Today’s Jesus and Mo strip, called “unwary,” is about “forced teaming”. But what is it? This list of manipulations tells you:
De Becker calls forced teaming one of the most sophisticated manipulations.
You can clearly identify it when a stranger conjures a shared experience with you where none exists by using the pronouns “we” and “us” in phrases like “Now we’ve done it” or “We’re some team.”
Criminals use it to get closer to their victims by creating the illusion that you’re both in the same boat. Moreover, most people are reluctant to deflect forced teaming because it’s difficult to do so without seeming rude. This only adds to the criminal’s advantage.
The artist also gives the Wiktionary link to another definition:
The situation where an abuser attempts to forge a bond with their victim by implying that they have something in common or are in a shared predicament.
And of course they demonstrate exactly what they’re decrying:
Just for context, the topical example of “forced teaming” is the insistence that “trans rights” must be teamed with LGB rights (commonly phrased as the “LGBTQ+ community”, where the word “community” tries to give the impression that they are all one big happy family who would live in peace and harmony were it not for those “cis-hetero” oppressors).
Thus the LGB Alliance gets called a “hate group” for nothing more than declining to assent to the teaming.
You beat me to it, Coel. The group “Get the L Out” have been described as “anti-trans” for objecting to this forced teaming: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-44757403 and other such groups have been confronted with violence.
There’s a good article about this type of forced teaming here: https://www.spiked-online.com/2022/08/21/how-trans-ideology-hijacked-the-gay-rights-movement/
That seems to be a different meaning of the phrase than what’s being used here. “False Analogy” is the fallacy of claiming that if two things are similar in one way, they’re similar in another. Also “False Equivalence.” Once someone puts that together they’re hoping for a “Halo Effect/Error” — a positive impression of one part sliding onto the other. But yes, I’ve seen “forced teaming” used your way, too.
I think there’s a benign version of “forced teaming” under Jerry’s definition which is more about persuasion than manipulation and is often sincere: an implicit or explicit appeal to the common ground. Find some shared value and work towards agreement from that. It’s actually quite respectful. Most virtues, however, can go to the dark side.
We also see it in “Politician’s Playbook, level 1”.
Cynical? Moi?