Is Dilbert Creator Scott Adams Now Affecting The Election?

Trump appeals to your emotions and sense of identity, the things that actually impact how you vote.

vote voting politics politicians election 2016Elections have a way of creating new political celebrities. If the 2008 and 2012 elections made advanced stats guru Nate Silver a household name, the 2016 election has produced Scott Adams, who many know as the author of the the Dilbert comics, but is now becoming famous for his chronicling of Trump’s political strategy. The typical explanation for Trump goes something like this: “He’s a racists, misogynist idiot who’s appealing to a bunch of white, ignorant racists.”

But the Dilbert Blog has another explanation: Trump isn’t an idiot, he’s a clown genius of sorts who is using, as Adams puts it, “weapons grade” persuasion skills. According to this theory, Trump realizes that no one makes decisions rationally (you only think you do), so therefore Trump appeals to your emotions and sense of identity, the things that actually impact how you vote.

I’ve been telling ATL readers about Adams early and often: here, here and here to be exact. And over the course of the last few months, Adams has been popping up on other mainstream sites including a recent interview on The Ringer (highly recommended). It looks like he’s more than tripled his Twitter following, and the number of people engaging with him is staggering.

I am now beginning to see signs that Adams is actually affecting the election. Adams, himself, is even wise to it. On a recent blog post, he listed potential events that could affect the outcome of the election e.g. another email leak, the debates or a terror attack. #7 on his list: “I (Scott Adams) take sides.”

My guess is that Adams is affecting the outcome, and not just because Trump’s people are probably subscribed to his RSS feed, but because of something more basic: he made it okay to rationalize Trump’s behavior.

If you don’t think that Trump is an idiot who fell ass-backwards into the nomination (because, well, it’s just kind of hard to believe), you can use Scott Adams as your North Star. Just anecdotally, some of my smartest friends (who aren’t even voting for Trump) are following the Dilbert Blog closely. This is why he has drawn such hatred from many on the left who are trying to persuade all Americans that Trump is unfit for the position. If there’s a narrative that suggests that Trump knows exactly what he’s doing, the “unfit moron” label isn’t quite as sticky.

Adams has made it okay for people (like me) to write about (and learn from) Trump’s strategy even if, like me, you may sit out the actual vote.

Sponsored


Zach Abramowitz is a former Biglaw associate and currently CEO and co-founder of ReplyAll. You can follow Zach on Twitter (@zachabramowitz) or reach him by email at zach@replyall.me.

Sponsored