re really worried about, we just want to see how we can help you personally. Are you financially stable? Do you have health care access? Can you access critical services and other infrastructure?”
- If they bring up taxes, what they really mean is that they’re worried about the government “stealing” a huge chunk of their income. So ask them how much they spend on what we would turn into free basic services, and how much MU would expect to pay someone in their current occupation (or any occupation they’re interested in). MU wages are always “take home” pay - funding for government services is always handled in the background. Our contention is that in most cases (i.e everyone under the 95th income percentile), people will end up with more in their pocket for less work.
Logoslink
MU, LLC: ring of identical stick figures around a sprouting seed
MU: black background, blue disk containing a ring of identical stick figures around a tree
Conceptual Diagrams & Illustrationslink
Government Transparencylink
Government as a big glass box with one tiny safe labeled “personal information”. Hopefully that is a narrow enough phrase not to imply anything more than names, addresses, contact info, and employment info
Distribution of Resourceslink
Cross section of a tree with a comparatively small root system. Ground is literally the earth. Roots are MUG, directing how much stuff needs to come out of the ground to support the tree on top. Above ground part is labeled “social development”, and is divided in half vertically. One side is “public funding” and illustrates (somehow) a spectrum between “science” and “art” . The other half is “private ventures” and is made up of a whole lot of teeny branches in organic (but not completely chaotic) growth.
Also, compare to the (ahem) capitalism tree
Snappy quoteslink
- Seizing the means of production is uncivilized; we should just let people choose a better way to use it.