The Matrix Is Real: How to Hack Humans for Fun and Profit
by dohp az
A mind is inhibited from critical thinking and rational thought during an emotional reaction.
When we decide through our emotions, particularly during a reaction, logic does not apply - feelings instead, do. Using emotional cognition when making decisions is the opposite of critical thinking. Emotional triggers are environmental stimuli (such as a picture, word, phrase, etc.) that trigger an emotional response.
In the past, each individual had unique emotional triggers based on their life experiences. However, the consumption of centralized content is centralizing humanity's life experiences, and thus centralizing these specific triggers of emotional reaction. After these emotional triggers form in individuals over time, with repeated consumption of content, they are then available for triggering.
At a time of a person's or content creator's choosing, otherwise critically thinking individuals can be triggered into an emotional reaction and thus momentarily prevented from logical thought. When combined with confirmation bias, emotional triggers inhibit long term critical thinking and education in general.
Let us begin with an example from an unscientific and informal survey.
When unaware of the author, the vast majority of individuals, regardless of political affiliation, agreed with a specific pragmatic description/solution to a problem designed by a popular but polarizing political person. However, a majority of those with opposing political views no longer agreed if they were informed of the author after the problem/solution was presented, but before the reader responded to questions.
Most tellingly, if the person was informed of the author ahead of the pragmatic presentation, the respondents of the opposing political view also failed questions regarding the content, as if they were unable/unwilling to listen once emotionally triggered by the polarizing political figure. This self censorship or rational inhibition is an example of an emotional trigger at work.
Images can be as effective triggers as popular personas, but even simple words and phrases have become common targets of emotional trigger programming. Non-organic emotional triggers are often designed around a particular subject, genre, or phraseology and can be triggered on-demand as a means to inhibit logical thought. Once programmed, an emotion is experienced whenever the trigger is encountered, potentially inhibiting the logical thought of an individual on demand.
To scale this to societal control, individual emotional responses to images/ideas are being meticulously recorded and stored in the cloud. This emotional trigger database is a core feature of Big Data. Individualized and applied society-wide simultaneously through centralized media, these triggers are being used today to short circuit the will of the people by interfering with their organic social behavior, thought, and consciousness through the triggering of emotions.
AI from an advertising use case is best described as the technology to create strong emotional reactions for a brand and is rooted in emotional triggers. Time and endless application of this technology have morphed humanity into a sort of hive mind or assimilated mind. Since the implementation technique (i.e., emotional trigger programming) only inhibits intelligence, the emotionally anxious mind is a more accurate description.
Emotions, and more specifically human reactions to emotions, are a natural and vital element of cognizant beings. Ignoring our emotions is not a healthy or viable means to thwart emotional trigger programming. However, when being bombarded with emotional trigger programming at all times while consuming media content, it is prudent to train our brain to identify and reject this programming.
It is difficult to estimate the amount spent a year by both government and corporations to embed emotional triggers into individuals for future use.
Much research, and current corporate expenditures, are done for benign purposes such as advertising and awareness campaigns. However, since China COVID-19 in particular, there has been a quiet transition between embedding these triggers to activating previously embedded triggers in order to manipulate individuals and thus society in general. Do not be surprised by observing that the centralized media is coordinating the activation of emotional triggers in order to drive political, ideological, and potentially nefarious agendas.
As advertisers, this is their bread and butter. The root problem is not marketing (i.e., emotional trigger programming). The problem is centralization and no transparency. The merger of corporate and government agendas only increases the intensity and spread of media-based psychological attacks that are designed to drive acceptance of an agenda by preventing critical thinking.
Under careful control of Big Data algorithms and orifices, social engineering the human population is now the new business model of Big Tech and Big Media. But there are more dangers than the obvious ones.
The embedding of diametrically opposed emotional triggers can foment hatred between people with the same triggers but differing emotional responses. People of differing emotional responses to the same trigger can never agree, as emotional responses are not subject to debate or reasoning. If not subjected to emotional trigger programming, these same people could easily communicate and reach a compromise, and at least agree to disagree. But if what they are arguing about is an emotion, there can be no agreement unless the emotion is in agreement.
Once an emotion is triggered, an individual can no longer think logically (until emotion subsides), so if both parties are triggering differing emotions from the same trigger there can never be any agreement as the discussion is now an emotional one, not a logical one.
Without knowledge/transparency regarding the AI algorithms used and/or transparency/reverse engineering, we as a society cannot know the future that the corporate and government-funded emotional programmers planned for humanity. One thing is very clear, however. Our society is being emotionally triggered at an alarming rate. Are the centralized content creators that currently orchestrate these emotional trigger storms within humans the same as those who programmed the emotional triggers within humanity months/years/decades ago? Does it matter?
Programming emotional triggers into others is itself a form of emotional attack that results in emotional discomfort (or even physical trauma if resisted - "discipline," etc.) among the subjects being programmed. To avoid discomfort among those programming emotional triggers in others, it is often important to limit feeding back to the programmer, lest they see the damage of their emotional attacks upon others and develop a conscience response to their malfeasance.
This is easy to accomplish with TV or written/online/social media because the emotional distress responses of the victims are not seen. Social media appears to be particularly well engineered and moderated to support and protect the emotional programmers/abusers. Censorship is an additional step that is often taken to protect the abusers. Censored victims cannot confront their attackers or even discuss the attack or abuse publicly.
Social media was well designed for emotional trigger data collection and programming, with no accountability or oversight. Search engines personalize and prioritize emotional trigger programming in the results of search queries.
Big Tech is the catalyst in leading behavioral engineering into unhinged frontiers, specifically because there are no witnesses to personalized psychological assault, only victims.
