Chapter 5&6 Quotes

 Chapter 5 

“But facts are not enough. No matter how many pamphlets you distribute at information tables, or how informative your artwork is, nothing is going to happen unless people can make sense of the facts you are giving them” (pg 174) 

The presentation of the facts needs to be framed into something that can be perceived easily. People are swayed more by emotion because they have certain biases that might be impossible to break. This quote refers to readily available information, but displaying these facts needs to persuade people to understand why it is important. For example, if you show a random person a pamphlet stating all the facts and knowledge about genocides happening worldwide, they might not know how to process these facts in their own lives; they might ask, “What am I going to do about it? Why am I getting these facts on my way to work.” Therefore information needs to be distributed in a way that is the most accessible to understand. 

“ Researchers have also found that we tend to only consider information that fits into what we already believe. That is, we don’t create our sense of reality based on the facts we come across, we find and bend facts so they conform to what we think we know” (pg. 184).

No matter how hard one tries to convince a racist, homophobic grandma that her beliefs are wrong, she has spent her entire life in bubbles where others think and believe the same things, not to mention she uses religion as her main source to back herself up. For example, on Fox News, Tucker Carlson takes political unrest, in this case, Dragqueen story time, and inflates it with conspiracy theories and claims without evidence. Still, it is effective because his audience will consume everything he says as fact. This is why conservatives want children to be on their side, indoctrinating them into their thinking. Something like Drag Queen Story Hour seeks to broaden a child’s perspective about gender and equality. 

“ This strategy of what came to be called “deep canvassing” worked. By telling a popular story of marriage equality, rather than framing the issue within the narrow appeals of the constitutional rights of minority groups,” activists were able to reach and persuade a critical number of people” (pg. 189) 

Deep canvassing is effective because it does not frame the activism as a political cause; it provides anecdotes and appeals to the person’s emotions, asking them questions and offering perspectives that are not too political. During this portion of the chapter, the political question came after the initial conversation. 

Chapter 6 

“ As artistic activists we try to get an idea, perspective, or message across to people in order to impact how they think and feel about a particular issue. While this is important in itself, we need to go further . The ultimate of changing people’s hearts and minds is to get them to act a different way” ( Pg. 213)

This quote is the same as distributing information. You need to support human rights because your life will benefit from it. The ASPCA commercials show sad dogs and solutions to end the suffering of sad dogs. The message is persuasive and encourages people to act. 

“ Mapping how people perceive the “exchange” required of them when shifting their behavior gives us a clearer idea of the terrain we’re working on. It helps make obvious certain obstacles we may have missed, and illuminates possible path ways around them” (pg. 224)

This quote is regarding the Benefits and costs method where the activism is framed in an accessible way. Instead of showing basic facts, the activist is telling people the problem they are addressing and how helping could benefit the person in the long run. This can eliminate all the social nuances people might have when faced with activism. 

“ But there is a better way to understand: to try and understand why people think what they think and do what they do, and to use this than to build a better world together, Instead of dismissing people’s decisions as ignorant or nonsensical, we can learn t make sense of the thinking behind them”(pg. 241) 

People might dismiss homophobes and bad conservatives as idiots and out of touch, but to attempt to shape activism around them, one must understand where they got their information from; in this case, it might be a church. They were raised to be this way. This line of thinking segregates humans into ‘good guys’ and bad guys, black and white thinking that distracts activists from progressing with their political message.