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Fighting Back: How to fight the radicals who play by the “Rules for Radicals”
Nachum ^ | 3/21/13 | Nachum

Posted on 03/21/2013 6:29:07 PM PDT by Nachum

Fighting Back:

How to fight the radicals who play by the “Rules for Radicals”

Here is the complete list from Alinsky.

* RULE 1: “Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have.” Power is derived from 2 main sources – money and people. “Have-Nots” must build power from flesh and blood. (These are two things of which there is a plentiful supply. Government and corporations always have a difficult time appealing to people, and usually do so almost exclusively with economic arguments.)

 Rule 1: Radicals are your enemy.  They think you have power over them, whether you do or not.  Radicals are in an never-ending attempt to “Build Power” by recruiting the miscreants of society, conditioning youth, and using any and all agents to do so.


* RULE 2: “Never go outside the expertise of your people.” It results in confusion, fear and retreat. Feeling secure adds to the backbone of anyone. (Organizations under attack wonder why radicals don’t address the “real” issues. This is why. They avoid things with which they have no knowledge.)

Rule 2: Find the areas of lack of expertise of the enemy and those they have recruited.  You cannot attack what you do not understand.  Find their weakness to expose the ignorance of the enemy.


* RULE 3: “Whenever possible, go outside the expertise of the enemy.” Look for ways to increase insecurity, anxiety and uncertainty. (This happens all the time. Watch how many organizations under attack are blind-sided by seemingly irrelevant arguments that they are then forced to address.)

Rule 3: Attack the Attackers.  Whenever the enemy attacks an organization, objectify the ones making the attack immediately and return the attack.  Know that the enemy has scouted you for perceived weakness and you must undermine by any means necessary those who are attacking and financing the attack


* RULE 4: “Make the enemy live up to its own book of rules.” If the rule is that every letter gets a reply, send 30,000 letters. You can kill them with this because no one can possibly obey all of their own rules. (This is a serious rule. The besieged entity’s very credibility and reputation is at stake, because if activists catch it lying or not living up to its commitments, they can continue to chip away at the damage.)

Rule 4: Modify your rules to waste the time, energy and money of the enemy.  If you have promised to “give a reply to every letter”, do not respond to the letters of the enemy at all.  You will not die and they will spin their wheels uselessly.  The enemy depends on this rule to “kill you”, but the “besieged entity” will lose nothing by ignoring the obvious ploy of the enemy.  Be prepared to respond to the attackers’ with lawsuits, public humiliation, and the spotlight of media they are unprepared for.


* RULE 5: “Ridicule is man’s most potent weapon.” There is no defense. It’s irrational. It’s infuriating. It also works as a key pressure point to force the enemy into concessions. (Pretty crude, rude and mean, huh? They want to create anger and fear.)

Rule 5: Return ridicule with even more ridicule.  “They believe there is no defense, and they will act irrationally themselves.  The enemy’s pressure will evaporate to avoid the return of their “most potent weapon” on themselves.


* RULE 6: “A good tactic is one your people enjoy.” They’ll keep doing it without urging and come back to do more. They’re doing their thing, and will even suggest better ones. (Radical activists, in this sense, are no different that any other human being. We all avoid “un-fun” activities, and but we revel at and enjoy the ones that work and bring results.)

Rule 6: Make their own tactics no fun.  Make their tactics harder, more boring, and even painful.  If ignorant “activists” are feeling pain,  like other human beings will avoid the pain.


* RULE 7: “A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.” Don’t become old news. (Even radical activists get bored. So to keep them excited and involved, organizers are constantly coming up with new tactics.)

Rule 7: Make sure their tactics take a very long time.  Work to make their activities look repetitive and tired.  Excitement will dwindle when nothing is happening and everyone sees the tactics the enemy employs are from a playbook being used over and over again.


* RULE 8: “Keep the pressure on. Never let up.” Keep trying new things to keep the opposition off balance. As the opposition masters one approach, hit them from the flank with something new. (Attack, attack, attack from all sides, never giving the reeling organization a chance to rest, regroup, recover and re-strategize.)

Rule 8:  Always make the enemy pay. The enemy never stops.  They will always come back with something else.  They will say whatever comes to mind.  If the enemy finds you have thwarted their attack, be sure that another one is coming.  You must be vigilant and you must make them pay dearly for every attempt.  They must pay a price.  It must be painful.


* RULE 9: “The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.” Imagination and ego can dream up many more consequences than any activist. (Perception is reality. Large organizations always prepare a worst-case scenario, something that may be furthest from the activists’ minds. The upshot is that the organization will expend enormous time and energy, creating in its own collective mind the direst of conclusions. The possibilities can easily poison the mind and result in demoralization.)

