Overton window - a perfect tool in hands of pathologicals

Keit

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Today in his weekly show on Russia 24 Nikita Michalkov talked about The Overton Window.

The Overton window is a political theory that describes the range of ideas the public will accept as a narrow "window". According to the theory, an idea's political viability depends mainly on whether it falls within that window rather than on politicians' individual preferences.[1] It is named for its originator, Joseph P. Overton (1960–2003),[2] a former vice president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.[3] At any given moment, the "window" includes a range of policies considered politically acceptable in the current climate of public opinion, which a politician can recommend without being considered too extreme to gain or keep public office.

And

Overton described a method for moving that window, thereby including previously excluded ideas, while excluding previously acceptable ideas. The technique relies on people promoting ideas even less acceptable than the previous outer fringe ideas. That makes those old fringe ideas look less extreme, and thereby acceptable. The idea is that priming the public with fringe ideas intended to be and remain unacceptable, will make the real target ideas seem more acceptable by comparison.

And in order to explain the theory and how it is used to manipulate the masses and shape our culture, he used an extreme hypothetical example of people gradually accepting the concept of cannibalism. And after going over the various stages of the Overtone Window, he mentioned that this kind of process is prevalent nowadays as well and takes shape, for example, in a form of 7 years old kids in Germany being forcefully given sexuality classes, and how one of the fathers was jailed after his daughter ran away from such a class and other 6 kids fainted.

And that certain policies are gradually being passed in order to shape public opinion and make despicable and totally unacceptable things as acceptable. Especially if it will be presented as being "tolerant" and "liberal".

Basically, it's a perfect tool in hands of pathologicals to gradually normalize torture, various filth, even pedophilia. I think it was even mentioned elsewhere on the forum. Popularity of Miley Cyrus and Fifty shades of Grey may also have something to do with it. It may not be even conscious, and reminded me of what Topper said about STS mode of operation

[A]ll of this is the Theological Reality of the hyperdimensional game of chess being played on our planet. When, as it occasionally does, the Negative hierarchy succeeds in conquering a planet or even a galaxy, it only accomplishes this by a long cerebral tournament of moves and countermoves, plays of the most subtle and surreptitious type in which the idea is always to draw on the given, positive elements and attributes of the gameboard and progressively co-opt them, slyly compromise their positive effectiveness and gradually integrate their characteristic moves to deviant patterns secretly optimizing the negative potential - either neutralizing their positive effectiveness, or actually "taking-them-over" by progressive, imperceptible distortions of the straight-and-true alignment until they add their own dimension of deliberate of conscious negativity to the overall strategic setup.

In any case, this theory, unsurprisingly being heavily promoted by people like Glenn Beck. He even wrote a thriller with this name. Here, in the bottom of the screen you can see several his videos describing the theory.

And for those who know Russian, here's Michalkov's latest show, and here's a sort of webinar, also in Russian, that explains how the Overton window can be used to legalized anything, including drugs, pedophilia, even necrophilia. They explain how certain changes in society make it possible.

Here's also a short description of the theory in English.


https://youtu.be/wRCUD64NjzA

The only thing good about it, that the same concepts of "gradual normalizing" can be also used for beneficial concepts, i.e. spreading the truth and giving people an opportunity to make a choice.
 
I remember back in 2001, when people were horrified at the thought of "naked body scanners" at airports, and how people said it'd never be accepted - well, here we are today, baring all just to fly. The repeated propaganda led to acceptance - "it's for your own good", "I've got nothing to hide", "we have to be safe from the terrorists"...when in reality, it was just a big money maker for Chertoff and his lot. And just like that, we've got the "new normal". :ohboy:

Thanks for the post, Keit. I didn't know about this Overton Window, I just called it the slow burn. ;D
 
I missed this original post but found it w/ the search function as a new article re the Overton window/bubble has
appeared on zerohedge:

_http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-10/americans-are-living-under-intellectual-martial-law

Americans Are Living Under "Intellectual Martial Law"

by Tyler Durden
Jul 10, 2017 4:40 PM

Authored by James Howard Kunstler via Kunstler.com,

The disgrace of America’s putative intellectual class is nearly complete as it shoves the polity further into dysfunction and toward collapse. These are the people Nassim Taleb refers to as “intellectuals-yet-idiots.” Big questions loom over this dynamic: How did the thinking class of America sink into this slough of thoughtlessness? And why – what is motivating them?

One path to understanding it can be found in this sober essay by Neal Devers, The Overton Bubble, published two years ago on TheFuturePrimaeval.net — a friend turned me on to it the other day (dunno how I missed it). The title is a reference to the phenomenon known as the Overton Window. Wikipedia summarizes it:

The Overton Window, also known as the window of discourse, is the range of ideas the public will accept…. The term is derived from its originator, Joseph P. Overton (1960–2003), a former vice president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy….

Devers refines the definition:

The Overton Window is a concept in political sociology referring to the range of acceptable opinions that can be held by respectable people. “Respectable” of course means that the subject can be integrated with polite society. Respectability is a strong precondition on the ability to have open influence in the mainstream.

