How to become a popular extremist.
Start with a statement that is extreme but people WANT to believe. Like "Don't worry about global warming. It's all a conspiracy by researchers who want government funding." This sets an anchor in the publics mind that this opinion exists.
Let a week go by with extremists on the other side calling you crazy. The people most interested in believing your extreme statement will reject the opponents opinions because of who they are (the disliked side). This will create cognitive dissonance that will make them WANT to believe you and will general some confirmation bias FOR the original idea. If there is any evidence whatsoever, such as 3 scientists out of 100000 who agree with you, they will latch on to it.
After a week, you can admit that your original statement was “not quite accurate.” But anchoring bias will keep the original believers believing and they can attribute the admission to pressure from the bad guys rather than a true error.
Try this once or twice among your friends just to practice. You will see how easily and effectively it works. Then you can pull one on the general public and become the next Glenn Beck.
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