How real mind control works!

 

So, you are looking up something on the internet and you want to find out why a specific item is happening or what is going on in the world related to something specific. Back in the day if we wanted to have an unbiased view on a subject, we grabbed our encyclopedias and dictionaries, maybe went to the library and took out a few books by different authors and slogged through information and formed our own viewpoints. Maybe we grabbed a book on pro-marijuana and then one against it, or we went and found a book glorifying a political leader and a few that pulled them down! We found tell all books about a person and we found a book that extolled their virtues. Maybe we went digging in the archives of newspapers or magazines and the articles were a bit bias but the focus of the time was actual facts…okay not all the time but you got a more vanilla point of view and you had choices.  The pro/good was next to the opposing/bad and you had your options, much like an information buffet laid out for you to read and make up your mind.

As it happened you could read the same books and articles, watch the same news as the next person and still get opposite ideas at the end of the day. Happened all the time, but the source material was normally similar if not the same. The number of sources were limited to print and the we did not have whole TV networks that were dedicated to a specific point of view. I like to think that people good old Walter Cronkite were not horribly bias and had to go on facts….to which you selected to listen to or not.  The internet was new and may not even have been around for some of us. I remember doing a report on then president Reagan (Super right winger) and I got to read a few books about him and some articles that outlined his policies and history (most of which was over my head) but it was the same bland fact-based stuff that most of us got to see.

 

Fast forwards to today, and a wee bit before today!  The internet is where I would say 98% of our news from the web and most of our ideas are formed off of what different search engines feed us.  So, if you are a bit right leaning and your searches are right leaning then the algorithms that they use to sort information will sort the info you get from sources to the right of the political spectrum. This is why you have a hard time debating people on just about any subject, because when they search things like “gun control” or about the current COVID info, you are getting information sources that match up with your bias because your bias is what the search engine is looking at when it filters through in formation for you.

It’s the same thing if you go on video sharing sites like YouTube.  After some research and watching your videos you start to get fed different videos that will be based on the things you are watching currently. If you are watching CNN stuff, as it is a left leaning web site that supports left leaning politics….you will be fed MSNBC sites and other left leaning news sites. If you watch Fox news articles or Vlogs that are right leaning guess what you get on your feeds. That’s right….right leaning political videos.

 

I had a debate with someone the other day about COVID protection and the “science” behind testing and such. The reason I like to debate with them is they are very Left leaning and their search engines and the algorithms that they are exposed to are very different than mine. I also reached out to a right winger that I know and for the same reasons! The end result is that I ended up with a balanced view of the situation. However, the sources that I used were polar opposite and its often hard to figure out what’s center of the road…and the problem with being center of the road is that we don’t get a lot of specific info tailored towards us.

 

So, speaking of mind control, the outcome of the use of an algorithm to sift through the vast amount of information is that we only get back our personal bias’s and the information is naturally cherry picked for us, ergo feeding our already slanted view….and some times slanting it even further to the side we were naturally leaning. What this means is that if you are left leaning then all your search results….left leaning! If you have a set bias then your bias will continue to be fed by the information that you see is going to reinforce your bias!

This was no more obvious to me than when I was looking into the new strains of COVID and a friend started sending me info from the web on the “Legal/moral efficacy of the lock down”.  Their beliefs are tied closely to the belief that some how, some way we have undeniable rights that some unique entity has extolled upon us and that the government can not take away ever! They had “proof” from web sites.  The web sites all, no socker here, reinforced her beliefs.  I did my own search, with my ideals being that our beliefs are finite and can be taken away by those we vote into power…no God in heaven set out our bill of human rights, people did and therefore we can have them taken away at the will of government! Weird how the web sites I found on a google search backed that up!

 

The warping of the ideas of society is/was on full display in the lead up to the 2020 election by the right or on the right….and this led to the issue with Trump supporters invading the house! The issue of brainwashing the masses started in 2016 and before with the search engines channeling potential right wing trump supporters to believe that he was the great white hope for them. And yes, I meant to write it that way. They sucked up the conspiracy theories and the right-wing propaganda and this once Democrat, failed business man, once playboy who had “strange tastes” for his sex drive, who has been accused of rape by a myriad of people became a staunch Republican, billionaire who was dedicated to his family and super religious! Every cycle and every search brought them closer to this new reality. The facts of what he had said and done in the past were paved over, new “reality” replaced the facts of what he said. The funniest part was when people actually said “Well he did not mean that” or “that’s not what he said…” when it was EXACTLY what he said! The right paved over truth and created a new reality, the internet helped them and were the best wingmen in this endeavour!

The left had its own version of this with the raise of ANTIFA. The left started out as “rights advocates” and moved from wanting greener tech, vegans who wanted the government to be about their point of view! Then a few people began moving in a different direction. Some Marxists started a movement, one that on the surface has not only great merit but is honorable! At the same time the group has also turned to using violence to get their point of view across.  Modern ANTIFA grew out of the same mind bending that built up the far right! People who had good intentions and left of center policies grew and developed further right-wing ideas, this took the most non-violent ideas and righteous ideas of anti-fascist, anti-racist political ideas and created a violent group that would basically do what ever they wanted to so that they could force their ideas on others.

It started with them putting up fliers, looking for support in shutting down or disrupting speeches by those that they did not agree with. In 2002 they tried to shut down a speech by MF Hale, a white supremacist church leader. 25 people were arrested on the ANTIFA side and the speech went on. The group was fairly small and not very well organized. Then they spread to the internet and with the algorithm doing its work, the group built up and became more militant, more violent and less controllable.

The groups grew and once the Black Lives Matter marches began to occur and the anti Trump groups grew as well, the marches and events were perfect places for ANTIFA to set in. The far-left radical group began growing and the dark web saw a spike in activity by this group, new members were recruited once they were set up to be radicalized by the algorithms. Soon you had a internet search engine building up the radical groups.

To some extent this type of radicalization and polarization that the web search engines created has been minor and just pushed those on the left to maintain their stance and the right-wing society members also maintained their right-wing stances. But in some cases, it also pushed right of center or left of center people to the far end of the spectrum polarizing society and worse yet…. making those that are on the right feel that those on the left are enemies and not just those that hold opposing ideas.

 

Mind control or brain washing is a bit of a harsh way to put it, but it is as close to the truth as I can put it.  When you use google and allow the google search engine to find the information you use, giving your ability to be critical or to think for yourself and you won’t grow.  Worse than this, if you allow only the filtered information to reach you then you may not be getting the facts. I read through information that is sent to me and the first two things I do is look for opposing information and then I look at the source. 

9 times out of 10 the source is a known conspiracy theorist and the information checks out as “Questionable” at best, at worst it can show as total false propaganda. This happens on both sides of the political spectrum by the way.  There is no way that someone on the far left/right can see information off a search engine that could open their mind to an alternative thought. It’s the insidious nature of the internet search engines that can contribute to the polarization of our society. If we are not exposed to dynamically different ideas that are clear of motive (so you know…facts) and allowed to maintain opposing thoughts in our head then the continued polarization of society will lead to a lot more separation in our society.

 

So, what is the answer to the issue of the algorithm?  Well knowing about it is the first thing, not trusting the damn thing is the second thing. So, yah….don’t trust your first instinct! And remember that the truth lies between the right and the left, not in the extremes.