Yet - For Many SNP Voters it is Psychological not Political

In my first post on this theme I said that

“So many SNP followers adore Nicola Sturgeon! They say so frequently on social media and in interviews. And adoration is not a rational choice, it is a psychological state.

SNP followers have their very self-identity bound up in 'the cause'. This means that arguments that challenge 'the cause' threaten their self-identity and strike at the very core of who they see themselves to be. This makes reaching them with reasons or facts or arguments almost impossible.”

However, while reaching SNP followers with facts and argument is “almost impossible” there are emotional appeals that can work, and we are witnessing one now

For opponents of the SNP, the Committee on the Scottish Government Handling of Harassment Complaints is important because it concerns the likely abuse of State power by the Scottish Government.

As more and more is revealed (or one might say dragged out of a reluctant Executive), the extent of this abuse of power becomes more shocking. And the ease with which the SNP can use both the Crown and the Police to further their own ends demonstrates an urgent need to reform the structure of the government in Holyrood.

These are extremely serious issues that affect every citizen in Scotland! But neither the abuse of power nor the constitutional deficit  seems to ‘hit home’ with SNP followers.  


 

What is ‘hitting home’ with at least some SNP followers is what they see as the betrayal of Alex Salmond. 

 

And there is a clue in the phrase ‘hitting home’ – this concerns emotions rather than logic. In general only strong emotions that can overcome the psychological power of the self-identification with ‘the cause’ that so many SNP followers feel.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

For Many SNP Voters it is Psychological not Political

Image
Scotland’s economy would shrink by at least £11bn a year if it became independent   There have been many reports outlining the economic costs to Scotland of becoming independent. As reported in the Guardian recently: "Scotland’s economy would shrink by at least £11bn a year if it became independent ... a team of economists has forecast. The report from the London School of Economics and City University of Hong Kong found that quitting the UK’s common market would hit the Scottish economy two to three times as hard as leaving the EU, just counting the impact on trade alone. Suggesting that the worst economic effects would take several decades to take hold, the LSE’s Centre for Economic Performance said the impacts on its trade with both the UK and the EU would shrink Scotland’s economy in the long run by between 6.3% and 8.7%. That was equivalent to a loss of between £2,000 to £2,800 per capita a year: with Scotland’s population estimated to be nearly 5.5 million, that pu
Read more

A Dialogue with Effie Deans About The New PRO-UK Party 'Rebuild Scotland'

Image
On Thursday 27th May 2021 the Effie Deans posted ‘ Do we even want to defeat Sturgeon? ’ on her Blog. As a great admirer of Deans on Twitter and having read most of her Blogposts, I was immediately intrigued. Of course the title is a rhetorical question with the assumed answer being ‘yes', and the psychological hook is the implication that ‘we’ are going about defeating Sturgeon in the wrong way.  Eager to read what I expected to be her analysis of mistakes ‘we’ are making in our efforts to defeat Sturgeon, Deans did not disappoint, and as I read I agreed with most of her description of the recent Scottish Parliamentary election until half way through the post I read:   “If there is to be a list only Pro UK party (and this is up for debate) then there has to be only one. It may seem good fun setting up your own party and playing at politics, but it is simply stupid that there were so many Pro UK list parties. “   As far as I know only one new PRO-UK party has been set up since the
Read more

We're No Longer Jock Tamson's Bairns

Image
In March 2021 I made a video about my analysis of the root cause of the problems Scotland faces. This Blog post reprises the argument I made in that video  Watch the original video here Scots Sacrificed on the Altar of Postmodern Philosophy Power Politics -Dr. Catherine McCall   I want to talk about a virus that is threatening our way of life in Scotland. Not covid 19, but a VIRUS of the MIND               The good news is that 99% of folk are immune to this virus. But the bad news is that it is still threatening ALL of us, because it has infected the MINDS of the majority of politicians in Holyrood.               But before identifying this virus, I want to step back a little               We’re facing an existential threat in Scotland. Our Scottish CULTURE is under attack! We have a minority SNP government. They’re called the  SCOTTISH  NATIONAL party, but they don’t represent the majority of Scottish people.   Worse - they don’t represent the Scottish nation or culture              
Read more