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Our minds are most comfortable with the simplicity of what’s called dichotomous thinking, in which it’s easy to pick one brand or political party over another because the choice is presented as uncomplicated and clear. You know the messages—buy this brand and your troubles will disappear, a vote for some politician will spell certain doom for the country, and so on. By distorting the complexities of a situation into an either/or equation, the choice feels simpler and easier. Labeling, overgeneralizing, and meaningless platitudes are common techniques to achieve this type of distortion.
Great marketers are great storytellers. They create narratives around products that we can grasp quickly at a simple, emotional level. A slippery few use stories that stretch or aren’t remotely representative of their product’s benefits in order to mislead and manipulate.
Politicians do the same thing when they single out one family or person to manipulate us into using emotional, rather than logical, reasoning. The suggestion is that the anecdote is representative of the world. By playing to our emotions in this way, a master manipulator can trick us into believing that our feelings represent a larger truth, without a rational or factual foundation.
Another way marketers and politicians use emotionalization is by stroking our egos. We have a primal and fundamental need to feel significant in this world, and yet we increasingly feel invisible and unimportant.
Associations and symbolism are even more powerful because we increasingly rely on visual images alone to develop perceptions about products and politicians.
originally posted by: AgarthaSeed
a reply to: toysforadults
Looks like a lotta reading.
Hitler's bad and I hate Trump so can't you just leave me alone and let me call Trump a Hitler Nazi Fascist?
It works and I'm comfortable and my friends all agree. Don't try to reinvent the wheel toysforadults!
....../sarc
originally posted by: six67seven
a reply to: toysforadults
Add simple, catchy slogans to that manipulative technique:
Hope and Change
Yes We Can
I’m with Her
it's just so sad that so many are so easily manipulate
originally posted by: CB328
it's just so sad that so many are so easily manipulate
You mean like all religious people and Trump supporters?
originally posted by: strongfp
a reply to: toysforadults
The article was just pointing out how marketing and politicians can manipulate the masses by actually targeting the individual. Without that person knowing they are being played and carefully tossed around to make them feel good about themselves, give them a little hope here, a little good night sleep there, add in some flashy signs and such, etc, etc.
This is not just for people who associate or identify as a liberal of democrat this is for EVERYONE.
originally posted by: carewemust
a reply to: toysforadults
CNN has been showing moving, tear-jerking videos of law-breaking illegal alien parents being reunited with the children they were separated from this week.
CNN is attempting to be sinister in its messaging, but the results will be good, since CNN is shown in all Central America countries.
The "Message" They're Seeing: Do NOT try to sneak into America! Do it the right way, or you could be separated from little Esmerelda for a few weeks, or months.
originally posted by: AgarthaSeed
a reply to: toysforadults
Looks like a lotta reading.
Hitler's bad and I hate Trump so can't you just leave me alone and let me call Trump a Hitler Nazi Fascist?
It works and I'm comfortable and my friends all agree. Don't try to reinvent the wheel toysforadults!
....../sarc