>[!abstract] >The Overton window is the range of subjects and arguments politically acceptable to the mainstream population at a given time. It is also known as the window of discourse. > >[It] is an approach to identifying the ideas that define the spectrum of acceptability of governmental policies. The premise [is] that politicians typically act freely only within a window seen as acceptable. Shifting the Overton window would involve proponents of policies outside the window persuading the public to expand the window while proponents of current policies, or similar ones within the window, attempt to convince people that policies outside the status quo should be deemed unacceptable. > >The political commentator Joshua Treviño has postulated that the six degrees of acceptance of public ideas are roughly: unthinkable, radical, acceptable, sensible, popular, policy [and then symmetrically again on the other side of policy, which is at the center of the window]. ("Overton window", 2025). >[!quote] >The most common misconception is that lawmakers themselves are in the business of shifting the Overton window. That is absolutely false. Lawmakers are actually in the business of detecting where the window is, and then moving to be in accordance with it (Lehman, 2018, as cited in Robertson, 2018). >[!tip] >I like the concept of the Overton window for its broad applicability to what is acceptable even outside of politics — for instance, the evolution in the size of cars over the years, or of personal habits such as smoking, etc. ## References - Overton window. (2025, February 22). In *Wikipedia*. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Overton_window&oldid=1274800732 - Robertson, D. (2018, February 25). How an obscure conservative theory became the Trump era’s go-to nerd phrase. *POLITICO Magazine*. https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/02/25/overton-window-explained-definition-meaning-217010/