The Overton Window

The Overton Window is a concept in political theory that describes the range of policies and ideas that are considered acceptable or mainstream in a given society at a given time. It was named after its creator, Joseph Overton, who was a senior vice president at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Michigan.

The basic idea behind the Overton Window is that there is a range of ideas that are considered politically feasible or acceptable, and that this range is not fixed but can shift over time. At any given moment, there are some ideas that are widely accepted, some that are controversial, and some that are considered outside the mainstream.

The concept of the Overton Window is useful because it helps us understand why certain ideas gain traction in society while others do not. It also helps us understand how political movements can shift the boundaries of acceptable discourse over time.

For example, in the Europe, the bizarre idea of eating bugs is still considered outside the mainstream but it is becoming widely accepted, with the European Union approving bugs on the menu. This shift in the Overton Window was due in part to the efforts of climate activists, politicians, actors like the WEF that advocate for that and other stakeholders who work to popularize the idea and make it part of the political discourse.

J.K Rowling is another example that can be framed within the Overton Window. The British writer was a lifelong progressivist, donating millions of pounds to the Labour Party and always supported left-wing candidates, expressing her admiration for politicians like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. But since 2019, the writer of Harry Potter has been accused of being part of the ‘far-right’ by the transgender activists and the woke mob for opposing the transgender agenda.

The whole newspeak created by the woke mob, a very small, but very loud minority, is now trying to frame individuals like J.K Rowling as ‘far-right’ individuals, for the reason they are trying to manipulate the Overton Window towards the normalisation of the transgender agenda while considering everything that supports their perspectives on matters like pronouns and gender identity as something totally unacceptable.

We can also observe of how the Western nations that always defended liberty are giving up freedom of speech and embracing even the absurd concept of censorship. Defending censorship some decades ago in much of the Western Europe and in America would be considered absurd, ‘anti-American’ for the American, anti-Western. All of that is happening because the public opinion is being altered through propaganda, think tanks and other actors that advocate for censorship under the name of ‘hate speech’ or under the flag of issues like terrorism, that is certainly facilitated and triggered by the very same people trying to increase government control. The reason this is happening is open for debate; being a mere consequence of terrible government policies that require an even worse answer or something schemed as some people believe.

The fact is that the window that frame the acceptance or the intolerance towards censorship was shifted towards censorship being a good thing recently, under the excuse that government censorship will give us security, while ignoring that the government itself will become the greatest threat to the individuals.

Shifting the window

The Overton Window helps us understand why some policies are more successful than others. Policies that fall within the range of acceptable discourse are more likely to be implemented than policies that are considered outside the mainstream. This is because policymakers are generally more responsive to public opinion and are less likely to take risks that could damage their political careers.

The Overton Window is not fixed and can be shifted by various factors, such as changes in public opinion, the actions of political leaders, and the emergence of new ideas and technologies. For example, the rise of social media and the internet has created new opportunities for movements to organize and mobilize, which has helped to shift the boundaries of acceptable discourse on a wide range of issues.

The Overton Window can also be manipulated by political actors who seek to shift the discourse in their favour. This can be done through various tactics, such as framing issues in a certain way, using emotional appeals to gain support, or creating a sense of urgency around a particular issue.

The Overton Window is a useful concept for understanding how political ideas and policies become accepted or rejected in a given society. By analysing the range of acceptable discourse, we can gain insights into why some policies succeed while others fail, and how political movements can shift the boundaries of acceptable discourse over time.

The loss of liberty and the abandonment of common sense that has been happening can be understood through the Overton Window. Liberty lovers and people with common sense can oppose the advancement of statism and wokeism by becoming actors that will shift the public opinion back towards the Western values of liberty instead of alien totalitarian concepts that lead into tyranny like egalitarianism and the madness of the wokeism.

Join or create think tanks and write articles to defend liberty, militate for liberty, create videos, memes, cartoons, songs or whatever you can do to help shaping the public opinion towards ideas of liberty by shifting back the window towards the normalisation of liberty and the total rejection of totalitarianism and madness. Reject the clown world we are currently living, embrace a free and sane civilisation.