The Persuaders

Probably more of a 3.5 but I'm rounding up.

This was an interesting book. I listened to the audiobook and it was well narrated and I finished it in just a couple of days. I really enjoyed the chapters on deep canvassing, cult deprogramming and the opening chapters about the Women's March and the Black Lives Matters movement. I can't deny that the message of the book is important - that we shouldn't write off people who don't share the same worldview as us and the art of persuasion is the need of the day, but it is not an easy thing to do in today's social media world where piling on people is everyone's favorite pastime, whether they deserve it or not. I can see how persuasion can also feel like an exhausting project when many people are living in their own world of misinformation and conspiracy theories and not ready to engage. So all I can say is that hats off to the organizers who are still doing it and who believe they will change people's minds.

The book itself felt like a disjointed collection of profiles of people who are doing this work and while I liked getting to know them, I think the writing felt a bit directionless and then just ended. I would have either preferred a narrower focus with not so much page time dedicated to Bernie and AOC, or the book could have gone broader about the issue and discuss more about the possibility and feasibility of persuasion. I think the book stuck somewhere in the middle and didn't feel totally satisfactory. But it still left me thinking about my own attitude towards those who don't share my views and how I can change my own way of dealing with them in the future.

Very worthwhile — profiles people who have figured out that you don’t change minds by trying to force people to let go of their beliefs in favor of yours, but rather by using normal professional sales techniques (believe in what you’re selling, sell the benefits, don’t adopt your competitors’ frames, etc.) and listening to people to find out what THEIR concerns are, rather than just insisting that they should be concerned with what you are concerned with. Quite a hopeful book all in all. I was impressed, liked it much more than I thought I would. Would recommend most highly.