It's the Ethos, Stupid

Three simple things.

First, never let an attack on your trust go unanswered. Ever. It's like the stand up rule of "never let a heckler get the last word". So when a right winger says "liberal bias" of say "The New York Times", don't let it go unresponded to. Say "Nonsense. No liberal paper would be caught dead employing Judith Miller."

Second, cultivate trust. This means having empathy with people whose decisions really are in play. Talk to them calmly. Use calm words - not angry insults - but words that consistently paint the far right as, far to the right.

Third, erode the trust of the right wing. People trust you when you say things which accord with their experience. The right wing uses phrases like "big government", "tax and spend" and code words for peacenik to mean "quisling". People know the government is big, and they see taxes. Thus taking about big government and taxes are confirmed by their experience.

The left's code words point inwards all to often. Take "corporatist". People don't distrust big corporations. In fact, they wear "Coke" jerseys, and football team jerseys all the time. Saying "corporate" as a synonym for "distrust worthy" is cognitive dissonance. People will refuse to distrust corporations as such, because they could not function if they couldn't work for, or buy from, a corporation. "Christian" is another one.