Thread by @seerutkchawla

What indoctrination looks like: 🧵
1. You say something innocuous.
2. You’re informed you’re ‘problematic’ and told to ‘do better 🤬’.
3. You’re taken aback, flustered, on the back foot because you’re confused. You apologise profusely for causing offence & say it wasn’t
1/

intentional.
4. You’re essentially attacked & told with great vitriol that ‘impact ALWAYS trumps intent’.
5. You feel shamed, wonder how you didn’t know this & everyone else seems to, vulnerable (key emotion)- and you internalise the ‘rule’.

6. Soon after you see something ‘problematic’ & the person also says, ‘I’m sorry it wasn’t my intention’.
7. You repeat what was done to you, and inform them ‘impact ALWAYS trumps intent’.
8. Other people back you up this time, you’re part of the group, & it feels really good to

be in the know. There’s a dopamine reward response.
9. It’s the reward, the sense of connection, the feeling of moral virtue, & the not insignificant enjoyment of being the shamer instead of the shamee.
10. This rule is further internalised & a belief is formed. ‘Impact always

trumps intent’. This is a new thought process that forms a groove in your belief structure.

Key features:
- you feel shamed & vulnerable, that causes the internalisation.
- you’re rewarded for repeating the rule.
- you’re allowed to ignore your conscience & treated as though you

did something virtuous- there’s a big sense of reward in that.
- you feel part of the in group.
- you are no longer a target.
- you now have unearned moral virtue & status.

This happens a few more times & you become a mindless drone repeating: impact trump intent, the personal

is political, all white people are racist- even though you cognitive dissonance is present.

The mechanism (shame & fear) creates resentment & then people get cruel. One of the reasons we end up with the dictatorial thought police.

End 🧵