Thread by @EMBurlingame

The Manipulation Problem - a 🧵

"Violence, naked force, has settled more issues in history than has any and all other factors combined. Any contrary opinion is suicidally wishful thinking at its worst. Societies that forget this basic truth always pay for it with their lives and freedoms." - E.M. Burlingame

"Bankrupt regimes, when they can no longer govern through consent or competence, resort to the dark arts of deception and manipulation, fostering violence as a smokescreen to conceal their malevolence, cruelty, corruption and ineptitude, seeking always to cling to power through enslavement, murder, genocide and near total chaos." - E.M. Burlingame

"Dying regimes, as cornered beasts, use lies to foster and fuel up fear and hatred, turning the People and Princes against each and one another in attempt to mask obvious decay, collapse and culpability." - E.M. Burlingame

We all know of the Seven Deadly Sins, the very ancient means and methods by which the Resentfuls seek out and identify those weak of character, those easily manipulated and controlled to the benefit of malevolent regimes:

Lust | Motivation and Manipulation: Lust drives desires for pleasure or beauty, often used in advertising to sell products or lifestyles associated with allure. It can motivate personal growth or artistic expression but is exploited to create unrealistic expectations, promote consumerism, or even to manipulate through seduction. Lust can lead to objectification or unhealthy obsessions if manipulated for gain or control.

Gluttony | Motivation and Manipulation: This sin involves overindulgence and excess, often in food, but can apply to other consumables like wealth or attention. It's manipulated by industries to encourage overeating or overbuying. While gluttony can motivate a lavish lifestyle, it's often used to critique or control behaviors, promoting guilt or shame to sell diet products or lifestyles of moderation.

Greed | Motivation and Manipulation: Greed motivates acquisition and competition, fundamental to capitalism. It drives innovation but is manipulated to justify unethical practices for profit. Greed can be used to motivate hard work and ambition, but it's also exploited in schemes that promise easy wealth, often leading to exploitation or financial bubbles.

Sloth | Motivation and Manipulation: Sloth, or laziness, is often used to motivate through fear of being left behind or to sell productivity tools. It's critiqued in society to push for efficiency but can also be a manipulation tactic to keep wages low by suggesting disinterest or lack of motivation in work. Conversely, it might encourage individuals or groups to resist overworking, promoting work-life balance.

Wrath | Motivation and Manipulation: Wrath can motivate justice or change when channeled into activism or legal reforms against injustice. However, it's manipulated to incite conflict or division, often in political rhetoric to rally support or in media to increase viewership through sensationalism. Wrath can drive revolutions or be used to keep populations in check through fear of retribution.

Envy | Motivation and Manipulation: Envy spurs personal ambition or societal change by pushing people to strive for what others have, whether it's wealth, status, or rights. However, envy is manipulated to create discontent or to fracture social solidarity, where the haves and have-nots are pitted against each other, sometimes used as a tool in class warfare or consumer culture.

Pride | Motivation and Manipulation: Pride drives individuals to achieve personal or communal goals, promoting artificial self-esteem and cultural identity around destructive cultures. It can be manipulated to foster an 'us vs. them' mentality, leading to arrogance or xenophobia, deep rooted bigotry of obvious and insidious forms. Pride blinds individuals to their own faults or the merits of others, making it a double-edged sword in social dynamics.

What is far less known than the Seven Deadly Sins of Resentfuls and Resentment-Oriented Adoptables, is the Seven Deadly Vulnerabilities of Responsibles and Responsibility-Oriented Adoptables, those ways in which the Responsible can be manipulated into conducting malevolent acts:

Disgust | Motivation and Manipulation: Disgust is often used to motivate actions by highlighting behaviors or conditions deemed socially or morally unacceptable. Politicians, marketers, and social reformers exploit disgust to push for changes in policy, personal behavior, or public opinion by associating their targets with revulsion. For instance, campaigns against littering or poor hygiene practices leverage disgust to encourage better community behavior. However, this emotion can also be manipulated to stigmatize groups or behaviors, leading to exclusion or discrimination under the guise of moral or sanitary improvement.

Fear | Motivation and Manipulation: Fear is a powerful motivator, often used to ensure compliance or to drive sales (e.g., insurance, security systems). It's manipulated in politics to rally support by emphasizing threats, real or exaggerated, to national security, health, or economic stability. Fear can lead to protective behaviors but also to irrational actions, like panic buying during crises, or supporting legislation that might compromise civil liberties under the banner of safety.

Anger | Motivation and Manipulation: Anger mobilizes individuals and groups towards action, often seen in protests or social movements where anger against injustice or oppression fuels activism. However, it's also manipulated by leaders or media to incite violence or to divert attention from other issues. Anger can be channeled constructively for change or destructively to maintain division or to suppress other emotions like empathy or reason.

Pride (see also above) | Motivation and Manipulation: Pride can drive individuals to achieve personal or communal goals, promoting self-esteem and cultural identity. It's used positively in campaigns to boost morale or nationalistic sentiments. However, it can be manipulated to foster an 'us vs. them' mentality, leading to arrogance or xenophobia. Pride can blind individuals to their own faults or the merits of others, making it a double-edged sword in social dynamics.

Guilt | Motivation and Manipulation: Guilt is employed to encourage reparative or charitable actions, like apologies or donations. Marketers use guilt to sell products with a social conscience angle, while societal norms might use it to enforce behavior (e.g., not wasting resources). However, chronic guilt can be manipulated to keep individuals or groups in a subordinate position, preventing them from challenging the status quo or asserting their rights.

Righteousness | Motivation and Manipulation: A sense of righteousness motivates individuals to uphold what they perceive as just or moral, driving activism for rights, against corruption, etc. However, when manipulated, this can lead to self-righteousness, where actions are justified regardless of their impact on others, often seen in extreme political or religious movements where the ends justify any means, potentially leading to conflict or intolerance.

Envy (see also above) | Motivation and Manipulation: Envy can spur personal ambition or societal change by pushing people to strive for what others have, whether it's wealth, status, or rights. Advertisers often play on envy to sell luxury goods or lifestyles. However, envy is also manipulated to create discontent or to fracture social solidarity, where the haves and have-nots are pitted against each other, sometimes used as a tool in class warfare or consumer culture.

On the 5th of November, last, we were given a chance, a yet most fragile opportunity, a start point for a new beginning from which to take up the hard work will consume the remainder of our lives.

The Regime, as it is wont to do, WILL and MUST fight back, to crush this flicker of a flame, before it becomes a raging fire removes the Praetorian Regime and its pet Mob State, for a century or more. Which it will do using the only tools it has, DECEPTION, MANIPULATION and COERCION - driving the good to do the very worst.

We MUST NOT and CANNOT allow the Resentfuls to tell us who the enemy is, what right and wrong are, to manipulate our Seven Deadly Vulnerabilities such we THE GOOD do the very worst. As Resentfuls have so oft throughout history and our own lives, fooled and coerced and manipulated us into, such we and our own are utterly and totally enslaved, such millions of innocents have we slaughtered.

Resentfuls and their Adoptables are weak cowards, terrified of real violence. We Responsibles are not just so afraid or terrified. While it may come that violence is required to take the flicker of a flame given us this past November 5th, to turn it into a raging fire resets the West. We must never-the-less employ such with the most absolute of care and precision. Or all we will do is kill ourselves, the innocent, and ensure the Praetorians and their Mob State survive to enslave us for another four hundred years.