Any centralized orifice for information or knowledge is ripe for the infiltration of emotional trigger programming. To be clear, it is not the repository of information, but the centralized orifice (i.e., gatekeeper) that can be used to program emotional triggers. Centralized orifices are vulnerable to the systematic embedding of emotional triggers into any curriculum and thus into every pupil for any subject. To explain the danger, when subjects are researched and taught not from a critical thinking exercise but from the perspective of identifying with an emotional reaction, confirmation bias toward emotional triggers are being "learned."
Which specific emotion is triggered is not necessarily important to a controller of the trigger.
Diversity of emotion in this context allows the perception of diversity of thought and emotions regarding a curriculum, even when the curriculum is mostly emotional trigger programming. It is the uniformity of triggering any emotional response across a population, whatever the emotion, that allows for the easy manipulation of society by centralized media.
By coordinating and framing media narratives with trigger words, pictures, personas and/or phrases, it is easy to trigger an emotional reaction and thus prevent critical thinking within the targeted population regarding a particular subject, article, or person. Emotional triggers are the primary behavioral engineering method infecting society today.
How did we get here?
Let us inflect upon ourselves this simple question. Rising from centralization, is the latest curriculum really about a core of subject matter that should be the center of discussion and critical thinking in the classroom? Or is it rather a core of emotional trigger programming embedded and reinforced within any and all subject matter? Irrelevant subject matter? The frequent public policy programming that is "intended" for use as a one-time means to sway individuals to a good cause is now available for exploitation in order to subvert and destroy society in the future.
Even when the psychologists and behavioral engineers being employed to craft the emotional triggers into the curriculum are doing it for the betterment of society, do they have any control over how the triggers will be used in the future? Did they ever have control? Who is funding this and do they care? Even if the motives of the emotional engineers are pure, what is stopping others with less scruples from leveraging the programmed triggers for their own benefit?
When coordinated with Big Data and individualized (which emotion is associated with each trigger, etc.), scaling social engineering from individuals to society as a whole becomes possible (at least for those consuming content - i.e., available for programming). For maximum control over the pre-programmed emotional triggers, Big Data is used to individualize each person's online activity in order to coordinate the triggering of individuals into a collective hive.
An emotionally manipulated population easily distracted and controlled with centralized messaging designed to trigger emotions is the goal for our society. Coordinated online censorship also plays a vital roll by inhibiting emotionally programmed individuals from recognizing the triggers and/or methods used to control their mind, preventing their escape from the emotional prison personalized specifically for them.
Much has been said about confirmation bias being the wedge that is driving people apart and preventing rational discussion. However, this does not hold up to scrutiny. Confirmation bias does not suspend critical thinking. It does not lead one to immediately stop thinking rationally. Only a strong emotional reaction can suspend rational thought, and confirmation bias inherently triggers no such emotions.
It is not confirmation bias that is the core problem of division today, but failure to identify, understand, and neutralize our individual emotional triggers. Only emotions suspend/restrict cognitive thought (deductive reasoning, etc.) and are easy to trigger once programmed and present.
The real danger with confirmation bias is when the bias confirms emotional triggers instead of logic or deductive reasoning. Confirmation bias for emotional triggers is a very dangerous combination that inhibits learning and education in general. Education can be improved exponentially and immediately by identifying and removing the inorganic emotional triggers within the minds of individuals. The true path to educational equality is pragmatic thought, critical thinking, and meritocracy in general - all of which are impaired by inorganic emotional triggers.
Repetitive encounters with emotional trigger programming and usage, especially in an academic or other authoritarian environment, encourages confirmation bias towards emotional triggers. Confirmation bias can work in conjunction with emotional triggers to amplify self-censorship and/or prevent critical thinking.
When institutionalized pupils begin to seek and associate an emotional response (i.e., trigger) in regards to "solving a problem," modern pupils are trained that emotional reactions and their associations are "thinking." Tethered to their emotional control devices (i.e., "smart phones"), this artificial hive mind of emotional junkies within humanity is a growing danger to themselves and all remaining free thinkers of the world. Will Big Tech and Big Media truly weaponize those people under their emotional control? What is stopping them?
On the bright side, there is a weak link in emotional trigger programming: trust.
With skepticism, emotional trigger spells typically fail as logic and pragmatic thought dispel the trigger in real time. It is well researched that repetition of programming is effective, particularly if/when the subject is experiencing the same emotion as that in which the trigger is programmed for. This is a form of associated emotional trigger programming and is in general nefarious in nature.
The point is that abstinence, skepticism, and vigilance are all required to protect an individual. Research straight from the source, avoid centralized purveyors of trigger programming disguised as analysis (i.e., Big Tech, Big Media) and always pragmatize inbound information and ask questions. I encourage those with more formal knowledge regarding this subject matter to correct me regarding my terms and/or use of them as well as expand on this idea in general. Flames welcome if you back it up with pragmatism.
Inorganic emotional trigger programming (via media content consumption or in person) is not education and has no place in any classroom or newsroom. Pragmatism is thinking. Deductive reasoning and logic are examples of critical thinking.
Identify and deactivate the inorganic emotional triggers present in your mind.
If we can think freely again, the ills of society will become solvable again. Recognize the assault upon your mind for what it is and reject emotional trigger programming of any kind with extreme prejudice. This means turn off the programming. Also, it is not enough to recognize and rid these triggers within yourself, but vital to point out these triggers in others (respectfully) so they can learn to recognize and rid themselves of these curses within them as well.
The battle for control of the world is happening right now.
Our minds are the battlefield and each of us has a vital role to play.
The fate of the world is in the balance.
Carpe animo. (Seize your mind.)