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Old May 22nd, 2011 #1
Alex Linder
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Join Date: Nov 2003
Posts: 45,756
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Default Strategies for Getting People to Like You or Dislike You Less

[always interesting to see people who are very good at manipulating, seducing or influencing others characterize their ways. Here the author has been arrested by cop and is in the pre-booking stage, so his influence might make the difference in what's charged with (he has been driving drunk and he and friends have been throwing cans of beer at fellow drivers on the expressway)]

For two hours, we talked hunting, fishing, trapping, guns, everything. I just asked him questions about the things he seemed to want to talk about, reinforced his opinions on those issues, avoided any conflict, and always acted interested in what said, without being overly obsequious about it. It was the perfect friendship seduction.

Tucker Max, "Assholes Finish First," p

[can think of a corresponding passage from a book about Bill Clinton, but don't have it at hand; but what the journalist said was that Clinton was so good, he could sit down at a picnic table with two, say, Arkansas (farmers) on different sides of an issue, and speak so glibly and indeterminately that when he walked away, both of them were privately persuaded he was on their side. As a side note, this is the ability democracy rewards as much as any other - taking a principled position only alienates potential voters, so the odds lie in making as many as possible think you're for them. Democracy, thus, rewards lying, deception, and unprincipled glibness.]

Last edited by Alex Linder; June 16th, 2011 at 12:45 PM.