The following text is very popular and beloved on the internet and I am sure that at some point you have read it before. I consider it so classic, that I shoul republish it. It is part of a collection of interviews with N. Chomsky, where he finds penetrating observations about the institutions that shape public opinion and which are in the service of the powerful and profit.
But who is Chomsky, first? Chomsky is an american linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Chomsky is also well respected as a major analytical philosopher, as he gave to us a lot books and papers about linguistics of course, but also for war, politics, mass media and almost every aspect of our modern life!
For Chomsky these are the 10 ways which media use, to manipulate you:
1. The strategy of distraction
I'm sure you all know the above lady. Most of you, iam sure that you do not even remember how, when and why you first heard about her. It is perhaps the perfect example that your media promotes "news", people or situations that are far from what you need or owe to know!
According to Chomsky, the primary element of social control is the strategy of distraction which is to divert public attention from important issues and changes determined by the political and economic elites, by the technique of flood or flooding continuous distractions and insignificant information.
Distraction strategy is also essential to prevent the public interest in the essential knowledge in the area of the science, economics, psychology, neurobiology and cybernetics. For sure Kim's sex tape, clothes, house, family and affairs (maybe not only these)
rebroadcast thousands or millions of times.
“Maintaining public attention diverted away from the real social problems, captivated by
matters of no real importance. Keep the public busy, busy, busy, no time to think, back to
farm and other animals (quote from text Silent Weapons for Quiet War ).”
Silent Weapons for Quiet War, is the top secret manual said to be found by accident in 1986 by an employee of Boeing Aircraft. He bought a surplus IBM copier for scrap parts at a government sale and found the manual inside. The manual outlines a plan to control the masses through manipulation of industry, education and politics, and to divert the public's attention from what is really going on. Surprisingly, it is claimed that much of what is outlined has come to pass, and makes interesting reading for those exploring the deeper levels of our social structure and how it may be controlled or influenced. This Book Tree edition includes all of the important charts and diagrams not seen in other versions. It is an exact replica of the original, aside from some minor alterations to correct print quality. Found in this edition only is a new, four-page Introduction. It explains why we may never be certain of the true origin of this document, despite the fact that someone has stepped forward and claimed that they assembled it from multiple sources.
2. Create problems, then offer solutions
I will take you to the distant 2001, when in the name of the fight against terrorism, the framework for receiving, managing and storing personal data has changed radically! Remember the relief that everyone may have felt when they heard that the safety frame to fly with an airline! Twenty years now and nothing has returned to the previous state.
This method is also called “problem -reaction- solution. “It creates a problem, a “situation”
referred to cause some reaction in the audience, so this is the principal of the steps that you
want to accept. For example: let it unfold and intensify urban violence, or arrange for bloody
attacks in order that the public is the applicant’s security laws and policies to the detriment of
freedom. Or: create an economic crisis to accept as a necessary evil retreat of social rights
and the dismantling of public services.
Remember the hysteria of the media at the beginning of COVID-19. Fake journalistic reports, videos made with actors as patients in hospitals and unprecedented joy for the restriction of the constitutional rights of the citizens! Let us not forget the media and their role in the truck drivers protests in Canada.
3. The gradual strategy
Its like the urban myth with a frog in a pot of boiling water it will instantly leap out. But if you put it in a pot filled with pleasantly tepid water and gradually heat it, the frog will remain in the water until it boils to death. Its myth because in both situations, frog will die from the boiling water. In contrast with the frog, the gratual strategy, work perfectly in society.
Acceptance to an unacceptable degree, just apply it gradually, dropper, for consecutive years.
That is how they radically new socioeconomic conditions ( neoliberalism ) were imposed
during the 1980s and 1990s: the minimal state, privatization, precariousness, flexibility,
massive unemployment, wages, and do not guarantee a decent income, so many changes
that have brought about a revolution if they had been applied once.
4. The strategy of deferring
Headlines with titles like "Οur planet endures until 2030, 2035 ... 2050 etc" and permanently, the estimated disaster is postponed. But the fear remains! From decade of 1970 until today, there is a constant reminder of terror and exaggeration. Initially, the story began that a new ice age was coming, as there was a steady drop in global temperatures, but it soon changed and they began to rise, so the story changed again. We had the global warming. In recent years, of course, the name has changed again to something more abstract. Now we have climate change. Have a look to Times magazine covers. The first one is from 1977 and the second one from 1987.
