Don't Think of an Elephant!

Know Your Values and Frame the Debate: The Essential Guide for Progressives

by George Lakoff

Paperback, 124 pages

English language

Published Sept. 4, 2006 by Chelsea Green Pub. Co..

ISBN:: 978-1-931498-71-5

(5 reviews)

Don't Think of An Elephant! is the antidote to the last forty years of conservative strategizing and the right wing's stranglehold on political dialogue in the United States.

Author George Lakoff explains how conservatives think, and how to counter their arguments. He outlines in detail the traditional American values that progressives hold, but are often unable to articulate. Lakoff also breaks down the ways in which conservatives have framed the issues, and provides examples of how progressives can reframe them.

Lakoff’s years of research and work with leading activists and policy makers have been distilled into this essential guide, which shows progressives how to think in terms of values instead of programs, and why people support policies which align with their values and identities, but which often run counter to their best interests.

Don't Think of an Elephant! is the definitive handbook for understanding and communicating effectively about key issues …

Don't Think of An Elephant! is the antidote to the last forty years of conservative strategizing and the right wing's stranglehold on political dialogue in the United States.

Don't Think of an Elephant! is the definitive handbook for understanding and communicating effectively about key issues in the 2004 election, and beyond. Read it, take action—and help take America back.

3 editions

BillieCodes reviewed Don't Think of an Elephant! by George Lakoff

Review of "Don't Think of an Elephant!" on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Interesting, but flawed. The section at the start where he explains framing is interesting, then talks for a long time about a single frame, which he himself says isn't how framing works.

There is also a larger problem in that if you consistently reframe left wing talking points into language that appeals to the right wing, you will attract people who find those framings positive. i.e. right wing people. Left wing people don't want to be in a group full of right wing people, who, if you are LGBTQAI+ for example, don't want you to exist, meaning the group will move right.

He also laughably suggests people will "debate" in good faith. Which in a post gamergate era, I think we can say is bullshit.

gimley reviewed Don't Think of an Elephant! by George Lakoff

Review of "Don't Think of an Elephant!" on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I liked a lot of what he has to say, and I liked his earlier books ([b:Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About the Mind|53336|Women, Fire, and Dangerous Things What Categories Reveal About the Mind|George Lakoff|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388238853s/53336.jpg|2416443], [b:Metaphors We Live By|34459|Metaphors We Live By|George Lakoff|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1388194058s/34459.jpg|34433]) but I don't like him (I've watched him on Internet videos.) I also don't like his materialism (reducing thoughts to brains and neurons) and his inability to see his own limitations (namely that all frames limit and so do the ones he uses, something he might even be willing to acknowledge).

However, I am criticizing him from the standpoint of my own long time interests and investigations (that is, I have chosen different frames than he chooses--actually meta frames in that I am speaking of how he thinks of frames) and that may not be of that much interest to a casual reader (which …