Group Psychology: Manipulating the Masses
- Thread starter Miss Hunter
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While the main points (groupthink) it drives are largely true. It overstates the lack of critical thinking, saying "critical introspection becomes nearly impossible" once he/she succumbs to group thinking. This video is wayyyyy too fucking tinfoil hat. Critical thinking is more important now than ever, with the evolution of the Internet, but to think that critical minds do not exist is ridiculous. You've studied CCP enough to know that the suppression of scholars is one way to promote propaganda. We've all seen a ton of bad news because that's what gets views, but society has made an extraordinary amount of progress.
Support and help develop the modern education. Have a little faith.
Thanks for the history lesson. Again, I don't doubt his concepts, but the video seems to promote the idea that individuals are incapable of critical thinking, which I heavily disagree upon. The "tinfoil hat" portion is the narrative that pushes the idea that there's some kind of Illuminati controlling the world. I don't doubt that individuals or small groups will heavily try to influence their best interests, but to suggest that ALL of these individuals/groups are in on it together is farfetched.
Try to hear out the other side, whatever that may be and challenge others to change your mind. Sure there are people like the infamous storm rider, but understanding the masses will help you make decisions objectively.
Try to hear out the other side, whatever that may be and challenge others to change your mind. Sure there are people like the infamous storm rider, but understanding the masses will help you make decisions objectively.
The Illuminati? Lol. This thread is about psychology, not tinfoil hat conspiracy theories.
I'll keep it on my to-read list.
The narrative of the video dives into the deeper end of what it's trying to drive home - the fact that it implies "control by few individuals/group" points to conspiracy theories.
Though sure, the psychology is fascinating. I just don't particularly enjoy the message it's trying to deliver.
The narrative of the video dives into the deeper end of what it's trying to drive home - the fact that it implies "control by few individuals/group" points to conspiracy theories.
Though sure, the psychology is fascinating. I just don't particularly enjoy the message it's trying to deliver.
so you don’t think it’s possible that certain families who have held wealth and power in the world for generations wouldnt use that wealth and power in an attempt to control world events? They also tend to have a higher appreciation for knowledge than the average commoner.
I just don’t like to use the term “Illuminati” it’s nothing more than a watered down conspiritainment term.
When I was much younger, I read a scifi short story (or possibly a novel) where aliens all over the universe were fascincated with the human race because we were the only race ever discovered where group behaviour was less rational than behaviour of the individual. Obviously it made an impression on me since I still remember this many years later. Unfortunately, what I do not remember, is who the author was or the name of the story.
JD
JD
Was the story where the young man joins the earths team of mercenary (who were picked by the other side to be useless, because of planet X and earth had a dispute), but faked his credentials (to be chosen), and ended up winning the battle (by mascaraing the other side), and because of guilt joined the interstellar police corps (made up of all types of aliens)....to ensure nothing like that happened again....
Could be, but does not sound like a familiar story line to me. And for it to be the story you described, it would likely to have been written in the early 70's or earlier. To be honest, I remember nothing about the story, other than what I relayed in my initial post.
JD
I took a few courses in the social psychology of influence during my studies. I recommend.
"Crowds" are more virtual now. Viral marketing follows the same principles, so the idea of manipulation of the masses by a relatively tiny group of individuals is so commonplace these days, that those individuals who are payed to do this manipulation must think these crowd theory videos are quaint, simplistic and adorably naive. Examples of Facebook using data gathered to manipulate masses for a specific outcome are commonplace. Google makes money of people busy trying to make their videos viral to get ad revenue, effectively killing newspaper revenue around the world.
The danger is big-ticket items that have long-lasting effects such as Hitler's success in getting away with the holocaust for so many years and the masses who apparently abandoned all critical thought and went along with it so as not to appear to be outsiders and risk being ostracized (lest their skin be made into lamps).
There are the current protests and riots that have spread where people are looting and you see individuals smashing windows, then we see the politicians outraged at the protesters trying to get buy-in from the public in order to distract them from the endemic problem of the untouchable group-think that cops have exhibited for decades where the unwashed public is the enemy. So that is an example of clear manipulation by a small number to try to get crowds to switch from anger at police mentality to anger at protestors destroying property. Then you see the odd image of cops wearing masks being the ones wielding the window-smashing hammers.
