Will Witt’s Wisdom
A Review of “How to Win Friends and Influence Enemies: Taking on Liberal Arguments with Logic and Humor”
Will Witt has written a practical how-to book to help us talk politics effectively with liberals. He has a lot of good material and good advice, making this a valuable book for people who want to make their conversations count.
If you are a PragerU fan, you may be familiar with Will Witt. He conducted man-on-the-street interviews at universities around the country. You can see his videos at https://www.prageru.com/series/man-on-the-street.
Witt has had good success engaging students in a friendly way and getting them to reconsider their liberal views. He shares some of his tips with us.
He advises:
When it comes to changing minds, you have to be very careful. If you push too hard, you’ll end up alienating the person you’re talking to even further. If you don’t push hard enough, the person you’re speaking with won’t learn anything. .. You have to find the perfect middle ground between debating and questioning that gives you enough ammunition to give them the correct information while asking [the person] questions that are thought-provoking and challenge the person’s previously held views. .. The key principle to remember when it comes to changing minds is that YOU are NOT the person to change their mind. THEY change their OWN mind by how you ask them to support their own information…
If you tell them a fact … and tell them that you are right, they are put in a defensive position where their mind is closed to being changed and can only think about how to refute you. Asking questions that lead them into expressing their own ideas is how you change minds, not by just blankly telling them the information…
And encourages us:
It takes a lot of practice… Don’t be upset if you’re not a mind-changing wizard the first time you try… You have to have the facts and the right questions.
He applies this advice to most of the controversial political issues of the day, including racism, coronavirus, freedom of speech, gun control, illegal immigration, family values, abortion, police brutality, cultural appropriation, cancel culture, climate change, socialism, “free” college, “free” healthcare, minimum wage, and capitalism. For each, he provides us with the ammunition in facts and statistics along with good questions to ask.
You may already be familiar with most of his facts but they are usefully presented. Liberal detractors in Amazon reviews complained that he did not properly cite his sources. That may be true in some cases, and, yes, the people you talk to may not accept some of his claims. Arguing over disputed facts generally goes nowhere unless you have something conclusive to point to (and, often, even when you do). Instead, you have to revert to principles and facts which both parties accept.
The value of the book is in its suggestions on how to have the conversation and, in particular, good questions to ask. For instance:
· Racism: If America is such a racist place, why is it the most immigrated-to country in the world by far?
· Illegal Immigration: Do you think you have the right to go to another country — say Mexico — and get benefits from the government such as free healthcare [etc] without paying into the system …?
· Family values: Do you think more people getting divorced or not getting married has had a positive impact on society?
Talking politics is difficult and becoming increasingly important. Reading the book will give you tools you need to become an engaging and convincing conversationalist.
