Subtle Alpha Dominance
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A reader named Dev provided me the following video of a producer for the Bill O’Reilly show ambushing Bill Moyers as an example of alpha dominance, and provided some analysis of it too. Now as a pretty right-wing guy, I agree with pretty much nothing Moyers says, but the beauty of this display is that the political content is irrelevant; it’s the body language and subtle verbal tricks that matter.
Now Bill O’Reilly does this a lot, where he sends his people to ambush popular left-wing figures about their views and challenge them to appear on his show. By getting them to blow up or run away, O’Reilly then makes the left-wing figures look like cowards and plays the clips on the air to show people how “afraid” they are of him. The goal is more to make them lose their cool and build himself up than to engage in meaningful debate. But Moyers totally flips the script on him.
First, look at how Moyers never gives him the satisfaction of losing his temper or changing his demeanor or facial expressions in any way. He keeps smiling, keeps doing wide and expansive movements and engaging the crowd with a sparkle in his eyes. The wide expansive movements guarantee that he’s taking up the most space and make his presence the most dominant presence in the room.
Look at how he ignores the producer’s questions and instead responds with his own questions to put the producer on the defensive. Suddenly the producer finds himself defending himself and his boss when he originally intended to be the attacker. It’s a brilliant yet subtle role reversal by Moyers. Notice how he keeps acting like he’s forgotten the producer’s name and also acts like he forgot that he met the producer once before. All are subtle techniques of reminding the producer who is inferior to who in the exchange. Moyer’s attitude toward the producer never rises above the benign, amused condescension that an adult shows toward a clueless child that is trying to challenge you but is so beneath your full efforts.
At around 2:10 Moyers switches to subtle digs at Bill O’Reilly and his credentials. He casually “forgets” Bill’s job history, challenges whether Bill is a real journalist and has now put the producer in a position where he has to now defend Bill as well as himself. At 2:20 is where Moyers really steps the game up as he places his hand on the producer’s shorter and leaves it there. Touching is a major dominance move, and you should always be mindful of when it’s being done to you, whether it’s slaps on the back, hands on the shoulders, or pats to the face. The person is signaling your inferiority to them. Even the cameraman seems to be mindful or it, as he moves the camera to focus on Moyer’s hand and holds it there. The producer should have subtly moved in such a way as to make the hand drop, or did some reciprocal touching of his own, but instead he just stands there and his status continues to plummet.
He also makes the producer look like a lackey or a gopher by constantly asking him why he had to be sent on Bill’s behalf and Bill couldn’t come himself to do his own dirty work. He does it in a way that sounds sympathetic even while he’s belittling him, as in “It’s really not fair what Bill is doing to you by sending you on these types of lackey errands, is it?” This seems to be creating a lot of cognitive dissonance in the producer, as Moyers is simultaneously knocking down his status while giving off sympathetic vibes and building rapport with the producer. At 2:30, he invites the producer to be a guest on his show, a total reversal of what the producer was originally trying to accomplish, which was to make Moyer’s a guest on O’Reilly’s show!
At 2:48 Moyers stops to ask the producer his name again (another convenient “forgetting”) and puts him in a position to respond. He does a little divide and conquer tactic by saying that “Bill doesn’t have the courage to come on my show, but I think you might.” At that point, the producer makes a futile last ditch effort to save what’s left of his balls, but by then it’s way too late. It just comes off desperate. Then at 3:00 Moyers really goes for the jugular by pointing out that he has had his own cameras filming the exchange this whole time and will air it unedited in its entirety, so if the Bill O’Reilly Show dares to try to edit the ambush to make Moyers looks bad, he will look foolish and dishonest. He’s preemptively takes away the last weapon the O’Reilly show has left, which is creative editing. At 3:45 Moyers incorporates the crowd into the act, giving some added pressure and belittlement as the group starts to chant the producer’s names. And it just goes downhill from there.
