A media training session at the organization's annual conference provided a rare look inside the effort to control the narrative.

PHILADELPHIA — Last week, a local Indiana chapter of Moms for Liberty attracted attention for quoting Adolf Hitler in its newsletter. After the local paper reported the story, the group added additional “context” but kept the quote. Eventually, after it faced even more scrutiny, the organization removed the quote and apologized in a statement posted to its Facebook group.

That, however, was a big mistake, according to advice at the Moms for Liberty national conference’s media training session Friday.

“Never apologize. Ever,” said Christian Ziegler, the chairman of the Florida Republican Party. “This is my view. Other people have different views on this. I think apologizing makes you weak.”

He advised the attendees to instead make it clear that the Hitler comment was “vile” but to immediately pivot to make the point that Hitler indoctrinated children in schools and that that’s what Moms for Liberty was fighting against. Ziegler warned that any apology would become the headline, so that should be avoided.

You read that right. He said to not apologize for quoting Hitler. That’s what we’re dealing with now.

  • PlatinumPangolin@kbin.social
    7·
    1 year ago

    “By not addressing their points from a charitable perspective, you’re playing right into the astroturfer’s hands.”

    That’s the exact opposite of how this works. The GOP astroturfers want the conversation to be about “addressing concerns of these poor mothers, whose innocent children are being subjected to XYZ” meanwhile they get to keep fear mongering and raising money. You can tell these people that book banning isn’t a good idea for thousands of reasons but that’d be meaningless. They don’t care about book banning in the first place. They care about raising money and fear mongering as a way to do so.

    • Dienervent@kbin.social
      06·
      1 year ago

      And now you’re accusing them of being Nazi’s. But THEY know they’re not Nazis (well those of them that aren’t nazis think they’re not nazis). So who are you trying to convince? Yourselves? Now they’re worried because people are lying about them and what they want and then they’ll just donate to the astroturfing organization that’s protecting them from the unhinged lunatics accusing them of being nazis.

      You need to fight on both fronts, you have to use a charitable approach to slow down grass roots recruiting. AND you attack the values and falsehoods behind the hidden agenda.

      They have their public claims and they have their behind closed doors claims. You combat their public claims directly and proactively promote the counterarguments to their behind closed doors claims.

      You also indict them for ACTUAL poor behavior that they’ve done.

      This is the best source I could find for the original context for the Hitler quote. Sticking strictly to the context of that image, it’s classic: Hitler did this thing that the government is doing, that’s why we have to fight against it.

      https://eu.indystar.com/story/news/2023/06/21/moms-for-liberty-hamilton-county-indiana-quotes-hitler-in-newsletter/70344659007/

      I don’t have the actual original before the yellow box was added, so I can’t say if the yellow box was the only change. But now all you’re doing by attacking them on this nothingburger of a Hitler quote, is you’ve given them ammunition to talk about how irrational and unreasonable the people opposing them are.

      The accusation of ambitions similar to that of Hitler could be true, but your evidence doesn’t support it at all. All you’re doing is whipping up your side to an irrational fervor which will get noticed by the other side and then they’ll do the same thing.

      You’re making things worse, not better.

      I don’t know. That’s how I do advocacy, maybe it’s ineffective. I think it works on the people where something can work and doesn’t work on the people where nothing worse. This more unhinged kinda of advocacy is pushing away the people on whom it can work, helps turn the people on your side into lunatics and helps to turn people on the other side into even worse lunatics.

      • PlatinumPangolin@kbin.social
        5·
        1 year ago

        What are you talking about? I never said anything about Nazis. You said you didn’t know who they were so I sent you a link to Wikipedia. Then you said something about treating a astroturfed company with alterior motives charitably. And I said that’s a bad idea. No idea where the rest of this is coming from.