Rule 9:  Answer all threats with threats of your own.  Use the knowledge you have of your rights to make the enemy aware that you will make them all personally pay, even if you do not follow through.   If your organization is under threat from activists, return the threat with threats on the enemy.  Personalize the threats.  Let them know you know who they are and you will make a threat of your own.  They also have irrational fears.  Use them. 


* RULE 10: “If you push a negative hard enough, it will push through and become a positive.” Violence from the other side can win the public to your side because the public sympathizes with the underdog. (Unions used this tactic. Peaceful [albeit loud] demonstrations during the heyday of unions in the early to mid-20th Century incurred management’s wrath, often in the form of violence that eventually brought public sympathy to their side.)

Rule 10:  Defend yourself physically if required.  The enemy will always resort to violence, defend yourself.  The enemy has overplayed their own negative tactics. The public will respect someone who will not lay down and die.  The enemy will also know that they will also pay a physical price if they resort to violence.  Expect it violence and prepare for it.  During the Los Angeles riots, those businesses that used armed security to respond to physical threats were largely untouched.


* RULE 11: “The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.” Never let the enemy score points because you’re caught without a solution to the problem. (Old saw: If you’re not part of the solution, you’re part of the problem. Activist organizations have an agenda, and their strategy is to hold a place at the table, to be given a forum to wield their power. So, they have to have a compromise solution.)

Rule 11:  The Always identify the enemy as never having a constructive alternative.  The enemy’s only alternative is communism or fascism.  The enemy has no ideas of their own.  Everything they have is borrowed from the extreme left or European socialism.  Activist organizations are mostly fronts for communism.  Do not ever compromise with a communist.  They only will use it as a foothold to take more rights away from you.

 
* RULE 12: Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.” Cut off the support network and isolate the target from sympathy. Go after people and not institutions; people hurt faster than institutions. (This is cruel, but very effective. Direct, personalized criticism and ridicule works.)

Rule 12:   Get to the enemy first.  When your enemy sets out in the morning to kill you, wake up earlier than your enemy and kill him first.  You have been attacked.  Do not wait to be a victim.  Make the enemy pay in every way.  Make them a pariah in society.  Make them outcasts.  Punish them personally.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous; Politics; Society
KEYWORDS: alinsky; back; fighting; fightingradicals; radicals; rulesforradicals
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As the president was quoting Alinsky in Israel, I looked up the "12 rules for radicals" and played around with a response. New ideas or comments are welcome. Just an idea.

There is probably much written already.... :)

1 posted on 03/21/2013 6:29:07 PM PDT by Nachum
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To: Nachum

Well written!


2 posted on 03/21/2013 6:52:23 PM PDT by Rides_A_Red_Horse (Why do you need a fire extinguisher when you can call the fire department?)
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To: Nachum

Nicely done.
Perhaps you should be part of the “boot camp” for upstart Republican hopefuls.


3 posted on 03/21/2013 6:56:02 PM PDT by nascarnation (Baraq's economic policy: trickle up poverty)
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To: Nachum

Well done. An answer needs to be formulated for the ridiculous charge of “racism”.


4 posted on 03/21/2013 7:02:14 PM PDT by youngidiot (God help us.)
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To: nascarnation

Actually I would like to form or (see formed) a conservative JournOlist and have an army of bloggers, phone callers, and journalists for large news organization as an immediate response team.

Conservatives should have a way to systematically respond other than the various conservative entities running around playing defense.


5 posted on 03/21/2013 7:02:40 PM PDT by Nachum (The Obama "List" at www.nachumlist.com)
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To: Nachum; wolfman23601; ColdOne; navymom1; Pat4ever; RIghtwardHo; Reaganite Republican; ...
+

Freep-mail me to get on or off my pro-life and Catholic List:

Add me / Remove me

Please ping me to note-worthy Pro-Life or Catholic threads, or other threads of general interest.

6 posted on 03/21/2013 7:03:59 PM PDT by narses
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To: youngidiot

The answer to the charge of “racism” could simply be “communist” in return. Let them respond every time to that charge.

Another possibility would be “societal rapist”.

It has to be personal, loud, and take them off their game.


7 posted on 03/21/2013 7:05:04 PM PDT by Nachum (The Obama "List" at www.nachumlist.com)
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To: Nachum

I went in a time machine and gave Alinsky an atomic wedgie if that helps


8 posted on 03/21/2013 7:05:52 PM PDT by MNDude (I survived the sequester!)
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To: Nachum

Make them live up to their own rules - prove to America their ideas are insane and the dishonesty of their message.


