Do you think Americans have a good relationship with elected officials and government employees? I ask that in the context of the term public servant. Aren't elected officials and government bureaucrats supposed to serve their constituents? How has this relationship evolved into one that makes constituents subservient to elected officials and government employees? How have those elected and hired to serve turned service into haughty privilege and fraudulent self-serving authoritarianism? Isn't this backward?
Emotional Blackmail
In her Emotional Blackmail: When the People in your Life Use Fear, Obligation, and Guilt to Manipulate You, Dr. Susan Forward notes six circumstances that indicate when we are being subjected to “emotional blackmail.” One of those she characterizes as someone’s implying that “their [sic.] misery is the result of our noncompliance” (95).*
Haranguing
Avoiding Democrat harangues about Elon Musk, DOGE, and presumed attacks on the Constitution is almost impossible unless one turns off all devices that broadcast news. The diehard liberal media pundits echo what people like Maxine Waters, Chuck Schumer, and California Rep. Robert Garcia have said about the attempts to clean out government fraud and waste. Garcia sits on the extreme end of that group as he has called for bringing “actual weapons” in the “fight for democracy.” Threat? Emotional blackmail?
Forward says that emotional blackmailers use FOG to intimidate and to bend people to their wills. FOG is her acronym for fear, obligation, and guilt. All three of the above mentioned Democrats have used FOG in their harangues. Here’s a model of how it works:
1) The blackmailer makes a demand. “Rehire all the fired government employees in USAID and restore all funding.
2) The target resists.
3) The blackmailer exerts pressure: “If you can’t commit to stopping this insane rifling through government files, maybe you are a Russian spy.”
4) If the target continues to resist, the blackmailer makes either subtle or overt threats, as Garcia did.
It hasn’t worked because many Americans have grown tired of paying taxes for fraudulent and wasteful bureaucrats. Not many voters would say, “You’re right. We should have fraud and waste. I don’t care what you do with my tax dollars. In fact, spend more of it on projects devoted to social engineering in other countries, helping Taliban poppy farmers in Afghanistan, and college educations for terrorists.”
According to Forward, “Blackmailers always try to make out that their motives are superior to ours, and that there is something wrong with us, for example that we’re selfish and uncaring” (97). It’s this “we not only know better than you, but we ARE also better than you” attitude that is on display in D.C. at this time.
Some Will Acquiesce
Experience tells us that many Americans will acquiesce under such blackmail. Many will simply buy into the faulty reasoning and hyperbole, giving no thought to the realities of actual fraud and waste. Many will acquiesce through fear, just as many have acquiesced under the “existential threat” of climate.
You can attempt to reason with emotional blackmailers, but they are, in fact, just bullies trying to bludgeon compliance into their targets. You won’t change their minds.
My advice: Ignore them and be happy that finally someone is actually cutting out fraud and waste.
*Butler-Bowdon, 2007. Tom. “Chapter 16,” 50 Psychology Classics.
Emotional Blackmail
In her Emotional Blackmail: When the People in your Life Use Fear, Obligation, and Guilt to Manipulate You, Dr. Susan Forward notes six circumstances that indicate when we are being subjected to “emotional blackmail.” One of those she characterizes as someone’s implying that “their [sic.] misery is the result of our noncompliance” (95).*
Haranguing
Avoiding Democrat harangues about Elon Musk, DOGE, and presumed attacks on the Constitution is almost impossible unless one turns off all devices that broadcast news. The diehard liberal media pundits echo what people like Maxine Waters, Chuck Schumer, and California Rep. Robert Garcia have said about the attempts to clean out government fraud and waste. Garcia sits on the extreme end of that group as he has called for bringing “actual weapons” in the “fight for democracy.” Threat? Emotional blackmail?
Forward says that emotional blackmailers use FOG to intimidate and to bend people to their wills. FOG is her acronym for fear, obligation, and guilt. All three of the above mentioned Democrats have used FOG in their harangues. Here’s a model of how it works:
1) The blackmailer makes a demand. “Rehire all the fired government employees in USAID and restore all funding.
2) The target resists.
3) The blackmailer exerts pressure: “If you can’t commit to stopping this insane rifling through government files, maybe you are a Russian spy.”
4) If the target continues to resist, the blackmailer makes either subtle or overt threats, as Garcia did.
It hasn’t worked because many Americans have grown tired of paying taxes for fraudulent and wasteful bureaucrats. Not many voters would say, “You’re right. We should have fraud and waste. I don’t care what you do with my tax dollars. In fact, spend more of it on projects devoted to social engineering in other countries, helping Taliban poppy farmers in Afghanistan, and college educations for terrorists.”
According to Forward, “Blackmailers always try to make out that their motives are superior to ours, and that there is something wrong with us, for example that we’re selfish and uncaring” (97). It’s this “we not only know better than you, but we ARE also better than you” attitude that is on display in D.C. at this time.
Some Will Acquiesce
Experience tells us that many Americans will acquiesce under such blackmail. Many will simply buy into the faulty reasoning and hyperbole, giving no thought to the realities of actual fraud and waste. Many will acquiesce through fear, just as many have acquiesced under the “existential threat” of climate.
You can attempt to reason with emotional blackmailers, but they are, in fact, just bullies trying to bludgeon compliance into their targets. You won’t change their minds.
My advice: Ignore them and be happy that finally someone is actually cutting out fraud and waste.
*Butler-Bowdon, 2007. Tom. “Chapter 16,” 50 Psychology Classics.
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