Effective persuasion requires assuming the audience already understands its own dangers.

Evidence

To get Pollock, who often tended to be defeatist and insensitive, into the right mood for work on the report, Horkheimer indicated to him how important it was to put oneself in the position of the people the report was addressed to, in order to find the right tone. The idea that one would have done much better in his place should be discarded as well as the usually erroneous opinion that the other person is utterly unaware of the dangers he has to face, reluctant to do something about them, unwilling and unable to learn from past experiences, in short, extremely unintelligent and malevolent. On the contrary, it is mostly true that he is well aware of the dangers and very eager to do something about them. — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 386

Categorization

• APHORISMS: Reads as transferable counsel about writing for a skeptical audience rather than condescending to it.
• XREF: connects to: People change their own minds; persuasion attempts play a small role — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice: How to Communicate…, 215; Persuasion requires entering the other’s worldview, not starting from one’s own — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice: How to Communicate…, 416; Persuasion within a moral tradition depends on shared background assumptions — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival…, 1198 (+1 more)
• yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: People change their own minds; persuasion attempts play a small role — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice: How to Communicate…, 215; Persuasion requires entering the other’s worldview, not starting from one’s own — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice: How to Communicate…, 416; Persuasion within a moral tradition depends on shared background assumptions — Saba Mahmood, Politics of Piety: The Islamic Revival…, 1198 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• People change their own minds; persuasion attempts play a small role #complicates (0.75) — Holm Gero Hümmler, Ulrike Schiesser, Fact and Prejudice, 215