Permission structures: the owning of the American Mind

[F2d5thCav]

This article is a long read, but very much worth it.

https://www.tabletmag.com/feature/rapid-...ightenment

It is all about the weaponization of the internet and social media that was organized post-2000.

And I mean, it explains a LOT.  The fanaticism, the willingness of people to operate against their own interests, the overnight-generated fake consensuses ... and why all of that upturned what everyone thought they understood about politics until that point.

It identifies three key men who stood against this digital machine.  It explains why the Left was so unhinged about Musk buying Twitter.  And so much more.

Some quotes:

it was probably a bad idea to allow young White House aides with MFA degrees to create “public opinion” from their iPhones and laptops, and to then present the results of that process as something akin to the outcome of the familiar 20th-century processes of reporting and analysis that had been entrusted to the so-called “fourth estate,”

Nor did I foresee that Trump would himself become the target of a messaging campaign that would make full use of the machine that Obama had built, along with elements of the American security state. Being physically inside the White House, it turned out, was a mere detail of power; even more substantial power lay in controlling the digital switchboard that Obama had built, and which it turned out he still controlled.

At every turn over the next four years, it was like a fever was spreading, and no one was immune. Spouses, children, colleagues, and supervisors at work began reciting, with the force of true believers, slogans they had only learned last week, and that they were very often powerless to provide the slightest real-world evidence for.

...the model of politics in which operatives are constantly running permission structure games on the body politic, assisted by members of the press and think tankers eager to be of service to the party, has more in common with pyramid schemes and high-pressure network-marketing scams than it does with reasoned democratic deliberation and debate.

The effect of the permission structure machine is to instill and maintain obedience to voices coming from outside yourself, regardless of the obvious gaps in logic and functioning that they create.

Enjoy the read.

Cheers

[Ninurta]

Wow!

That certainly was a long read - about 20 single-spaced pages in an OpenOffice document - but well worth it. It should be required reading in high school civics classes - do they even still have those? - or whatever classes high schools have that purport to explain the theory and workings of government.

It explained a lot of relatively recent history, but I personally think the biggest lesson in it was "stick to your guns, be your own person, and never, EVER, let anyone external to yourself manufacture YOUR thoughts in THEIR own heads. Be Stubborn. Be Contrary. Be Free."

That goes for both folks on the "Left" AND folks on the "Right", as well as those in the center. It's NEVER a good idea to let other folks do your thinking for you, something I have often said here and elsewhere. If you don't know enough about a given subject to form YOUR OWN opinion in the matter, then you don't know enough about it to even HAVE an opinion in the matter - and certainly not an opinion that was issued to you from On High. If your opinions have to come from elsewhere, from someone else, then they are not really your opinions at all, Left OR Right, are they?

Either get busy educating yourself on the matter, or else be man enough to admit that you really just don't fuckin' care about the subject at all. A false opinion from an external source is worse than none at all.

.

[F2d5thCav]

Ninurta,

Hear you.  I was surprised to find such a long, and cogent commentary on an internet publication.

Can affirm the same "machine" is operating in the EU as well; I've seen sudden shifts in national attitudes that are explained by these systems of persuasion and influencing.

Cheers--

[SomeJackleg]

This article is a long read, but very much worth it.

https://www.tabletmag.com/feature/rapid-...ightenment

It is all about the weaponization of the internet and social media that was organized post-2000.

And I mean, it explains a LOT.  The fanaticism, the willingness of people to operate against their own interests, the overnight-generated fake consensuses ... and why all of that upturned what everyone thought they understood about politics until that point.

It identifies three key men who stood against this digital machine.  It explains why the Left was so unhinged about Musk buying Twitter.  And so much more.

Some quotes:

it was probably a bad idea to allow young White House aides with MFA degrees to create “public opinion” from their iPhones and laptops, and to then present the results of that process as something akin to the outcome of the familiar 20th-century processes of reporting and analysis that had been entrusted to the so-called “fourth estate,”

Nor did I foresee that Trump would himself become the target of a messaging campaign that would make full use of the machine that Obama had built, along with elements of the American security state. Being physically inside the White House, it turned out, was a mere detail of power; even more substantial power lay in controlling the digital switchboard that Obama had built, and which it turned out he still controlled.

At every turn over the next four years, it was like a fever was spreading, and no one was immune. Spouses, children, colleagues, and supervisors at work began reciting, with the force of true believers, slogans they had only learned last week, and that they were very often powerless to provide the slightest real-world evidence for.

...the model of politics in which operatives are constantly running permission structure games on the body politic, assisted by members of the press and think tankers eager to be of service to the party, has more in common with pyramid schemes and high-pressure network-marketing scams than it does with reasoned democratic deliberation and debate.

The effect of the permission structure machine is to instill and maintain obedience to voices coming from outside yourself, regardless of the obvious gaps in logic and functioning that they create.

Enjoy the read.

Cheers

well i got to say, it may work on some, but for me and a good many others all the outer voices are full of shit. sure they might get lucky from time to time and manage to get some stuff by but for the most part the majority of people i know don't believe a damn word their saying.

[F2d5thCav]

@ Jackleg,

Agree that some people still have the capacity for independent thought.  But IMO that misses an important point.  Many people didn't have the capacity for such (or, I think in a lot of cases, didn't have the *time* to think about these issues in depth), and so, many got 'converted' by these overnight causes and the entire country got dragged for a damaging ride.  You and I may have thought the whole COVID thing was overblown, but we had to live in shuttered society for a couple of years, regardless.

Cheers--

[SomeJackleg]

@ Jackleg,

Many people didn't have the capacity for such (or, I think in a lot of cases, didn't have the *time* to think about these issues in depth), and so, many got 'converted' by these overnight causes and the entire country got dragged for a damaging ride. 

that or their afraid of being ostracized by the rest of the flock and not being able to go baaaa with the rest of them.
also there were some who were full blown fraidy cats, and lost all sense of reason.