Thread:

When the evangelical elite talk about "persuasion" in the public sphere, they usually assume the following ethos:

1) Punch Right; thoughtfully engage Left.

2) Ascribe good faith to the Left (despite many reasons not to) and ascribe bad faith to the Right.

3) Attack the Right to gain credibility with the Left, especially when it's about the Right's "hypocrisy".

4) "Credibility" with the Left is always the form that shapes the rhetoric.

5) Persuade the Left not of ideas, but of your worthiness for toleration and willingness to be "respectable."

6) Treat every accusation or moral condemnation from the Left, no matter how crazy, as an opportunity for public self-criticism.

7) Theologize every concept of the Left to the extent that you can gaslight those who call it a leftist concept.

8) Never morally condemn the Left; always morally condemn the Right.

9) Assert a fantastical moral political theory that would magically appear without the use of civil power.

10) Assert only those narratives of history or events that CNN would air.

11) Never lead or begin an outrage mob; always join it and Christianize your wing of it. Condemn Christians who do not express outrage.

12) Conceal cowardice and passivity with words like "prudence," "wisdom," and "Christian witness."

13) Question the motives, hypocrisy, principles, and winsomeness of every Christian who might act or speak politically for some end that bothers the Left.
14) Act in confidence and with resolve only when criticizing the Right or when advocating for something the Left agrees with

15) Whenever you attack the Left, always morally equate them with the Right, which effectively redirects your criticism from the Left to the Right or your fellow Christians.

16) Every condemnation of the Left must include a condemnation of the Right. And if you can’t do the latter, then you stay silent about the former.

(Variation of 15)