Trust Me I'm Lying by Ryan Holiday

Author:Ryan Holiday
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Profile
Published: 2018-03-11T05:00:00+00:00

BEATING THEM AT THEIR OWN GAME

Andrew Breitbart did eventually issue a correction to the widely disproved Sherrod story. He was so wrong and the backlash was so strong, he had to. But he remained defiant. At the top of the article:

Correction: While Ms. Sherrod made the remarks captured in the first video featured in this post while she held a federally appointed position, the story she tells refers to actions she took before she held that federal position.

A bullshit correction, to say the least.

Sherrod’s attempt to clear her name and later to sue Breitbart for libel and slander were just other chances for him to bluster.* The press release Breitbart issued was an exercise in defiant misdirection: “Andrew Breitbart on Pigford Lawsuit: ‘Bring It On.’ ” It’s exactly what I would have advised him to do if he’d asked me—in fact, I’ve basically done the exact same thing, only I was a bit more vulgar. Remember, I’m the guy who put out a press release with the headline: tucker max responds to cta decision: “blow me.”

I did that because the best way to make your critics work for you is to make them irrationally angry. Blinded by rage or indignation, they spread your message to every ear and media outlet they can find. Breitbart telling his haters to bring it on certainly accomplished this, as did completely side-stepping the Sherrod issue and pretending this was some giant political conspiracy about reparations for slavery. In refusing to acknowledge, even in the slightest, that she might have been innocent of everything he accused her of, Breitbart played it like an old pro.

This is what opponents of the alt-right seem to miss. They are trying to make you upset. They want you to be irrationally angry—it’s how they win. Most brands and personalities try to appeal to a wide swath of the population. Niche players and polarizing personalities are only ever going to be interesting to a small subgroup. While this might seem like a disadvantage, it’s actually a huge opportunity, because it allows them to leverage the dismissals, anger, mockery, and contempt of the population at large as proof of their credibility. Someone like Andrew Breitbart or Milo Yiannopoulos or Charles Johnson doesn’t care that you hate them—they like it. It’s proof to their followers that they are doing something subversive and meaningful. It gives their followers something to talk about. It imbues the whole movement with a sense of urgency and action—it creates purpose and meaning.

The only way to beat them is by controlling your reaction and letting them embarrass themselves, as they inevitably will. I told you earlier about the violent protests of Milo at UC Berkeley. While those adults—and college students are adults—were flipping out and acting like babies, a sixteen-year-old girl in Canada simply did some research. She found some utterly indefensible comments Milo had made about pedophilia and leaked them to a conservative group, and within a few days Milo had lost his book deal and his job .

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