Matt Ridley on the Boomerang effect.

Matt Ridley put up a tweet on X today about what he called "the Boomerang effect."

This expression, the Boomerang effect, has often been used to mean an unsuccessful attempt to persuade people of the merits or benefits of some policy, belief or action which backfires so badly that it pushes people towards a diametrically opposed policy, belief or action.

Matt uses it to mean when people criticise or dislike some trend in thought or actions without noticing that their own previous actions or statements have had the unintended consequence of boosting the very trend which they are now complaining about.

I don't necessarily concur with all the examples in his tweet, which you can read in full by clicking on the link below.

Matt Ridley on X: "I've noticed a common phenomenon. Let's call it the boomerang effect. Lament the rise of an opinion or policy without noticing how your preferred policies helped cause it." / X

However, I think he is absolutely right that there are people on both left and right of politics around the world, and people who would consider themselves in the centre, who don't seem to notice how some of their own past actions and statements have driven people into the arms of those who take the opposite view.

The classic UK example from the last decade would be when Momentum screamed at people "**** off and join the Tories" and were horrified in the subsequent 2019 election when millions of voters did exactly that.


Here are some extracts from Matt's Tweet.


"I've noticed a common phenomenon. Let's call it the boomerang effect.

Lament the rise of an opinion or policy without noticing how your preferred policies helped cause it.

Anti-immigrant feeling leading to difficulties for legal immigrants - because you welcomed millions of illegal immigrants and prevented them being deported.

Prosecution of political opponents - because you did it too.

Dislike seeing people cancelled for their opinions - because you started it.

Rising climate scepticism - because you censored reasonable criticism of climate extremism.

Anger at trans rights activists - because you shouted down concerns about men pretending to be women in sports and prisons.

Patriotic nationalism turning uglier - because you told people flags were racist."


 It is always a good idea to be aware of the law of unintended consequences.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Nick Herbert on his visit to flood hit areas of Cumbria

Please note that the post below was published more than ten years ago on 21st November 2009 Nick Herbert MP, shadow cabinet member for the Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs, was in Cumbria this morning to see the areas affected by the flooding. He writes on Conservative Home about his visit. Here is an extract. I’ve been in Cumbria today to see the areas affected by the floods. I arrived early in Keswick where I met officials from the Environment Agency. Although the river levels had fallen considerably and homes were no longer flooded, the damage to homes had been done. And the water which had got into houses wasn’t just from the river – it was foul water which had risen from the drains. I talked to fire crews who were pumping flood water back into the river, and discovered that they were from Tyne & Wear and Lancashire. They had been called in at an hours’ notice and had been working on the scene ever since, staying at a local hotel. You cannot fail to be impressed by th...
Read more

Quotes of the day 19th August 2020

Image
"Wise men profit more from fools than fools from wise men; for the wise men shun the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the successes of the wise."  ( Cato the Elder , who lived 234 BC - 149 BC, quoted in "Lives" by Plutarch.) There is a similar saying by Germany's Iron Chancellor, Otto von Bismarck: Benjamin Franklin is supposed to have put the same saying in a more humorous form: "Wise men profit by the mistakes of others, while fools will not learn even from their own blunders." See also this thread on the "Quote Investigator" website . Let us all be wise and learn from the events of the last few days.
Read more

Quote of the day 24th July 2020

I was moved to put the passage below forward as a quote today when I saw a horrible post on twitter from someone writing that it was "excellent" that someone who took a different view from her about Brexit had died. I won't write which way round it was so that all the Remain supporters can assume the post was from a Brexit fanatic welcoming the death of a remainer and all the Leavers can assume it was a Remainiac welcoming one less Brexiteer. There's been plenty of nasty stuff on both sides but if you catch anyone of your own viewpoint  posting something like that who might listen to you, please do call them out on it - and point out that they're giving everyone on your side of the argument a bad name. Anyway, here's the quote from John Donne.
Read more