The critical thought aspect of people figuring out what is really going on comes from relatively tiny numbers of people, so it is usually not until after the damage is done that these observations that "the emperor is in fact not wearing any clothes" becomes known. 9-11 getting people to hate Muslims to garner support for the creation of "homeland security" and distracting the masses from the illogic of a handful of knife-wielding terrorists becomes the focus rather than the financial behind-the-scenes machinations.
If you look at history, something like the now-famous Salem Witch Trials, a prime example of "mass" hysteria (keep in mind the population of Salem in 1878 was around 1,200 people I think), you'll read in Wikipedia about 200 people tried, 30 found guilty. The whole town bought into this idea of witches. This was spawned by very few people that had ulterior motives that didn't involve fear of witch spells, but they knew the simplistic nature of their target audience and thus convinced them that hey, "witches". That is a pretty hefty proportion of the population charged. Nowadays, there are some nazi-like strata councils operate in a similar fashion that demand group compliance and you go with the flow or you are stamped into the ground of compliance like the proverbial protruding nail in a Japanese floorboard.
So, old news.
The danger is big-ticket items that have long-lasting effects such as Hitler's success in getting away with the holocaust for so many years and the masses who apparently abandoned all critical thought and went along with it so as not to appear to be outsiders and risk being ostracized (lest their skin be made into lamps).
There are the current protests and riots that have spread where people are looting and you see individuals smashing windows, then we see the politicians outraged at the protesters trying to get buy-in from the public in order to distract them from the endemic problem of the untouchable group-think that cops have exhibited for decades where the unwashed public is the enemy. So that is an example of clear manipulation by a small number to try to get crowds to switch from anger at police mentality to anger at protestors destroying property. Then you see the odd image of cops wearing masks being the ones wielding the window-smashing hammers.
The critical thought aspect of people figuring out what is really going on comes from relatively tiny numbers of people, so it is usually not until after the damage is done that these observations that "the emperor is in fact not wearing any clothes" becomes known. 9-11 getting people to hate Muslims to garner support for the creation of "homeland security" and distracting the masses from the illogic of a handful of knife-wielding terrorists becomes the focus rather than the financial behind-the-scenes machinations.
If you look at history, something like the now-famous Salem Witch Trials, a prime example of "mass" hysteria (keep in mind the population of Salem in 1878 was around 1,200 people I think), you'll read in Wikipedia about 200 people tried, 30 found guilty. The whole town bought into this idea of witches. This was spawned by very few people that had ulterior motives that didn't involve fear of witch spells, but they knew the simplistic nature of their target audience and thus convinced them that hey, "witches". That is a pretty hefty proportion of the population charged. Nowadays, there are some nazi-like strata councils operate in a similar fashion that demand group compliance and you go with the flow or you are stamped into the ground of compliance like the proverbial protruding nail in a Japanese floorboard.
So, old news.
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One of the problems in Germany was that when Hilter came to power, the people thought he was doing good for their country, and there were signs that economic recovery in Germany was happening. What the Nazis did then was take state control of all the newpapers. Outside (the country) news was always controlled. Same with the local news. The only truth then was by word of mouth and you didn't dare talk to someone you didn't know. But things were on the way to better lives, there were jobs and money coming in. Why complain.... Then the camps started to be established, at first to protect people....
As for interest groups only putting up a product (video) that conforms to their story, it happens alot (biased jouralism or propaganda). With the ad power (money)going to google/facebook, the money flowed away from newpapers and TV stations, which prevented journalist neutrality as opposed to biased journalism (meaning did the news media take their new from biased sources because they couldn't check them out). After the google and facebook ad campaigns during the 2016 American election, the ad money went back to news media. Dosen't ensure neutral journalism, but what does?
No evil happens when good men don't stand up. But they need to get their facts straight.... I hope..
As for the strata counsels, yup I can see that. Shows you either everyones a wolf or most people are sheep.
As for interest groups only putting up a product (video) that conforms to their story, it happens alot (biased jouralism or propaganda). With the ad power (money)going to google/facebook, the money flowed away from newpapers and TV stations, which prevented journalist neutrality as opposed to biased journalism (meaning did the news media take their new from biased sources because they couldn't check them out). After the google and facebook ad campaigns during the 2016 American election, the ad money went back to news media. Dosen't ensure neutral journalism, but what does?
No evil happens when good men don't stand up. But they need to get their facts straight.... I hope..
As for the strata counsels, yup I can see that. Shows you either everyones a wolf or most people are sheep.
