A Brief History of Acceptable Opinion

The Overton Window is the range of policies politically acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time. Named after Joseph Overton, who had the courtesy to describe the mechanism before dying in a plane crash — which, the Bureau notes, is not suspicious and you should not look into it further.

The window doesn't move because people change their minds. It moves because the people shaping the conversation change what's on offer. Introduce an extreme position, and the previously extreme position suddenly looks moderate. It's not a bug. It's the service manual.

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