32 tips for navigating a society full of propaganda and manipulation

The full article can be found here

I expect everyone here is either trying to find their way through the deceit around us, or perpetuating that deceit. Most of us will be in the grey zone with a bit of both going on. Either way deception and manipulation are a part of this world that we all encounter, whether we know it or not. Having a good understanding and awareness or manipulative techniques does help us spot and counter such influences in our lives. The main points of the article by Caitlin Johnstone are:

1  -  Understand the fact that humans are storytelling animals, and that whoever controls the stories controls the humans.

2  -  Be humble and open enough to know that you can be fooled.

3  -  Watch people's behavior and ignore the stories they tell about their behavior.

4  -  Be suspicious of people who keep telling you what they are and how they are, because they're trying to manipulate your narrative about them.

5  -  Learn to see how trust and sympathy are used by manipulators to trick people into subscribing to their narratives about what's going on.

6  -  Be suspicious of anyone who refuses to articulate themselves clearly.

7  -  Familiarize yourself with cognitive biases, the glitches in human cognition which cause us to perceive things in a way that is not rational.

8  -  Trust your own understanding above anyone else's.

9  -  Understand that propaganda is the single most overlooked and under-appreciated aspect of our society.

10  -  Respect the fact that the science of modern propaganda has been in research and development for over a century.

11  -  Understand that western mass media propaganda rarely consists of full, outright lies.

12  -  Put effort into developing a good news-sense, a sense for what's newsworthy and what's not.

13  -  Be patient and compassionate with yourself when it comes to developing your narrative navigating skills.

14  -  Find reliable news reporters who have a good sense for navigating the narrative matrix, and keep track of them to orient yourself and stay on top of what's going on.

15  -  Don't let paranoia be your primary or only tool for navigating the narrative matrix.

16  -  Hold your worldview loosely enough that you can change it at any time in the light of new information, but not so loosely that it can be slapped out of your head by someone telling you what to think in a confident, authoritative tone. As Carl Sagan once said, "It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brains fall out."

17  -  Speaking of confident, authoritative tones, be suspicious of confident, authoritative tones.

18  -  Be aware that sociopaths exist.

19  -  Be aware of projection, and be aware of the fact that it cuts both ways:

20  -  Be suspicious of those who excessively advocate civility, rules and politeness.

21  -  Meditation, mindfulness, self-inquiry and other practices are powerful tools which can help you understand your own inner processes, which in turn helps you understand how manipulators can manipulate you, and how they manipulate others.

22  -  Be relentlessly honest with yourself about your own inner narratives and the various ways you engage in manipulation.

23  -  Understand that truth doesn't generally move in a way that is pleasing to the ego, i.e. in a way Hollywood scripts are written to appeal to.

24  -  Try to view the world with fresh eyes rather than with your tired old grown-up eyes which have taught you to see all this as normal.

25  -  Know that the truth has no political party, and neither do the social engineers.

26  -  Remain always aware of this simple dynamic: the people who become billionaires are generally the ones who are sociopathic enough to do whatever it takes to get ahead.

27  -  Understand that nations are pure narrative constructs; they only exist to the extent that people agree to pretend that they do.

28  -  Understand that war is the glue which holds the US-centralized empire together.

29  -  Remember that when it comes to foreign policy, the neocons are always wrong.

30  -  Notice how the manipulators like to split the population in two and then get them arguing over how they should serve the establishment.

31  -  Watch out for appeals to emotion.

32  -  Pay attention to how much propaganda goes into maintaining the propaganda machine itself.

Overall all I do find these tips as providing a good heads up and reasonable direction for coming to terms with the madness and ignorance around us all.

33 - be wary of people who offer you lists of how to do things

34 - Don't trust anyone who desires authority

a reply to: kwakakev

Most right wingers think their opinions are facts. What's the point after a while in talking with them!

originally posted by: dfnj2015
a reply to: kwakakev

Most right wingers think their opinions are facts. What's the point after a while in talking with them!

If you do not understand that the converse is just as true, then, yeah, whats the point...

Thanks for the list, overall it is actually quite good, but...

originally posted by: kwakakev
16 - ...As Carl Sagan once said, "It pays to keep an open mind, but not so open your brains fall out."

I'd never heard this quote before. I love it!

Also...

28  -  Understand that war is the glue which holds the US-centralized empire together.

A list like this should keep things as generic as possible.

This should read:

28 - Understand that war is the glue that has historically held any centralized empire together.

a reply to: kwakakev

Man, that's some great and very accurate stuff!

I could add a 33 &34!
33) Keep yourself to yourself and when out and about keep yourself to your own kind.
34) Keep your mouth shut; sometimes the wisest words are are those never spoken.

a reply to: kwakakev

Learn the Trivium method of truth discovery.

originally posted by: dfnj2015
a reply to: kwakakev

Most right wingers think their opinions are facts. What's the point after a while in talking with them!

There is no point in talking to them.

By the same token most Leftists believe their opinions are facts. And therefore, similarly, there's no point in talking to them either.

First, know thyself,
then, know thine enemy.

a reply to: kwakakev

Its always good to keep such things in mind.. But, as I always like to do with pieces like this, I took a gander at the author of said piece.

Interestingly, or perhaps predictably, the author clearly displays her own propaganda programming without awareness.

I notice that those who lean left tend to decry the propaganda while inundating the world with talks about the dangers of it. This is the result of relatively new programming measures. Those on the right will tend to eschew any talks about it, displaying "ye olde ways." In many ways, I find the latter more honest.

Personally, the trait I think I feel absent the most in this list is the willingness to call out ones own "side." Would we expect a White Sox fan to convince a Cubs fan of their "wrongness?" Of course not.. Yet, when a Cubs fan criticizes the egregious behavior of another Cubs fan, there is a significantly higher likelihood of success.

