The Heart and the Smile

This leads to the role of the moderate and the extremist to those on the outside of the bubble. An example of this is the complaint regarding the legal marijuana lobby in the US, in which their advocates tended to look similar to strung-out hippies, inaccessible to the masses. Many complained that they were unable to find that voice that was able to speak to people, one that was clean-cut, well-spoken, and committed enough to their cause to lead it. That knight in a suit and tie never rode in on his Mercedes; legal marijuana, instead, had the Overton window guided in its direction through doctors advocating its medicinal use for cancer patients, leading to select states choosing to tax and legalize it.

The need for a public voice is important. Without such a megaphone, causes become echo chambers, containing nothing more than zealots divorced from reality, lacking in agency. To ensure that the masses are willing to listen, and push from within the Overton bubble towards your goal, you require those from just outside of it to convince them to do so. Those with charisma, that understand them, and are willing to reach out to those from within. Conversely, the need for true believers is also important. After all, as the moderates pull at the ties from those within it, those from within tend to pull back. To create the necessary tension to keep your advocates from losing their way, an ideological anchor is necessary to pull along with the moderates. Also, true believers tend to be thinkers and creators rather than talkers or doers, so they create the strategies and memes which the moderates then spread. When the moderates lose their anchor, they become co-opted at best, or useless at worst. To separate the two is to separate the heart and mind from the mouth. This is why the fragile tension inflicted on the two sides is so dangerous.