When the state induces an emotional reaction from the masses it is necessary to remember the mechanisms of psychological manipulation used to thwart resistance movements.
Tensions in the United States continue to increase. In the wake of the latest murder of 37-year-old Alex Pretti at the hands of federal agents, and the shamelessness with which federal officials have blatantly lied about the circumstances of the incident, emotions are reaching a fever pitch throughout the country as the brutality of the Trump Administration only increases.
Statist rhetoric has deeply reinforced the echo chambers of identity politics, so much so that objective reasoning and logic are easily thrown to the wayside in favor of partisan talking points. It has gotten to the point where certain sections of the public, so deeply rooted in their allegiance to the political cult of personality that narrative becomes more sacred than facts.
It is not dissimilar to the same phenomenon witnessed just a few short years ago during the covid era, when information warfare and propaganda was used to exaggerate the threat of a mild illness with a known 99% survival rate to fearmonger entire swaths of the public into supporting draconian policies.
Despite clear-cut evidence demonstrating the inefficacy of mask mandates, the known disastrous effects of lockdown mandates ultimately costing more lives than they saved as well as the rampant brutality of the police state attempt to enforce such measures, and the clear danger of rushing an experimental, untested, fraudulently authorized gene therapy injection to the market through a campaign of coercion and threats; huge chunks of the population submitted to this despotism.
That despite all of these facts sizable portions of the citizenry turned on one another with many advocating some of the most blatantly authoritarian policies we have seen in decades including arbitrary medical segregation, increased mass surveillance, the restriction of civil liberties, calls for concentration camps, and the outright dehumanization of those of us who refused to go along with the lie.
Now the script has flipped, such as it does with the unprincipled logical inconsistency and selective amnesia of political cults.
Now many of those same people who decried authoritarian actions of the covid era are clamoring for them in the midst of manufactured immigration crisis. And those who so dutifully supported tyrannical impositions just a few years ago decry such measures for their barbarity.
We are essentially witnessing a repeat of the same playbook. Evidence such as data provided by the Brennan Center for Justice clearly demonstrates that immigrants, undocumented or otherwise, do not pose any significant risks to the safety or security of the country. Showing that immigrants are statistically far less likely to commit crimes compared to native born citizens. Official data from the CATO Institute also indicates immigrant communities experience less crime overall, as well as lower incarceration rates.
This, coupled with data from the Department of Homeland Security released throughout this latest anti-immigrant crackdown showing that the vast majority of those arrested by ICE are either non-violent offenders or have no criminal record at all, clearly dismantles the myth of the "immigrant crime wave" asserted by so many Republican pundits.
Yet despite this we still see swaths of the American public clamoring for a police state complete with justifications of police brutality, racial segregation, concentration camps, mass surveillance, violations of civil liberties and the like to satisfy their swirling disdain for migrant communities due to a deluge of propaganda dehumanizing such individuals as violent invaders of the homeland.
All of this can be incredibly overwhelming. Such is the point of this article. It is imperative for the citizenry to keep in mind that these kinds of emotional conflagrations do not occur by happenstance, but they are instead deliberately engineered to elicit a reaction from the populous. Whether committed by democrat or republican elements of the establishment, these agendas are still intended to favor the establishment and the imperial status quo overall.
A classic problem-reaction-solution scenario akin to Hagel's dialectic, heightened states of emotionality are used by manipulators to influence thoughts and actions.
Neuroscientifically speaking, when a person is put into a state of high emotional vulnerability, such as when they are made to be afraid, angry, anxious, sad, stressed, or depressed, the prefrontal cortex, the part of the brain responsible for executive functions, emotional regulation and decision making slows down, which impairs critical thinking skills and makes a person more susceptible to suggestion and manipulation.
The tactic of using stressors and emotional triggers to influence individuals have been commonly employed by agencies such as the CIA during the MK ULTRA program, as well as by law enforcement and the military for interrogation and torture techniques.
These same kinds of techniques are applied to the public on mass on a daily basis in numerous ways, most commonly in predatory advertising that uses a combination of imagery and messaging as a form of subtle subconscious influencing to encourage consumerism.
Of course these same tactics are also utilized by news media and even social media, acting as the public relations and perception management arms of the predatory ruling class.
Emotions are manipulated on a mass scale by social engineering to affect behavior modification of the masses — that desired modification is to utilize this effect to ensure that the people remain divided and preoccupied to subvert any efforts of solidarity that would be necessary for effectively opposing the state's machinery of oppression.
History is full of classic examples of this technique being utilized. Perhaps the most notorious example who's consequences still permeate at the core of American politics occurred 350 years ago, in the days when Virginia was still a British colony.
In July of 1676 the wealthy merchant Nathaniel Bacon lead an uprising in Jamestown against governor William Berkeley over unfair land distribution and his refusal to remove the indigenous population from Virginia. However, ironically, Bacon's Rebellion was so unsettling for the colonial aristocracy because of the way it bridged race relations between lower class whites and blacks. Bacon's uprising created a solidarity between the white poor and working class, and black slaves and former slaves.
After the rebellion was put down, this threat of multiracial unity among the lower class was of such a concern to the Colonial elite that it led to the creation of the earliest race codes. Creating distinct legal and political separations between white and black races, establishing a kind of caste system that gave certain privileges to poor whites, placing them in a hierarchy over top their black contemporaries.
This was a deliberate policy decision used to inflame racial tensions and create division among whites and blacks with the specific intention of subverting any potential of the two groups unifying against the ruling class.
Many historians view this precise moment as the birth of institutionalized white supremacy in American politics. Arguably the most fundamental roadblock that has hampered any real possibility of dismantling the ruling class establishment for over three centuries.
Such is the nature of manufactured division.
And thus, it is a necessary reminder that as these blatantly inflammatory escalations continue there is an ulterior motive hidden underneath, to inundate and overstimulate the people in such a way as to undercut efforts of organization and effective methods of resistance. To ensure that any opposition is disorderly and reactive, as opposed to calculated and proactive.
That is the essence of psychological warfare. When the mindset of a movement can be manipulated it's behavior can be easily predicted and controlled.
So the people would do well not to allow themselves to be easily controlled. Take stock of your emotions, prioritize rationality over reactivity, insure to prioritize self-love and mental stability to keep a clear mind and remain objective oriented.
A people cannot hope to overthrow their masters until they first learn to master themselves.
