Whether you realize it or not, frame wars are happening all around us. If you ignore this, then you are already losing. “Frame” is short for ‘frame of reality’, and when ‘framing’ is used as a verb, it means to assert a frame of reality to the external world. If you remain oblivious to framing, you will be susceptible to, and an unknowing carrier of, ideas and messages you don’t agree with. The bad guys are already masters of the frame game, so the point of this essay is to arm you with the tools to resist and reverse unwelcome manipulation and mind control.
By the end of this essay you will be equipped with the 3 R’s of framing: recognizing, resisting and reframing. Taken together these techniques will help you to advocate for yourself and what you believe in.
Before we go deeper, let me illustrate my point with a typical example news headline taken from The New York Times.
The Ukraine Crisis: What to Know About Why Russia Attacked
Recognizing: do you recognize anything fishy with this headline? Here’s a hint: they were referring to a Vladimir Putin’s unprovoked and one-sided military invasion of Ukraine as a crisis. Any words that aren’t “war” or “invasion” are highly suspect.
Resisting: Resisting is actually quite easy. If you are in private you just say “bullshit” and move on. It takes jedi-like patience to not get agitated by such ignorance, but let’s just call it an invitation to build patience (yes, this is a reframe).
Now for the final, most fun of the R’s, reframing. Never leave a bad frame untouched, or else your silence might be mistaken for approval. We have a few options for reframing a frame that is just wrong.
1. We can “fix it for you”. “You said “crisis”. Don’t you mean “unprovoked war?””
2. If you are new to reframing, the easiest option is to use scare quotes: “Read this news about the “Ukrainian Crisis.””
3. I prefer more palpable contempt. “Read this news article about the “UkRaiNe CrIsIs.”” (this is how you write sarcasm over text).
4. Rather than directly refuting the assertion (it’s not, not a crisis, it’s just primarily a war) choosing a different angle is often the better plan. So sometimes you can completely turn the offender’s words around 180º, but the rest of the time you will want to restate the narrative from your own perspective.
Please people, any news headline calling Putins’ unprovoked and one-sided military invasion of Ukraine anything besides a war, are dangerously deceptive. Putin’s propaganda machine churns out things like “crisis” instead of war. Unless you are on his side, please use your grown up brain and don’t spread messages that perpetuate Putin’s war-crime propaganda. Thank you!
So with this example in mind, you have a taste for what a case of deceptive framing looks like, and how to apply the 3 R’s to it. As you become a natural, the 3 R’s will flow together. So now, why don’t we explore and explode examples of framing that have enormous impact in the most important arenas of life, such as: geopolitics, technology, culture and happiness.
fake consent from big tech
Most of the framing you consume will be coming from computer screens. And while social media is nearly nothing but frames, there's also a growing trend where even the words on the buttons you click are dripping with framing. Here’s a typical example that any SoundCloud user will be familiar with.
When you open the Soundcloud app you are instantly greeted with a free trial pop-up where you are only presented with two options: to “Start trial” or “Skip trial.” What’s missing is the option to give a flat-out “NO.”
This word play behind “Skip trial” is a sneaky psychological trick meant to fill people with regret for turning down the trial. Not taking a trial is usually a non-action. Humans don’t think much about non-actions because by virtue of existing in silence, we are not doing infinite things. Skipping the trial reframes your inaction into an active choice, something people feel much more attachment to and regret and anxiety at separating from the possibility of a free trial.
expanding on about human thought errors
Like in the SoundCloud example, reframes are usually combined with other psychological tricks that short circuit human rational thought. There are infinite permutations of a relatively fixed list of thought errors human are prone to making. If you want to learn more about common human thought errors, I will include recommended reading or skimming Chaldini’s Influence, and then reading the Nobel-Prize (of economics) winning book, Thinking Fast and Slow. I do warn you it is a large reading commitment. If you want a quick and dirty summary, I can recommend The Art of Thinking Clearly as long as you promise not to pay for it! It is available from digital libraries like Libby and Library Genesis. It is poorly written and mostly plagiarized. The only reason I mention it here is because it will rapidly give you a lot of breadth on the topic, but with dangerously little depth.
“dEsIgNeD In cAlifOrNiA, Made in China”
Unsurprisingly, the richest, most fetishized brand in the world has an extremely strong frame game. Unfortunately they’ve run out of ideas for innovation, so maintaining their 2 Trillion dollar valuation depends on psychologically manipulating people into buying a new phone with a slightly better camera. I’m talking of course about Apple.
Exhaustively documenting Apple’s mindfucks could easily fill a book. For the sake of this essay we will only go over the most common and obvious examples that illustrate creative framing.
The first example will be familiar to anybody who’s ever owned Apple products:
You get a pop up that says: “Software upgrade available” and your only options are: “Upgrade now” or “Upgrade tonight.” Similar to the SoundCloud example, what’s missing is the option to give a flat-out NO. This frame is called the double bind, because either one of the options gives the asker what they want. The most outrageous example illustrating the double bind comes from Austin Powers when he cheekily says, “Shall we shag now, or shag later?”
Beyond the double bind which frames both unwanted unwanted as the only choices, this software “upgrade” example has another frame built into it and it has everything to do with the entirely subjective word Upgrade.
