Different Realities — Which Do You Live In?

11:05 pm

Saint Paul, Minnesota

Years ago, when I first started reading and writing about persuasion, I found myself moving further to the political right. Or, perhaps, further from the current political left.

Learning about the tools and techniques of persuasion, I could see the manipulation of the population and how easily our energy is directed.

Persuasion, at its core, is getting someone to see the benefits of an action or a believe, and to change their behavior ‘for the better’ because of it.

Manipulation, on the other hand, benefits the manipulator but not the manipulated. Rioting, anyone?

When you’re the first to mention an idea, you “win” that mind space. This is the purpose of a Blue Ocean strategy, that you define a new market and you’re the only one serving it.

But when someone already has an idea and you’re hoping to persuade them to see the benefit of its opposite? Much harder.

Persuasion Articles of the Week

A high school student created a fake 2020 candidate. Twitter verified it.

Social Media companies find themselves in a tough spot. A “verified account” is viewed as an authority… but what if it’s a fake account? And what of the real accounts that aren’t verified? The selection process puts a question mark over the trustworthiness of our gatekeepers.

Why Detroit Residents Pushed Back Against Tree-Planting

Some 50 years after Detroit’s trees were cut down —either for law enforcement reasons or for Dutch Elms disease— the residents are wary to plant new trees. The history of trees in Detroit shows how people can have two vastly different understandings of the same set of facts, and how persuading people takes more than just telling them what’s good for them.

Lent me get comfortable

Self-restraint builds our resistance to outside attacks on our position and helps us to see the larger picture during times of difficulty.

Bloomberg Big Decisions with Richard Thaler (video)

Richard Thaler is a co-author of Nudge (PRL writeup here) and a professor of behavioral economics, exploring why people make decisions that may not appear rational.

The Weird Power of the Placebo Effect, Explained

The placebo effect can change your world, improve your health, heal your mental ills… and we’re just getting started.

The NYTimes changes their narrative

Narratives aren’t fact.

6:21
Saint Paul

People love to think humans are persuaded by facts, that we’re rational beings, willing to weight the information in front of us, and even if we don’t like the outcome, we’re willing to change our minds in the face of truth.

Do you blindly weigh the facts available? Photo "Nighttime Jutice" by Rob Kroetz, Flickr, CC-By-2.0 — *Do you blindly weigh the facts available? Photo “Nighttime Jutice” by Rob Kroetz, Flickr, CC-By-2.0*

This pretty much never happens. Emotions… our tribe’s position… and what we want to believe… are far more important to us than boring old facts. Continue reading “The NYTimes changes their narrative”

Orwell himself never envisioned a future so bright!

5:28am
Saint Paul, MN

I don’t want to be too alarmist here, but your phone has the potential to melt your brain.

If you’re holding it in just the right any-which-way, the visual stimulation can

overwhelm your understanding of reality!

You see, your phone’s visual power hijacks your prefrontal cortex and amygdala. That 200,000 year-old-brain doesn’t stand a chance!

It’s hard to look away when there is more information to be read or watched; more altered photos of a perfect life you’d like to lead; more outrageous headlines to glance at.

(A new study this week says that people who read Facebook news previews —not the full article— believe they’re more informed than they actually are. That doesn’t mean those articles are accurate of reality of course…)

When you’re poking at your phone, your sense of time changes. Minutes or even hours go missing from your day — precious time from your bank of life. And once that… time is gone…

you’ll never get back!

Your understanding of the world changes. You begin to see the hostilities of the semi-anonymous people on the other end of so many interactions. You wonder if everyone is so hostile, and you begin to keep to yourself in a crowded area. Why converse with the people around you if you can stare at your phone?

Stories and news feeds are customized to your interest; echos of your opinion are reflected back at you, re-enforcing your beliefs because, hey, everyone seems to feel this same way!

And the people that feel otherwise…

are wrong!
must be stopped!
don’t have a heart!
don’t believe in science!

Do you know who Alex Jones is?

He’s a right-leaning Texan with his own rant-filled “news show.”

On the show, Jones connects conspiracy dots across time and space from many different sources, painting an

alternate understanding of reality.

It’s all quite entertaining to watch, and his sources are all out there for you to find. I can’t say that he’s correct, but I can’t say that he’s not ever correct either.

But if you were to follow one side of the media, *|FNAME|*, you’re told that Jones is dangerous, or that he doesn’t believe that horrific school shootings happen.

Now, Jones has spoken out to say otherwise, to clarify his position in light of different evidence. He made an appearance on the Joe Rogan Podcast last week and his stance on horrific school shootings was one of the first things they discussed.

But for the media to cover that story (or make any corrections to their narrative) would give Jones credibility—

something the media cannot allow!

So the media keeps pushing their profit-driven agenda to divide people,
You willingly stare at the headlines on your phone,
Your brain is fed stories which override critical thought and creativity,

And everyone pays for this very privilege.

Orwell envisioned a future where we’re all being watched by devices that can’t turn off; where the powerful devise a storyline about current events and the people follow along.

Orwell never considered a future where we willingly refuse to turn off our devices, where we willingly carry tracking mechanisms in our pockets, where we willingly fight among ourselves and keep people divided.

And… it’s more profitable than Orwell ever imagined.

Jeffrey

PS. I try to reread Orwell’s 1984 every few years, and it’s been a while. I picked it up recently and it’s incredibly sad how much of current reality it seems to reflect. Check it out if you’re not familiar with the story or if it’s been a while. Find it here on Amazon, and I’m sure your local library has a copy.

If you’re interested to learn more about the divisiveness in the media, check out the movie Hoaxed. It’s all about the profit motive in media and how easy a narrative can be pushed. If you’re resisting this idea, the movie is all the more important.
http://hoaxedmovie.com/

Additionally, this Sunday, right-leaning political maverick Candace Owens has a conversation with the left-leaning leader of Black Lives Matter New York, Hawk Newsome. They’re looking for common ground; I can’t wait. Watch the trailer here
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFUKLwzvA-s

Good luck out there.

13 Words to Identify Mind Readers

Dear reader, we’ve discussed mind-reading, remember? We know it’s probably not real… right?

Maybe it is, maybe it’s not. That’s beside the point. Honestly I don’t know the scope of reality beyond what my brain understands, and I’m sure there’s a lot I don’t understand.

A wise man is never certain about anything!

So I don’t know if some specially attuned people can read minds or not… but I’m pretty sure that your run-of-the-mill news reporter cannot.