Conservative Tactic # 6

Conservative Tactic # 6 

Underpants Gnomes Model 

South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker have become celebrated as brilliant social and political satirist.  They have been awarded numerous accolades including Emmys, an Oscar, and most recently almost every Tony you can get.  They continuously expose fraud and hypocrisy with clever analogies that unfold on their amazingly well crafted shows.  One of the most decisive cases of this was a seemingly unintentional explanation of so many arguments in the social and political world.  I am of course referring to the Underpants Gnomes.  The famous underpants gnomes episode of South Park, features underpants gnomes that sneak into your room late at night and steal underpants.  The boys of South Park, and apparently all of society, are plagued by underpants gnomes who steal our underpants while we sleep.  Angry and curious, the boys follow the gnomes back to their secret lair.  Only to discover the secret gnome lair is actually a place of vibrant industry resembling a manufacturing corporation.  When asked why they steal our underpants, the gnomes explain by unveiling their business model, which is as follows:

PHASE 1:  COLLECT UNDERPANTS 

PHASE 2:  ?

PHASE 3:  PROFIT

The reason this so relevant is that it perfectly demonstrates both the immediate and long held accusations of so many institutions.  It leaves the viewer with the inclination to fill in the model with any explanation of why or how something is done to prove whether there is or is not a real connection between what is real and what is perceived, additionally the model can be applied to making a connection between a beginning and end you deliberately wish to achieve.  Conservatives are very good at this, dare I say they kick ass at this.  They have mastered the Underpants Gnome Model.  They use whatever issue or problem that is unpopular with their constituency and frame in a way that makes Liberals to blame.  Their own version of the Underpants Gnome Model is as follows:

PHASE 1:  PROBLEM

PHASE 2:  ?

PHASE 3:  LIBERALS FAULT

EX:

PHASE 1:  THE ECONOMY SUCKS

PHASE 2:  ?

PHASE 3:  LIBERALS FAULT

EX: 

PHASE 1:  THE DEFICIT

PHASE 2:  ?

PHASE 3:  LIBERALS FAULT

As long as you repeat these sorts of arguments people will believe them with trusting solidarity.  Don’t worry about offering a credible, evidence based case to explain why liberals are to blame.  All it takes to make the Underpants Gnome Model work is loud repetition, even though with minimal amounts of research people would understand the argument to not only be untrue, but in fact connect conservatives to the very problems themselves.