Before I get to my next point, I need to reframe the wrong notion that every update is automatically an upgrade. If the software update makes your computer or phone run faster, better and smoother, then yes it really is an upgrade.
The problem with Apple “UpGrAdEs” is that they are built only with the newest of the new hardware in mind. That means in order to run properly, these updated MacOs and iOS versions will demand more memory, processing power and resources than your older devices can provide. The end result, your devices will run more slowly while struggling to keep up with an operating system that just doesn’t match the hardware. And this leads us to one of the biggest scandals you probably forgot about.
batterygate
In 2017 scandal broke out when Apple was caught secretly slowing down older phones. Since then, Apple has paid out hundreds of millions of dollars in fines and lawsuits. At the time of the batterygate scandal, most headlines on the topic looked something like this: “Apple admits slowing older phones because of ageing batteries.”
The relevant fact is this: Apple slowed down phones, period. Everything after that (because of aging batteries etc.) is irrelevant framing which deflects from the relevant fact. It disappointed me at the time how news editors would transmit the guilty party’s spin in the breaking headline. If you’re going to include Apple’s excuses in your headline, that’s about as bad as writing a news headline about the war in Ukraine that mentions absurdly false lies that Russia’s military objective was to “DeMiLiTaRiZe and DeNaZiFy” Ukraine. Journalists have a public duty to convey the facts, uncorrupted by spin or framing. But even as ordinary members of our community, we can make sure we don’t reshare messages, links and language that perpetuate frames we don’t believe in.
calling pRo LiFeRs what they are: forced birthers
Due to a disastrous Supreme Court ruling on Roe v. Wade, millions of American women no longer have freedom to abort an unwanted pregnancy. Let’s learn from the framing used by people on both sides of this issue. People like me are called pro choice. By framing the issue in terms of choice, we are emphasizing the universal value of freedom and bodily autonomy, while keeping unpleasant pictures of aborted babies out of your mind (except for right now, sorry!).
The people on the other side of this issue want to force women to give birth against their will, even when the pregnancy is from rape or incest! That is why I call these people what they are, forced birthers. The common framing issue here is that forced birthers chose a much more flattering name for themselves that should never be said without contempt and irony: “pRo LiFeRs”.
This brings me to a crucial rule of frame wars: never use the framing of the opposition! Whenever you call a forced birther a “pRo LiFeR” you unwittingly reinforce their position in the hearts and minds of your audience. Just like Putin’s lies, and Apple’s scandal coverup, keeping forced birther propaganda out of your mouth is the best way to stop the spread of deception.
go frame yourself
So far we’ve discussed framing in an external context, where we are reframing distorted ideas from the outside world. But what if I told you that you can use the same reframing techniques to cultivate a state of inner peace? Most of us have at least a few dark thoughts inside of us which cause us ongoing suffering and stress. What’s so cool about framing is it can solve many of our problems, and provide some relief for the rest of them.
For example, if you’re like most people, you probably have an inner critic in your head. The inner critic provides you with an endless stream of doubt with messages that make it hard to go on, like “your art sucks” or “you’re not good enough.” A good solution to these messages is to resist them, head on. “My art does NOT suck!” and “I AM good enough!” The only limitation here is that it could take a long time with many repetitions to override these bad-for-you beliefs. Making a daily practice of saying positive affirmations is a great first step. Even better is to get into a heightened state of mind before affirming (for example, with meditation, hypnosis, or certain drugs). These approaches are great, but require patience and persistence. If only there was one epic reframe to rule them all…
I can share from my own experience a single reframe that neutralized my inner critic and all of the nasty things they say. I started calling my inner critic my inner coach. I acknowledge and even thank my inner critic for trying to help me. And now, instead of feeling victimized, I feel thankful and even a little embarrassed for my coach, who really needs a lesson in nonviolent communication.
External and internal problems are both easy and fun to reframe. The only difference with internal frames is they are harder to see, which makes sense because your inner thoughts aren’t written on news headlines. That means your self awareness is going to be the main factor in helping you reframe your own problems. The good news is that self awareness can be trained like a muscle, and building your self-aware six pack is enjoyable, rewarding and fun. Some things that help cultivate self awareness are: journaling, talking with trusted friends, talking to a therapist, and–my ultimate favorite–talking to yourself like you’re Gollum! Finding a self awareness practice that works for you is all you need in order to reframe internal issues as effectively as messages in the external world.
So by now you are ready to go out into the world and stop the spread of frames you don’t agree with. You have the framework needed to creatively reframe ideas so you can stand up effectively for what you believe in. And with a little bit of self awareness, you can use the same techniques from the external frame wars, to cultivate a source of inner peace within.
Notes
Notes:
Thinking Fast and Slow: https://www.amazon.com/Thinking-Fast-Slow-Daniel-Kahneman/dp/0374275637/
Art of thinking clearly summary: https://www.grahammann.net/book-notes/the-art-of-thinking-clearly-rolf-dobelli
Get books free at your digital library, Libby: https://www.overdrive.com/apps/libby
NYT article mislabeling war in Ukraine: https://www.nytimes.com/article/ukraine-russia-putin.html
Guardian headline resharing Apple’s PR coverup: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/dec/21/apple-admits-slowing-older-iphones-because-of-flagging-batteries