Special Interest: What persuades you to their cause?
 

There are tons of special interest out there with varying methods of grabbing your interest and persuading you to support their cause. What works for you? What makes you say "This is something I ought to support" ? What annoys the hell out of you.

From Critical Mass blocking traffic to Jehovah's Witness going door to door, what works for you?

If you want to influence my opinion, a 20-30 second synopsis and some written material is the way to go. Understand that I will not give you money or sign a petition without checking the facts and opposing views. Annoying me by blocking traffic, refusing to speak to me, presenting shocking visuals and the like will simply ensure that your cause gets tossed at the bottom of my pile. There are simply too many good causes out there to deal with people that annoy me.

When a "special interest" is already my interest, I'm much more likely to be hooked. For example, I like porn. A group that stands up to the neocon, puritian, anti-porn, my-morality-is-better-than-your-morality crowd has my attention, and probably my support.

I hope you don't base all of your support around porn, Clavus. :lol:

I must admit, much of the time I'm taken in by shiny objects, such as expensive houses. Hence, I'm a fan of the hospital lotteries we have around here. Any other way to get my money would involve the representative informing me of what they do, how they do it, and the problem in which they are interested. I'm partial to environmental causes.

clavus is spot on for me.

it has to have some sort of personal thing for me.

I support breast cancer and AIDS causes because I have lost people to them.

I support homeless outreach because they live around me.

I support world poverty issues, because I have seen poverty world wide.

The other day someone was trying to convince me to support their cause. I couldn't nor wouldn't because this person wasn't able to "make me see" why I should be responsible for it. If other people bucked their own responsility for it, then why should I pick up the slack at the end?

I ultimately filter causes via simplistic culpability, is it something they could do/could have prevented about it themselves or do they need outside assistance? If they don't shoulder any responsibility themselves, then why should I?

I don't talk about my personal causes. That's why their personal.

I see others out there in the world talking a great deal about theirs though. I find that curious.

I support makeing Weed legal:D

Art, personal may mean "private," as in "my own personal problems." But in this case, I think "personal" means "relating to one's self" (i.e. a personal flotation device). Personal does not need to be private.

And when it relates to a cause, it is generally not a private matter. For by increasing the popularity of your cause, you increase the likelyhood of the cause's agenda being advanced.

A number of years ago, a lot of people thought privately that slavery was wrong. But when they announced it publically, joined together, and made the cause a personal one, they were able to affect change.