Another is the shockingly extensive use of projection as a fundamental tenet in modern engineering. This combo of a total lack of self criticism and projecting anything that would be criticized individually/in-group, is very, very, very effective.

One trait I have also noticed significantly more from one side is a strange tendency to repeatedly consume the exact same content over and over. Thats not referring to the "type" of content, but specifics, like a specific youtube video. I frequently see it mentioned that some will watch a given video a dozen or more times. Importantly, not as part of anything other than consumption.

Its a tricky topic, really. There is no way to escape the programming of our Cultural Story. And, with the advent of modern technology, this can be carefully catered to everyone while also creating more subgroups than ever and simultaneously yielding immense predictability.

When it comes down to it though, one of the strongest hallmarks of modern programming is simply the lack of self-criticism, on both the individual and group level. Any perceived issues will either be projected on the other "side," or cause a category shift of the offenders to the other "side" ('eating their own').

Overall, there is no real escape from these things, no matter what "awareness" we have or list that we follow. We are intrinsically, unavoidably programmable. The only real way to address it is to begin consciously writing that Cultural Story at all levels, with aspects like true individuality and cooperative competition as fundamental.

a reply to: kwakakev

33 Learn how to detect 'deepfake' (AI) videos.

Tip #1 -Ignore everything and flip a coin at every fork in the road.

a reply to: kwakakev

I'll get a little creative here, by quoting some of the commentary under the numbered points.

8  -  Trust your own understanding above anyone else's.

It might not be perfect, but it's a damn sight better than letting your understanding be controlled by narrative managers and dopey partisan groupthink, or by literally anyone else in a narrative landscape that is saturated with propaganda and manipulation.

You won't get everything right, but betting on your own understanding is the very safest bet on the table.

It can be intimidating to stand alone and sort out the true from the false by yourself on an instance-by-instance basis, but the alternative is giving someone else authority over your understanding of the world.

Abdicating your responsibility to come to a clear understanding of what's going on in your world is a shameful, cowardly thing to do.

Be brave enough to insist that you are right until such time as you yourself come to your own understanding that you were wrong.
…
4  -  Be suspicious of people who keep telling you what they are and how they are, because they're trying to manipulate your narrative about them.

Be doubly suspicious of people who keep telling you what you are and how you are, because they're trying to manipulate your narrative about you.

We're on a forum at the moment. There is nothing stopping us from not responding to pushy posters wanting an immediate response to their telling us who we are. "You're just an advocate of … just own it" or "You're just butt hurt because …"

If these characterizations are untrue, or partly untrue due to much personal nuance, then it may be better to not engage in argument about who you are.

Sometimes people can use what seems to be a logical progression of ideas that you hold in a way to reach a conclusion that is inconsistent.

When all else fails, log off for as long as it takes to sort these issues out at your leisure, referencing appropriate factual sources. This would be more appropriate than making a snap statement, on the spot, in front of the gods and everyone as witnesses. Some superstitious people take such snap statements seriously and feel bound by them.

------------------------------------------
Add a number — If you are superstitious and propogandists know it, then they will no doubt use that to manipulate you too.

If you are superstitious and you know it, then take mental health breaks. Test the limits of your superstitions in your own way and in your own time. Internet audiences are counter-indicated for such exercises in my opinion.

a reply to: kwakakev

Man...

Not once on the list is anything like “recognize logical fallacies.” And imho that is like 97% of the problem..


Imho like half the list is woo woo... meditation and mindfulness mixed in with things that sound good and mean nothing like .. “think outside the box..

From my understanding logic and retoric were a major course for all of ancient history.. now they are a side note only debate people recognize by heart..



And debate people will still push logical fallacies.. look at Shapiro.

Just what kind of hidden agenda are you pushing?

You only need one.

Unplug,turn off the tv and the internets.

Your world view would be so much happier.

originally posted by: Blue Shift
Just what kind of hidden agenda are you pushing?

What's wrong with him?

a reply to: kwakakev

There is such a thing as truth. Just as there is such a thing as untruth.

Try and seek for the truth and be cynical.

Don't accept second source commentaries.

Look for inconsistent data. Names, dates, time-frames and roles that don't match up. Sure indicators that what you are looking at is not the truth.

If they start with testimonials and then give you their life story, they are building a con. It is not the truth, it is advertising.

If someone has a history of stretching the truth, they are probably lying. If someone is regarded as having high integrity, they are less likely to be a liar, but can still lie.

Don't assume, as first criteria, that something is the work of a lucky evil genius. Most human efforts are inept. Especially in the output of organizations.

Evaluate motive. If something happens that seems evil but you cannot figure out a clear motive for it by the alleged malefactors, then perhaps it was an accident or they didn't do it.

Use Ockhams razor.

Take the things that are written, and that people say, at face value. Most people aren't encoding deeper hidden meanings into everything.

Remember that if you form an opinion, it is just another opinion, not fact.

Be aware that media who once delivered factual news, now largely present opinion. If they call something an opinion piece, or put up a disclaimer, they mean it.

The facts are usually concise and brief. The opinions arising from those facts are long winded, refer to unrelated things only connected by classification and are usually emotional in appeal.

Golden Rule number 1, Stay out of the mudpit

originally posted by: neo96
You only need one.
Unplug,turn off the tv and the internets.
Your world view would be so much happier.

Oh, I stopped watching the "news" a long time ago, and my worry levels are darn near zero -- or at least my worries are more about what happens to me personally, and not what happens in some abstract way to the rest of the world or the country or the climate or whatever other concepts there are to worry about, like Reese Whitherspoon's new hairdo or whatever baby the Kardashians / Jenners are squeezing out.