recommended viewing: Charisma On Command

With so much to watch on YouTube for those of us with no TVs, I've taken to watching, among others, one YouTube channel called Charisma On Command, which is run by a guy named Charlie who makes similar claims to Scott Adams in terms of being a pro at evaluating and cultivating persuasiveness. Charlie's specific angle is charisma, but since charisma is instrumental to persuasion, he's in the same ballpark, I think, as Adams is.

I first stumbled upon one of Charlie's several videos related to how characters act on "Game of Thrones." The video I saw had to do with Tyrion Lannister's persuasive qualities, and I found it both commonsensical and instructive. I then went on to watch videos on Ellen DeGeneres's innocuous-but-likable comic technique and on how to spot a liar.

What may be of interest to my politically minded readers, however, are Charlie's videos regarding the current presidential election. Like Scott Adams, Charlie's angle of approach isn't via the standard ways that we judge a candidate's performance: Charlie agrees with Adams that, in the end, the things that persuade us have little to do with informativeness, logic, and substance. Instead, persuasiveness is more about emotion and nonverbal cues. Charlie has done a set of three videos (well, three so far) about the election. They are:

1. Why Trump Will Smash Hillary
2. Why Trump Choked: How Hillary Hijacked Trump's Best Weapons
3. Trump or Clinton: Who REALLY Won the Debate?

Overall, Charlie seems to go back and forth as to who he sees on top, but his assessments are generally fair-minded despite the fact that he specifically outs himself as not voting for Trump. I'll be interested to see what videos Charlie makes next. There are two more presidential debates to go, not to mention plenty of non-debate-related campaigning.