MESSAGING INJECTIONS: In my interview with @davetroy on the network responsible for the January 6 insurrection and weapons’ grade psyops, he explained how America’s bias toward individualism makes us particularly vulnerable to social manipulation.
Sidebar: an interview extra. 1/
Sidebar: an interview extra. 1/
https://twitter.com/bylinetimes/status/1366725687734915075
“Particularly in the United States we have a bias toward individualism and the idea that each of us is a rational actor and we have agency and we can take in information and decide about stuff, and therefore any failings that any individual has is like their fault.”-@davetroy 2/
“So therefore there cannot be manipulation in that context because everyone is sovereign.
My opinion is that’s bullshit. We are group creatures, we are social animals, we have a social identity that we use to interpret the world. We see the world through social lenses.”-DT 3/
My opinion is that’s bullshit. We are group creatures, we are social animals, we have a social identity that we use to interpret the world. We see the world through social lenses.”-DT 3/
“Because we know if we take in insane ideas that are out of step within our social group we will be ostracized, which isn’t going to be helpful for our survival at the end of the day. So we tend to bargain constantly between our beliefs and our social connections.”-@davetroy 4/
👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼👉🏼”I’ve often said if you want to change someone’s mind about something, change their friends.”-@davetroy 5/
“We have to get smarter about the fact that we are existing in this social milieu and this landscape, and that it’s very easy to inject messaging that manipulates us socially and in turn ultimately can change our minds about stuff.”-@davetroy 6/
“Because ultimately if there is no social cost at taking on a particular belief, and in fact, if there are social benefits from taking on a particular belief we will take on whatever beliefs match our social reality.”-@davetroy 7/
“If you think about the fact that people have lost family members due to disinformation that people unfriend people and block people routinely online because of disagreements or beliefs, that is a kind of a social manipulation.”-@davetroy 8/
“So what we have to get a lot smarter about is to understand that what’s being attacked is the social fabric. It’s not just disinformation, it’s f**king with the social fabric. So as to manipulate peoples perceived reality.”-@davetroy 9/
“So that’s why I think the Cambridge Analytica thing was so broadly misunderstood was because people thought, ‘Well, what could $100,000 possibly do to change people’s minds.?’ Well that isn’t what happened.”-@davetroy 10/
“What happened is they injected a small amount of money to the most reactive set of people that you could find so as to fuck with social capital in a way that rewired reality. That’s what happened.”-@davetroy 11/
“Because people don’t understand sociology, they don’t understand how organisms work in a collective setting, and they also think there’s a bias to thinking an individual can’t be manipulated because they have free will, and that’s just bullshit.”-@davetroy 12/
To read my full interview with Dave Troy in @BylineTimes please go here:
https://twitter.com/bylinetimes/status/1366725687734915075
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