Βut why do they do it? Have you ever wondered how otherwise the world could accept a continuous and universal taxation without precedent? As the years go by the taxation of air pollutants will become more and more! Guess for whose benefit?
For Chomsky, another way to accept an unpopular decision is to present it as “painful and necessary”,
gaining public acceptance, at the time for future application. It is easier to accept that a future
sacrifice of immediate slaughter. First, because the effort is not used immediately. Then,
because the public, masses, is always the tendency to expect naively that “everything will be
better tomorrow” and that the sacrifice required may be avoided. This gives the public more
time to get used to the idea of change and accept it with resignation when the time comes.
5. Go to the public as a little child
Most of the advertising to the general public uses speech, argument, people and particularly children’s intonation, often close to the weakness, as if the viewer were a little child or a
mentally deficient. The harder one tries to deceive the viewer look, the more it tends to adopt
a tone infantilising. Why?
“...if one goes to a person as if he had the age of 12 years or less,
then, because of suggestion, he tends with a certain probability that a response or reaction
also devoid of a critical sense as a person 12 years or younger (quote Silent Weapons for Quiet
War ).”
6. Use the emotional side more than the reflection
Νotice who is being promoted by the media and who not. A person like Greta Thunberg is widely known for her emotional slogans in favor of the environment. Her contribution to the environment is zero. On the contrary, Morgan Vague, the one that discovered bacteria that are able to completely dissolve our plastic waste, did not have even a tenth of the television time from the first.
Making use of the emotional aspect is a classic technique for causing a short circuit on
rational analysis , and finally to the critical sense of the individual. Furthermore, the use of
emotional register to open the door to the unconscious for implantation or grafting ideas ,
desires, fears and anxieties , compulsions, or induce behaviors …
7. Keep the public in ignorance and mediocrity
Eat detergent, edit your photos, dance to a song monkeying something you do not understand ... Here you are, is TikTok culture. Let's deal with anything superficial, stupid and temporary and leave for others the education and the development of skills.
Making the public incapable of understanding the technologies and methods used to control
and enslavement is another one way to manipulate people. In modern days, this starts from the very early age! Its scary how much time young children spent online on social or whatever, instead of studying, training or just playing around.
“The quality of education given to the lower social classes must be the poor
and mediocre as possible so that the gap of ignorance it plans among the lower classes and
upper classes is and remains impossible to attain for the lower classes (‘ Silent Weapons
for Quiet War ).”
8. To encourage the public to be complacent with mediocrity
Promote the public to believe that the fact is fashionable to be stupid, vulgar and uneducate
Above, in the clearest and most eloquent way, it reflects the culture of being an idiot consumer, who is not interested in any development (either personal or social) and finds joy only in materialism
9. Self-blame Strengthen
Are like all these arguments-stereotypes that we hear that blacks in America are criminals, southern countries in Europe, are lazy and Eastern European alcoholics. Stereotypes that are based on generalizations and are reinforced by advertisements, movies so that they are never eliminated. Their goal is clear.
To let individuals be blamed for their misfortune, because of the failure of their intelligence, their abilities, or their efforts. So, instead of rebelling against the economic system, the individuals feel guilt, which creates a depression, one of whose effects is to inhibit its action. And, without action, there is no revolution!
10. Getting to know the individuals better than they know themselves
Peter Thiel's company, Palantir is one if not the most typical such case. It uses the Mega Data that concerns all aspects of a society, which is stored with blockchain technology and with the capabilities of quantum computing is able to predict developments with great accuracy! Something similar happening even with Facebook, TikTok and Hive of course! When something is free, we have to ask ourselves, are we the product?
Over the past 50 years, advances of accelerated science has generated a growing gap between public knowledge and those owned and operated by dominant elites. Thanks to biology, neurobiology and applied psychology, the “system” has enjoyed a sophisticated understanding of human beings, both physically and psychologically. The system has gotten
better acquainted with the common man more than he knows himself. This means that, in most cases, the system exerts greater control and great power over individuals, greater than that of individuals about themselves.
For my post i used information and some parts of this article.
https://www.autocraticforthepeople.com/2012/07/noam-chomsky-top-10-media-manipulation.html?m=1