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Mar 1 • 2 tweets • 1 min read
The creator of the Twilight Zone, Rod Serling, was an early and outspoken critic of censorship. In 1959, he describes with powerful frankness the insidious practice of “pre-censorship” —and its ultimate cause. To what extent is this still true of creators today?
If you enjoyed, please follow me @bfcarlson, and consider subscribing to my newsletter, where I talk about media, persuasion, and the psychology of ideas.

I'll explore more on the "strange, oblique, philosophical" rationales of communication there. bfcarlson.com

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More from @bfcarlson

Benjamin Carlson Profile picture
Mar 2
Editing a dead author's beloved works to suit prudish tastes is not new.

In 1818, the Bowdlers sanitized Shakespeare.

At the time this practice was called "castration."

Henceforth it would be called Bowdlerization.

Here's what they found too scandalous to print:
ROMEO & JULIET

Shaks: the bawdy hand of the dial is now upon the prick of noon
Bowdler: the hand of the dial is now upon the point of noon

S: Tis true, and therefore women being the weaker vessel are ever thrust to the wall
B: [CUT]
ROMEO & JULIET

S: not ope her legs to saint-seducing gold
B: [CUT]

S: Spread thy close curtain, love performing night
B: ... and come civil night
Read 10 tweets
Benjamin Carlson Profile picture
Feb 25
In the CIA interrogation manual, it lists coercive techniques used to break someone's will. They include:

- Isolation
- Dependence
- Inducing guilt
- Preying on fear
- Disrupting sleep
- Robbing basic dignity
- Depriving of natural light

Sounds like social media addiction.
The source of these techniques is the KUBARK interrogation manual. Sensory deprivation from real world stimuli was found to be particularly effective in alienating someone from themselves and making them malleable to exploitation.
The key to getting someone to betray himself is to give him a way to violate his beliefs without feeling ashamed. Once he has done, so, he will seek reasons to justify turning against those he was once loyal to.
Read 4 tweets
Benjamin Carlson Profile picture
Feb 6
Last month, my Twitter account got 25 million+ impressions

Elon Musk, Jack Dorsey & Snowden engaged with my videos.

I've been sharing keen minds who have surprising insight into today's world.

Here are the 10 most popular videos (and the key moment from each):
Marshall McLuhan breaks the Fourth Wall: "By the way, at this moment, we are on the air, and on the air we do not have any physical body. "
Aldous Huxley foresees drugs and new propaganda as ways tyrants will secure the consent of the ruled.
Read 12 tweets
Benjamin Carlson Profile picture
Jan 18
In 2017, the World Economic Forum put Xi Jinping on a pedestal as the champion of economic order.

As a China economics correspondent, it was my job to cover it.

I tried to change the script, and was overruled. That's the day I decided to leave journalism.

The story:
Trump was about to take office.

Elites were reeling from his shock win.

His vows to put America's interests first fueled anxiety that the global trade order was under assault.

They needed a champion.

Enter China. /2
In January 2017, days before Trump's inauguration, WEF began in Davos.

I was an economics correspondent in China.

China’s president Xi Jinping was a keynote speaker.

It was my job to watch the speech and cover him. /3
Read 15 tweets
Benjamin Carlson Profile picture
Jan 16
Think about what’s being done to your dopamine levels on a daily basis and then watch this. In 1958, Aldous Huxley predicted a form of dictatorship that would rely not on force, but propaganda—and addiction.
When you combine a constant stream of highly engineered emotional manipulation with a drip of dopamine hits, you get something that looks like social media.
Huxley named his complacency-inducing drug “soma.” It had:

"All the advantages of Christianity and alcohol; none of their defects."

In 2023, it would better be called dopa.
Read 4 tweets
Benjamin Carlson Profile picture
Jan 15
How many of the tactics in this pre-CIA manual to sabotage a workplace remind you of offices where you’ve worked?

1/
2/ Ever had a manager who:

- Demands everything in writing
- Trains new workers poorly
- Holds meetings at crunch times
- Promotes the incompetent
- Prioritizes unimportant tasks?
3/ How about employees or colleagues who:

- Get into long email chains
- Misplace important documents
- Always tell people your boss is busy
- Spread rumors

Sound familiar?
Read 5 tweets

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