Sunday, December 31, 2017

Shut the Overton Window

I'd never heard of this Overton Window, so I looked it up. Wikipedia sez this about it:

"According to Overton's description, his window includes a range of
policies considered politically acceptable in the current climate of
public opinion, which a politician can recommend without being
considered too extreme to gain or keep public office."
So the election of Trump pretty much proves Overton was spouting nonsense, no?

4 comments:

  1. Actually, they say that people like Trump change the Overton window. It is not that Overton was proved wrong, but his idea is a tool by which to analyze how political discourse changes over time, AFAIK.

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  2. I think that if Trump and Moore are within the window, and we know also that there are equally kooky (but nowhere near equally successful) nuts on the left (identity politics gone mad,for example), there does not appear to be any space outside the window.

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  3. No, it proves Hillary was a hideous candidate.

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  4. I have been trying to think of any topc tht still lies outside the Overton window.

    It used to be that murder was something you could hardly advocate as a political program, but we have now seen Republicans introduce pro-murder bills in several legislatures.

    Pedophilia used to be something everyone agreed, at least for public consumption, was insupportable; but that turns out to be no longer true for many Republicans.

    So I've thought and thought and the only thing I can think of still outside the window is polyandry.

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