9 posted on 03/21/2013 7:09:08 PM PDT by Vision (Obama is king of the "Takers." Don't be a "Taker.")
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To: Vision

They have no rules. They will literally do anything.


10 posted on 03/21/2013 7:10:18 PM PDT by Nachum (The Obama "List" at www.nachumlist.com)
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To: Nachum

It’s rule #4.


11 posted on 03/21/2013 7:13:34 PM PDT by Vision (Obama is king of the "Takers." Don't be a "Taker.")
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To: Vision

Yes, it is there rule #4. They have no rules. We have to modify ours when they use them to attack to render their attack useless, expensive, and frustrating.


12 posted on 03/21/2013 7:17:00 PM PDT by Nachum (The Obama "List" at www.nachumlist.com)
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To: Vision

“Rule 4: Modify your rules to waste the time, energy and money of the enemy. “

I call this the Reagan Rule. It’s how he bankrupted the Soviets.

Want to take down the left? Make them spend their own money. Cut off all government funding of the ACLU, Planned Parenthood and NPR. When they complain, ridicule them.

As long as the left is spending their own money to defend their turf, they cannot use that money to go on offense.

Only other thing I would do is marginalize the MSM. Call it antiquated and its writers dinosaurs from the Soviet era. What they tried to do to Woodward is a guideline for what we need to do to them.


13 posted on 03/21/2013 7:25:07 PM PDT by EQAndyBuzz (Got a problem? Nothing a drone strike can't fix.)
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To: Nachum; EQAndyBuzz
All you need to do is stand up to Obama and talk directly to the people about how insane his policies are.

If someone would have taken the lead on Obamacare, and not waver from the message that it would raise costs, etc, it wouldn't have passed IMO.

14 posted on 03/21/2013 7:29:55 PM PDT by Vision (Obama is king of the "Takers." Don't be a "Taker.")
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To: Nachum

Good idea. Just start reading from the cpusa goals and ask them what they disagree with. If they fall into the “communism isn’t so bad” script, ask them why so many of the the commies own countrymen had to die to put it in place.


15 posted on 03/21/2013 7:44:20 PM PDT by ebshumidors
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To: Army Air Corps

ping


16 posted on 03/21/2013 7:56:56 PM PDT by Army Air Corps (Four Fried Chickens and a Coke)
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To: Nachum

Excellent! Very useful and just the type of information each individual can actually use, Thanks.

Copied it for future implementation.


17 posted on 03/21/2013 8:00:14 PM PDT by notted
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To: Nachum
I like

Rule 5: Return ridicule with even more ridicule. “They believe there is no defense, and they will act irrationally themselves. The enemy’s pressure will evaporate to avoid the return of their “most potent weapon” on themselves.

I remember..

the 1960s Marxist-Alinsky campus radical, psycho spoiled brats were celebrated in the establishment MSM as the most intelligent generation ever!. They are now arguably that very establishment that praised them and they hold themselves and their ideological issue in even higher regard.

Alinsky's book is really "Rules of Spoiled Brats."

"What difference does it make?"

Let's show 'em! Let's show what ridicule is and make it so the "low information voters" see it.

18 posted on 03/21/2013 8:03:52 PM PDT by WilliamofCarmichael (If modern America's Man on Horseback is out there, Get on the damn horse already!)
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To: Nachum

Nachum: You knocked it out of the park. Great post.


19 posted on 03/21/2013 9:01:43 PM PDT by Avid Coug
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To: Avid Coug
If someone is "pro-choice" make them define the choices for you. Literally, let them spell out what the choice is they are making. Make it painful for them and don't let them off the hook until they use the words "terminating a life" because that's what they're choosing.

Ask them why they're anti-gun and pro-criminal.

Ask why they continue to be on the side of the mass murderer. How would their stance be any different than what the mass murderers would want?

Limbaugh mentioned this a while ago but it's a brilliant point nonetheless: if you take away my gun today, can you guarantee the bad guys will also be disarmed? Let them defend that position.

Ask them which part of the 1st amendment would be good to take away since they're picking and choosing amendments to pick apart (2nd).

Call them out for the radicals they are. Let them try to defend indefensible positions.

I think the ridicule thing is great. Whoever suggested the "rape whistle" meme should have been laughed out of politics.

Look at how the Hollywood producer did with Barbara Boxer's "please call me Senator" meme. Google it; it's hilarious and effective. Every chance we get we should be calling her "ma'am" because that kind of condescending attitude needs to be ridiculed. It's brilliant and shows what you can do with a little imagination (to be fair, it was a Hollywood producer with plenty of coin and influencing making it, but the point is made)
20 posted on 03/22/2013 5:09:59 AM PDT by tenger (It's a good thing we don't get all the government we pay for. -Will Rogers)
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