Walking People Up The Crazy-Idea Ladder

......and then over a cliff.

Seeing the Forest: Walking People Up The Crazy-Idea Ladder:

"They are talking about the Overton Window. Here is the original. It's about how to 'advance ideas' - take a wild idea and get people to accept it. This is a concept studied and practiced by the right - and they are talking about ideas like privatizing Social Security, or getting rid of public education. But there is a lot to learn here.

The idea is that you walk people up a ladder of acceptability of an idea, one step at a time. As the people climb the ladder, their thinking about the idea at the top is walked through stages. The first stage is that the idea is unthinkable, then after hearing about it for a while it becomes just radical, then after enough repetition it becomes acceptable, eventually it sounds sensible, then seems popular, and finally it becomes policy."