How speechwriters engineer consent (spot the tricks)
Examples of how speechwriters engineer consent with the 'why' behind each example.
How Speechwriters Engineer Consent (Spot the Tricks)
Motte-and-bailey – Start with a hard-to-disagree claim (”protect kids”), then smuggle in a broader, invasive policy (”ID to post online”).
Example: “To protect kids, we need ID to post.”
Why: People consent to the small good; later, the big policy piggybacks.
Passive voice laundering – “Mistakes were made” = we’re not naming the decision-makers.
Example: “Mistakes were made”, “Standards were not met”, “Implementation failures”.
Why: Blurs accountability, reduces anger.
Goalpost smuggling – Define “success” so it can only be achieved by the proposed knob (ID, CBDC, provenance).
Example: “Only verified identity can ensure safety”.
Why: Collapses the solution set to the preferred knob.
Benchmark theater – Cite % improvements without a baseline or denominator.
Example: “Harm fell 40%.”
Why: Big numbers imply big wins.
Conditional certainty – “If it saves one life...” makes any cost appear reasonable.
Example: “If this saves one life, it’s worth it.”
Why: Moral blackmail disables cost–benefit. Infinite value assigned to a single outcome.
Dead-cat distraction – Drop a sensational side story to crowd out scrutiny of the real rule drop.
Example: Celebrity scandal day of a regulatory filing.
Why: Limited attention; outrage monopolizes it. Big spectacle + small PDF with consequential changes.
Sandwiching – Announce a hard measure between two feel-good items; attention edits out the middle.
Example: “Jobs up… new ID checks …scholarships expanded.”
Why: Primacy/recency effects; middle is memory-thin. (Positive–negative–positive cadence)
Euphemism cascade – Each year’s term softens the same control.
Example: “Backdoor -> lawful access -> safety scanning”
Why: Word fatigue softens resistance. New label, unchanged capability.
Triads & cadence – Three-part lists feel complete and crowd mental objections.
Example: “Safer, fairer, faster.”
Why: Rhythmic closure suppresses objections.
Forced binaries – “Either act or do nothing” collapses superior third options.
Example: “Either act or accept chaos.”
Why: Crowds avoid appearing passive. Missing third option.
Rhetorical questions – Pose and answer your own straw-man to pre-empt critique.
Example: “Who could oppose protecting kids? No one.”
Why: Feels like dialogue, is monologue. Questions that pre-judge dissenters.
Numbers without error bars – Point estimates imply precision where none exists.
Example: “The policy will create 320,000 jobs.”
Why: Specificity reads as certainty.
Normative framing – Call an option “common-sense” or “responsible” so dissent sounds deviant.
Example: “This is common-sense reform.”
Why: Makes dissent deviant. Adjectives about virtue, not mechanics.
Future perfect tense – “We will have built...” projects inevitability.
Example: “By 2028 we will have built a safer internet.”
Why: Anchors acceptance; reduces scrutiny.
Appeal to externality – Recast preference as harm (”your choice endangers others”) to justify compulsion.
Example: “Your privacy choices endanger others.”
Why: Justifies compulsion for the “greater good”. Harm claims without quantification or threshold.
Policy by perimeter – Don’t legislate - change app-store, bank, or cloud terms and call it safety.
Example: “Platform safety updates.”
Why: Faster, less litigable, same effect.
Sunset mirage – Promise expiry, then attach new conditions that require renewal.
Example: “Temporary for 12 months (unless threats persist).”
Why: Threats always “persist”. Vague termination criteria; self-referential reviews.
The study loop – Commission a study to delay, then cite it selectively to hurry.
Example: “We await the independent report.” → “The report urges urgency”.
Why: Time control + selective evidence.
Outlier amplification – Spotlight rare horrors to set rules for the median case.
Example: One horrific case proves the need for universal checks
Why: Availability bias; moral vividness. Anecdote → universal mandate without incidence math.
Stakeholder ventriloquism – “We heard from...” - funded groups supply the testimony.
Example: “Civil society demands action”.
Why: Manufactured consensus. Funding ties, same authors across “independent” letters.
Precedent padding – Cite other countries’ “norms” we encouraged to create circular legitimacy.
Example: “We’re aligning with international standards.”
Why: Safety in numbers. The “norms” are newborn, driven by the same authors.
Responsibility hop – “Platforms must...” offload state choices onto corporate ToS - less oversight, same effect.
Example: “Platforms must ensure safety.”
Why: Evades constitutional checks; same outcome.
Simulation authority – “Models show...” = black-box decree.
Example: “Our models project a 37% reduction.”
Why: Math mystique silences lay critique.
Pick-your-metric – Choose KPIs your policy guarantees will move, then claim victory.
Example: “Compliance tickets resolved up 90%”
Why: Optimizes measurement, not outcomes.
Asymmetric vagueness – Our powers worded broadly; your rights worded narrowly.
Examples: “Reasonable measures”, “credible threats” vs “except under X only”.
Why: Elastic authority, brittle liberty. Open-ended verbs for state; enumerated, conditional rights for you.