Look at how Bill O’Reilly tries to salvage what he can out of the debacle and save face on his show:
Classic. 
Speaking of Alpha Males, I want to recommend a group I discovered last year called She Wants Revenge. If I had to describe it, I’d call it dance music for alphas. The beats are great, but what’s fascinating is how unique and insightful and pro-male their lyrics are. They often seem to be reveling in the beauty of being an unrepentantly dominant man.
This is one of my favorite songs from them; it’s called “What I Want,” but I prefer to call it “An Ode To Radical Feminists, Especially Female Lawyers.”
Here are the lyrics:
One of these days girl, you’re gonna wake up.
And I wont be there to break your fall, or brush you off.
When you come back down, no I wont.Would it kill you to show a little soft side.
It’s so attractive and sensual, it gets me off.
Isn’t that what you want? To get me off?What will you do lover, when your looks fade?
And you cant use them to get your way and what you want.
Will you be so proud? No you wont.Little girl so lost, your game is so tight.
Let you believe it yourself, and that just not right.
Don’t promise anything you can’t deliver to me.One of these days girl, you’re going to clean house.
Will you be able to sleep at night with what you find?
Will it matter at all? Tell me now.Would you sell your soul to live your dreams out?
Or would you hang on to you beliefs thats all you got.
Would you just breakdown, or hold you ground?What would it be like if all the talk stopped?
No one cared what you did anymore, who would you be?
Would you even know? Probably not.Little girl so lost, your game is so tight.
Let you believe it yourself, and that just not right.
Don’t promise anything you can’t deliver to me.Little girl so lost, your gonna to burn out.
I hope it’s not to late for you to learn how
to be a woman, cuz in the end, that’s all I want.Little girl so lost, your game is so tight.
Let you believe it yourself, and that just not right.
Don’t promise anything you can’t deliver to me.Little girl so Lost, your gonna to burn out.
I hope it’s not to late for you to learn how
to be a woman, cuz in the end, that’s all I want.
Recommended (Click on album covers to buy):
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Wow, I hadn’t seen the O’Reilly clip before with their own analysis of this! Even O’Reilly admits that his own guy got dominated in this interchange. That face pat was just classic.
My recommendation is that I’d pick and choose who you use some of these moves with. Its a very effective technique, when used against someone who won’t/can’t defend against it. The verbal techniques would work well on anyone. But if you go around bars trying out the physicial techniques (especially that face pat) against another aggressive alpha male, the situation will likely escalate and lead to a physical confrontation.
I’d recommend everyone watch this at least a couple times to internalize what T was talking about here. Good job man.
“Moyer’s attitude toward the producer never rises above the benign, amused condescension that an adult shows toward a clueless child that is trying to challenge you but is so beneath your full efforts.”
Excellent. Being a slight bit patronizing is far more effective at stopping social “attacks” slash tests (i love prissy girls) than simply appearing unaffected. For one, if you aim to be stoic, the attacker can hold strong to the belief that if they keep attacking they will eventually wear you down. Everybody is taught to try and “rise above” displays of dominance from the time they are in elementary school (sticks and stones..) but I didn’t know many 5th graders that can contemptuously cut bullies down to size by words alone. Those that did, did so by displaying higher levels of consciousness (superiority). Last thought: being patronizing brings to mind thoughts of one’s childhood, and your paternal units. I don’t think there is any human relationship that is more submissive than the child to the father, not even slave to master. This is why it is good sense to cause a chick to subconsciously misconstrue you as her father.
Agree with your analysis completely. It’s all subtle, effective, etc. I would add, though, that Moyers is doing it in a genuine way. He’s not so much ‘applying techniques’ to gain dominance, he’s simply trying to demonstrate that the fellow is misguided in a calm, professional, and very effective way. Though, you can tell he’s pretty annoyed with the guy and probably wants to actually slap him, but he obviously has restraint as would be expected of an adult.
