The Persuaders

May 1, 2022

Author of the multi-best-booked Winner Take All, former New York Times reporter Giridharadas laments the refusal to shake off ironclad convictions and be persuaded to accept other viewpoints--or to seek to persuade others. To show how it's done, he talks to a cofounder of Black Lives Matter, white parents at a seminar on raising adopted children of color, activists supporting immigrants' rights, and a cult member-turned-QAnon deprogrammer.

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August 22, 2022
Leftists’ efforts to persuade opponents instead of writing them off are probed in this searching study of progressive discourse. Journalist Giridharadas (Winner Take All) interviews progressive leaders who seek to maintain their principles while appealing to the unconverted without denouncing them as bigots or alienating them with politically correct dogma. Profile subjects include Palestinian American activist Linda Sarsour, reproductive justice crusader Loretta Ross, and Black Lives Matter cofounder Alicia Garza, who deplore the left’s habit of ostracizing those who misunderstand details of progressive orthodoxy and extol outreach to moderates. Giridharadas also talks to anti-racism trainers in Ohio; a cognitive scientist who catalogues trickery in right-wing disinformation; and Arizona “deep canvassers” who suss out and influence attitudes toward migrants during 30-minute porch conversations. It’s illuminating to watch activists grapple honestly with the left’s internal divisions and rhetorical shortcomings, but the focus is on subtler manipulations, not open-minded dialogue with opponents. (“Make them think of a pain point in their life—that expensive diabetes treatment—and tell them how giving the federal government supervision of elections and cracking down on gerrymandering and allowing mail-in-voting would empower them to solve their problems,” suggests one messaging consultant.) Still, for those committed to the progressive agenda, this is an incisive guide to the art of persuasion.

Starred review from September 1, 2022
Giridharadas (Winners Take All, 2018) explores a salient question in American politics, Is persuasion dead? Are we too polarized and calcified to ever change our minds? Social media seems to affirm this, but the author sought out real-life examples of people bucking the trend of tribalism to build movements through persuasion, including diversity, equity, and inclusion trainers and activists; rape counselors; political mavericks like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Bernie Sanders; a political consultant who uses cognitive science to craft messages that build coalitions; a former Moonie whose deprogramming efforts have scaled up to whole communities; and deep canvassers going door-to-door for long conversations on immigration. The Persuaders is about changing hearts and minds to stand up for justice and democracy. It is about people building on-ramps for the uninitiated to become critical thinkers, about calling out injustice and also calling in people who disagree now but could be persuaded to join the movement. Persuasion, Giridharadas effectively points out, is necessary for democracy to thrive. He offers strong stories and evidence that polarization and rigid ideology are not the brick walls they're made out to be. While Giridharadas wrestles with contemporary issues, his inquiry has timeless qualities that transcend the news of the day in the hope of helping strengthen democracy for all time.

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Starred review from September 1, 2022
A sharp examination of how activists are working to build resistance to the many antidemocratic forces now at work around the world. In 2013, writes political analyst Giridharadas, a Russian troll farm recruited writers with the pledge of free meals and weekly payments in exchange for social media posts that supported Russia's first invasion of Ukraine. The farm soon added a brief "to foment political unrest in Russia's great adversary, the United States," by exploiting already widening divisions in American society in order to undermine belief in democracy. The drumbeat sounded to both left and right at Russian hands: "These people are not to be trusted. They will never change. They are who they are. And who they are is a risk to your being." Granted, notes the author in a cogent, sometimes encouraging narrative, there were yawning divisions to exploit, and they would widen with the rise of Donald Trump on the right and Bernie Sanders on the left. Some of Giridharadas' subjects seem more or less doctrinaire at first blush: Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez, say, who came under resounding assault from her own progressive wing for having dared say something nice about John McCain after he died, giving indications that there may be room for common ground after all. Of course, there are plenty of good reasons for political division. As one social justice activist told the author, "You probably don't want to end up in a partnership with Jared Kushner just because you favor prison reform." But most of the activists the author illuminatingly profiles are seriously committed to building bridges to a kinder, gentler, more united politics at a time when many purists, agreeing with others on 90% of issues, confine their focus to the 10% difference. Instead, the goal is to help voters find common ground, recognizing, for one thing, that "making manipulated people feel stupid is a terrible way to fight these [antidemocratic] forces." A welcome, revealing study of how political messages can be shaped positively to counter both enmity and disinformation.

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