Trump should inspire us all, but not in the way you might guess | John Abraham

Joe Romm’s new book details the sticky messaging tactics successfully employed by Trump and othersScientists like me – and really, everyone – can learn from President Donald Trump’s mastery of viral messaging. True, he has turned the United States into a pariah nation, one reviled for ripping immigrant children from their parents and from withdrawing from our only real chance at stabilizing the climate, the Paris Accord. I wrote this book because I have met so many frustrated scientists and environmentalists who want to get their message out, but don’t know how to be heard above the Niagara Falls of noise gushing from the internet and cable news. As an MIT-trained physicist who has been blogging for 12 years, I’ve learned a lot of the secrets of viral storytelling and messaging. But I’ve also had to unlearn a lot of things I was taught on the road to my Ph.D. So, I wrote this handbook for anyone who wants to learn the lessons from the world’s greatest viral communicators.The main message is that if you want to grab and keep people’s attention – if you want to be as clicky and sticky as possible – you need to create an emotionally compelling and memorable message using a few basic rules. And rule number one is to tell a story with the simple And-But-Therefore formula used by Hollywood screenwriters and viral superstars like Oprah. Climate change represents perhaps the greatest challenge we have ever faced as a civilization. But those seeking to communicate the scientific evidence have found themselves subject to concerted attacks by fossil fuel interests who find the implications of the science to be a threat to their bottom line. Few have had both the courage to do battle with the forces of denial and the skill to communicate the science and its implications with clarity and vision. My friend Joe Romm is such an individual. Continue reading...