This raises another question: who exactly is in this corps of “respectable people” who set the parameters of acceptable thought? Primarily, the mainstream media — The New York Times, The WashPo, CNN, etc. — plus the bureaucratic functionaries of the permanent government bureaucracy, a.k.a. the Deep State, who make and execute policy, along with the universities which educate the “respectable people” (the thinking class) into the prevailing dogmas and shibboleths of the day, and finally the think tanks and foundations that pay professional “experts” to retail their ideas.

The Overton Window can be viewed as a mechanism of political control, demonizing anyone who departs from the consensus of respectable thought, and especially if they express their heresies in public speech.

This has consequences.

Deavers explains:

The trouble with the Overton Window as a mechanism of political control, and with politicization of speech and thought in general, is that it causes significant collateral damage on the ability of your society to think clearly.

If some thoughts are unthinkable and unspeakable, and the truth happens in some case to fall outside of polite consensus, then your ruling elite and their society will run into situations they simply can’t handle….

An unwise political elite is one incapable of thinking clearly about their strategic situation, acting in concert, or sticking to a plan….

An insecure political elite is one which has either no sufficient mechanisms of political power short of the politicization of speech and thought, or is faced by such powerful but somehow never decisively powerful enemies that they need to permanently escalate to a state of vigorous politicization of speech and thought. We can compare this state to “intellectual martial law” for its structural similarity to the physical-security equivalent.
We’re now living under that condition of “intellectual martial law.” The consequent degradation of thinking means that the polity can’t construct a coherent consensus about what is happening to it (or devise a plan for what to do about it). This is exactly the point where the Overton Window turns into an Overton Bubble, as described by Devers. The bubble comprises ideas that are assumed to be self-evident (though they actually aren’t) and notions that are potentially destructive of society, even suicidally so.

Here is a partial list of the current dogmas and shibboleths inside today’s Overton Bubble:

Russia hacked the election of 2016 (no evidence required).
Russia (Vladimir Putin in particular) is bent on destroying the USA.
All immigrants, legal or illegal, have equal status before the law.
National borders are inconvenient, cruel, and obsolete.
Western Civilization is a malign force in human history.
Islam is “the religion of peace,” no matter how many massacres of “infidels” are carried out in its name.
Men are a negative force in society.
White men are especially negative.
Brownie points given for behaviors under the rubric LBGTQ.
All discussion about race problems and conflicts is necessarily racist.
The hijab (head covering worn in public by some Muslim women) is a device of liberation for women.
There should be a law against using the wrong personal pronoun for people who consider themselves neither men nor women (recently passed by the Canadian parliament).
A unifying common culture is unnecessary in national life (anything goes).
Colonizing Mars is a great solution to problems on Earth.

That list defines the general preoccupations of the thinking classes today - to the exclusion of other issues.

Here is an alternative list of matters they are not generally concerned about or interested in:


The energy quandary at the heart of our economic malaise.
The enormous debt racked up to run society in the absence of affordable energy inputs.
The dangerous interventions and manipulation in markets by unelected officials of the Federal Reserve.
The extraordinary dysfunction of manipulated financial markets.
The fragility of a banking system based on accounting fraud.
The dysfunction and fragility of the American suburban living arrangement.
The consequences of a catastrophic breakdown in the economy due to the above.
The destruction of planetary ecology, threatening the continuation of the human race, and potentially all life.

Now, the question of motive. Why does the thinking class in America embrace ideas that are not necessarily, and surely not self-evidently, truthful, and even self-destructive? Because this class is dangerously insecure and perversely needs to insist on being right about its guiding dogmas and shibboleths at all costs. That is why so much of the behavior emanating from the thinking class amounts to virtue signaling — we are the good people on the side of what’s right, really we are! Of course, virtue signaling is just the new term for self-righteousness. There is also the issue of careerism. So many individuals are making a living at trafficking in, supporting, or executing policy based on these dogmas and shibboleths that they don’t dare depart from the Overton Bubble of permissible, received thought lest they sacrifice their status and incomes.

The thinking classes are also the leaders and foot-soldiers in American institutions. When they are unable or unwilling to think clearly, then you get a breakdown of authority, which leads to a breakdown of legitimacy. That’s exactly where we’re at today in our national politics — our ability to manage the polity.


Read Neal Devers’ excellent article, The Overton Bubble.

I must say in watching the vid re the napkin in the first post, shouldn't the napkin have a dividing line of what's considered acceptable - a line representing the two major political parties that have been in opposition to one another for decades (Dems/Republicans)? Such a source of strife & contention that is still ongoing as the vast majority fail to see they are two sides of the same coin and a major source of manipulation plus divide & conquer? But then if the majority could recognize that, the Overton window wouldn't exist?

Although I always had the feeling that a significant number of people doubted the official JFK assassination story, I can't say the same re 911. There seems to be widespread acceptance that the events that happened that day went down exactly as was presented to the public regardless of obvious flaws/contradictions/evidence/physics.

It is so clear that a false reality has been created that the masses so willingly buy into beyond all logic & reason. I find it completely mind-boggling, maddening, and exhausting! How can people be so dumb?!!
 
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