Throughout our lives, and to one extent or another, we’ve been manipulators and have been manipulated. To get their way, children learn to manipulate parents and become masters at that skill, even though they may not be aware that they’re doing it. As a new parent, I remember the struggles my wife and I had to get our children to do what we asked (i.e., washing the dishes, cleaning their room, getting to bed early, taking out the garbage, and going to school). In response, they almost always came up with ways to avoid their chores and responsibilities. When love and affection from us didn’t convince them, we often resorted to sanctions, threats, or anger to get our way. When my wife, Delia, would tell one of our kids to wash the dishes, there was silence. Then came the raised voice: “Adam, it’s your turn to wash!” Again, there was silence. In the end, my wife and I almost always gave in and ended up washing the dishes ourselves. We rationalized that fighting wasn’t worth the trouble and aggravation. As parents, we were unaware that our son’s silence was a manipulation tactic. He knew from experience that, if he persisted long enough, in the end, we would concede. Similar emotionally charged manipulation games are played within families. As adults, we usually accept manipulation as part of our relationships. However, manipulation can be threatening and even dangerous when leaders and institutions lie and distort facts and statistics to make people think and act in ways that they usually wouldn’t.
IT’S TIME TO RECOGNIZE THE TACTICS!
Manipulation can be a complex, often dishonest, and deceitful use of emotions to control or influence others to think and behave as you want them to. It’s important to note that these tactics can be unethical and can seriously harm individuals. Here are a few examples of emotions that can be used for manipulation:
- Ridiculing: By shaping public opinion through mainstream and social media, manipulators can ridicule and create absurdities to influence people and sway the masses against a person or group’s interests and beliefs.
- Shaming: Manipulators may use shaming tactics to make individuals feel guilty about their actions or decisions. They might emphasize how their decisions are morally wrong and have physically or emotionally harmed others.
- Confusion: Manipulators may intentionally create confusion or ambiguity to make the public more susceptible to their influence. When people are uncertain or disoriented, they may be more likely to follow the manipulator’s guidance.
- Isolation: Manipulators may attempt to isolate people from friends, family, or other sources of support to increase their control over them. This can make individuals more dependent on the manipulator’s influence.
- Desire for Belonging: Manipulators may exploit the human need for social connection and belonging by making people feel like they’ll be accepted by the group if they comply with their demands.
- Threats: Manipulators may use threats to create fear if their rules and indications are not obeyed. These threats could be physical, emotional, or psychological in nature, designed to make people comply out of fear for their safety or well-being.
- Hope: Manipulators can offer hope for a better future or a solution to a problem to gain compliance. This can make people believe that following the manipulator’s instructions will lead to a positive outcome.
- Instilling Dread: Manipulators might describe worst-case scenarios in vivid detail to create a sense of dread, helplessness, and fear. This can influence individuals to take action to avoid those outcomes, even if it means complying with the manipulator’s demands and mandates.
OTHER TOOLS USED TO MANIPULATE INFORMATION
- Overwhelm the media with one-sided information by funding scientific studies that support a specific narrative.
- Utilize and cherry-pick statistics that support the narrative.
- Repeat lies over and over until the public accepts them as truth.
- Censure and label the deniers, and stonewall their information.
- Threaten and punish those who oppose the mainstream narrative with job dismissal, license revocation, and backlisting.
- Withholding information from the public by controlling the media.
- Cancel culture is a new social phenomenon in which individuals or groups use social media to publicly criticize, condemn, shame, boycott, and deplatform individuals who hold opposing or controversial views.
MY TAKE
Today, governments and industries are utilizing social media platforms to track citizens, censor free speech, and manipulate information on a grand scale. Suppose we don’t wake up and realize that our freedoms are in jeopardy and instead choose to ignore them and remain silent. In that case, there exists the potential for an authoritarian or totalitarian state to rise up and take control. If that happens, couldn’t the following scenario become a reality?
Future generations will have limited access to critical information from previous generations when rights and freedoms were protected and respected. The result would be a dumbed-down and ignorant society, with people unquestionably accepting what they are told and how they should act.
The key is to recognize the manifestation of manipulation. To do this, it’s helpful to be aware of the above tactics to protect yourself and others from their harmful effects. Thinking critically and developing self-awareness can help us determine when others are attempting to manipulate us. When that happens, we can resist and respond effectively to the manipulators, their tactics, and their strategies.