Also, I know I’ve been like Liberal Guy on here, but how can you say you “agree with pretty much nothing Moyers says”? He very clearly delineates the background of the conflict and calls O’Reilly, Murdoch, and the producer all out for their absurdity. I don’t see what is not to agree with. Props to you though for being willing to characterize the exchange in the way that you do without doing what O’Reilly did on his show - taking things out of context and ignoring key point. I love how O’Reilly just dismisses him as a ‘nutjob’ or whatever. Super beta.
Dev - absolutely right about being careful who you try this stuff on. I think that’s why Moyers starts off with small emasculation and builds up to things like the face slap after several minutes of gradual escalation. To start off from jump with things like the face slap would have been riskier.
Abhs - yeah, many people recommend the stoic non-reaction, but I agree amused condescension works better.
Rick - bad wording on my part. I meant in general in regards to politics I hardly ever agree with Bill Moyers. I didn’t mean that I disagree with his assessment of Bill O’Reilly in this specific exchange.
T, this is an excellent deconstruction of dominance but note that Moyers had a leg up from the get go. Moyers is taller, which is very advantageous when being “attacked” and its easier to be more paternalistic from that perspective. Moyers is also well known for his very calm disposition - the needle in the compass on a storm tossed ship. I’m conservative but no one gives me the urge to take a dump on their face more than Bill O’Reilly, except for Anderson Cooper but I’m afraid the Coop might be turned on by that.
DF - so agreed on O’Reilly and on Anderson Cooper.
What would the appropriate alpha reaction be though? Its not like that O’Reilly reporter can just punch or smack Moyers for his disrespect.
T,
Man I saw this Jank on Keith Olberman when it first aired and it was so sweet how O’Reilly got punked. At the same time I never new white people could get so gangster (in their own way). I think that’s the coolest thing I’ve been learning watching politics so closely this year. Also about she wants revenge, I’m surprised you’re just now hearing about them, Walkeen Phonex (Yeah I butchered the fuck out of that name) directed their first video which was pretty sweet and then they where on Timbaland’s last joint and had a good track on their too.
Holla
virgle kents last blog post..The Coronation of A Prince
Ben - he could have done a couple of things without punching or smacking him. He could have laughed and shrugged off what Moyers was saying too, and mirrored his body language. He could have occasionally placed his hand on Moyer’s shoulder, nudged him in the arm playfully, just do similar type of body language that showed that he too didn’t take Moyers or the exchange too seriously. He could not have responded to when Moyers tried to push his buttons. For example, when Moyers acted like he forgot his name and asked him to repeat it or got it wrong on purpose, instead of validating that with a response, turn it into a negative on Moyers’ part by saying something while laughing like “Geez, man, I know you’re getting up there but you’re getting senile already? How many things have you forgotten in this conversation so far? Must suck to be getting old, you used to be known for a great memory and being sharp. You’re supposed to be a top journalist, man! Remembering names is like Journalism 101.” Then laugh good-naturedly. Tease him back like that. Not only would that have made Moyers look worse for forgetting his name, but now Moyers can’t use the name forgetting play any more in the conversation because now it’s associated with Moyer’s senility rather than the producer’s low status. He could also casually brush off Moyers hand from his shoulder when he places it there, and make jokes like “You need to at least by me dinner first.” Since Moyers is making light of his youth and inexperience and using it to contrast against Moyers experience and maturity, the producer can flip the contrast game back on Moyers and call him things like “pops” or do things that subtly imply that he’s over the hill, in his decline, etc. But by answering Moyers questions while allowing Moyers to deflect his own questions and stammering and speaking too fast and getting defensive and taking it more seriously than Moyers, he really screwed himself over.
VK - I heard about She Wants Revenge last year actually, a few months before they appeared on Timbaland’s album. Speaking of Timbaland’s album…boy what a disappointment that album was. Outside of a few choice tracks, it was a steaming turd overall.