American conservative activist Christopher Rufo revealed the blueprint behind his success in combating woke ideology during a keynote speech at the Canada Strong and Free Network in Red Deer, Alberta on Saturday.
Rufo is known for his influential role in campaigns against critical race theory, gender ideology, and diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. He emphasized that victory in the cultural battle relies on a three-part model: facts, emotion, and power.
Rufo mentioned Ben Shapiro’s famous saying, “Facts don’t care about your feelings.” However, he said that Shapiro has it backwards.
“I think it’s completely wrong. And I think it’s actually completely true in the reverse, the inverse. Your feelings actually don’t care about the facts more often than not,” he said. He asked anyone in the audience whether they picked their spouse on the cold calculation of logical facts but determined that no robots were in attendance when nobody put up their hand.
Rufo explained that while facts are essential, they are not enough on their own.
“Human beings are primarily driven to action through emotion,” he said.
He cited Aristotle’s teachings on rhetoric, noting that persuasion is built on the manipulation of emotions, not just on mastering facts.
Rufo further emphasized that the media plays a crucial role in creating the urgency needed to push political figures into action. He elaborated that by leveraging facts through media narratives, he has been able to push issues like critical race theory into the national spotlight.
After establishing the need for facts and emotion, Rufo moved on to the third component: power. He explained that political victories require the truth and the ability to push that truth into positions of authority.
“You have to fight very hard against some very savvy and very ruthless opponents to get those ideas into a position of power,” he said.
Rufo outlined his method for achieving policy victories, including the abolition of critical race theory from public institutions in 22 states and his role in banning child sex change procedures in Texas permanently.
He also helped abolish various DEI initiatives with support from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, United States Senator and vice presidential contender JD Vance, and former President Donald Trump.
He pointed out that while outrage is an important tool in politics, it must be carefully directed toward a positive outcome. He warned that endless outrage without action could backfire. Instead, the outrage should be funnelled into meaningful policy changes.
Rufo was the mastermind behind blowing up the Claudine Gay controversy after it was discovered she plagiarized large portions of her dissertation.
Left-wing activists and journalists tried to boycott Rufo after discovering he was attending the CSFN, causing various sponsors to pull their support. They were unsuccessful, as Rufo held the stage for over an hour.
Rufo also discussed how to target rhetoric, using Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre as an example.
He said that individuals with right-wing belief systems too often try to use the centre-left language to appeal to them, but he said that seldom works.
“I did see the video of the guy eating the apple,” said Rufo. “This guy is fantastic. I like that guy. And I think he’s adopted a pretty savvy rhetorical model.”
He added that Poilievre presents himself as a “normal Canadian guy,” which he deemed a big advantage.
“What I think is so great about the apple video and why the apple video works, I mean, one: it’s hilarious… But what he does is he never accepts the premise. ‘What policies? How am I like Trump? You know, explain why that’s bad.’”
He said that by not falling for any rhetorical traps or accepting the premise, Poilievre disarms the journalist. Then, he uses facts to his advantage, turning to his main talking points of housing costs and the like.
He said that disarming an opponent rhetorically and then providing a solution opens a person up to listening and realizing that the premise on which they based their argument was false.
While many of Rufo’s points were covered in his over 40-minute speech, some of the most salient points came during the question and answer period with attendees, which lasted an additional 20 minutes.