The Cult of Persuasion - thundergodblog

We would all like to believe that we are independent free thinkers that can formulate original ideas and assess the validity of the opinions’ of others but I have found much of this to be an illusion and contrarily this foretold claim is not present in most people I’ve encountered. Do you know someone that belongs to a cult? The answer may surprise you!

If you shut down debate by emotionalizing an argument, or if you appeal to the many ways of false ad hominem arguments, then you are effectively letting your bias interfere with your critical thinking. These techniques are numerous in social media and conversation today.

See various common forms of fallacious arguments:(https://thundergodblog.com/2014/01/20/logical-fallacies-and-false-syllogisms/)

Mirriam Webster

Definition of cult

1 : formal religious veneration : worship

2 : a system of religious beliefs and ritual; also : its body of adherents

3 : a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious; also : its body of adherents

4 : a system for the cure of disease based on dogma set forth by its promulgator <health cults>

5 a : great devotion to a person, idea, object, movement, or work (as a film or book); especially : such devotion regarded as a literary or intellectual fad b : the object of such devotion c : a usually small group of people characterized by such devotion

The overlap of cults and culture

Cult, which shares an origin with culture and cultivate, comes from the Latin cultus, a noun with meanings ranging from “tilling, cultivation” to “training or education” to “adoration.” In English, cult has evolved a number of meanings following a fairly logical path. The earliest known uses of the word, recorded in the 17th century, broadly denoted “worship.” From here cult came to refer to a specific branch of a religion or the rites and practices of that branch, as in “the cult of Dionysus.” By the early 18th century, cult could refer to a non-religious admiration or devotion, such as to a person, idea, or fad (“the cult of success”). Finally, by the 19th century, the word came to be used of “a religion regarded as unorthodox or spurious.”

In my observance of everyday conversation in social media I have noticed trends in the structure of assertions others make in their communications. Because of my own educational background, I have found problematic logical anomalies in these common assertions that seem to sway the beliefs of the unsuspecting participants. This is unfortunate because after studying these exchanges of dialog, it is clear some people fall into the trappings of these logical fallacies that persuade many others despite the flawed reasoning.
The “hive” mind is observed in a conversation that often resorts to using misrepresented data points to further an argument. If you vet the source of the statistical inferences, carefully look at the data, then it is possible to clear the argument of bias and strip it down without convolution of the premise. Much of what we find today is loaded with misleading false narratives that are designed to sway you by lacing the argument with an emotional bias and sophistry.

One can easily recall the advertising industry to see countless and baseless examples of using fallacious and emotionalized narratives to sell their products. Actually you can find many examples in how our own government agencies use language and semantics to further a cause. Look at money and our current financial economic policies. Banking regulations, fiat currencies, and legal jargon prevent many people from understanding its design and is used against them all the time. It was written not for the people, but rather is written to benefit the private bankers, financiers who authored these systems. Simply look to the federal reserve; a private bank in control of deflating and inflating our currency backed by nothing, (fiat currency) which has usurped the constitution altogether.

When we bring in the debt of printing this fraudulent currency waged against the people, we invent a non-ratified, unappropriated tax on our labor to help pay for this unconstitutional agency called the Federal Reserve which controls the Internal Revenue Service. Since we have been duped into believing that we have to pay this tax, (amendment) people usually do or risk of having house and home taken away. Our culture is full of this kind of bureaucracy that has poisoned the wells of the intellectually free minded citizens. Scores of educational controversy has taken root in our school systems. The subversive takeover of our children’s minds has historical precedence in many countries around the world. In the country we have dealt with “no child left behind”, and “common core” among earlier infusions of propagandizing the “red scare” to our school children.

Persuasion itself is not under attack in this piece. Rather, the logical fallacies that are used to persuade people is! Debate is something I believe to be a healthy productive activity, but when you are diminished by being called a fascist, racist, or some other explicative; under false premises, than I think we have a problem. The trend for foggy thinking is unprecedented in current times. (Simply look at the 2016 presidential election). This is clear especially when other people do not like what you stand for if it does not agree with their world view. They will simply refute without paying attention to what you are saying if it is contrary to their beliefs. People without a healthy cognitive grip use the narratives that only support their world view. They tend not to use critical thinking skills to uncover the dust of confusion and propaganda that was designed to hinder their thinking in the first place.

Ask yourself this question. How many people do you know on your social media feeds that spend a great deal of time posting about political memes and articles that intend to further a cause? They don’t post much about their own family, yet they consume much of their time commenting on politically charged articles that beg to engender some kind of sympathy towards their post. I see these posts all the time and I am distressed by their diminished capacity for critical thinking when reading these pieces. All political parties take part and no one social group is excluded.

Social control in a society is a very difficult venture. The more control the state has, the less the people can do other than a revolution.

My problem with many of my associations is that I look at the argument from a philosophical viewpoint. I look at the structure of the argument before I usually make a judgement on the meaning and beliefs about the argument. I use my filters before I render a decision. Maybe this is why I see so many abuses of language, semantics, logic, and thinking in others who wish to tell me their opinions that it makes me a bit saddened. I am disheartened after reading many of these posts from even my own family members.

I must admit the most atrocious posts tend to rely on the ignorance of those believing in them. If we look at the current political climate, I tend to find that the Democratic party (USA) is the most tenacious and ruthless group of people bent on the domination and oppression of people. I’m sure one can find many examples of both parties corruptible attributions in their expression, but if I were to focus on one, than the Democratic party and the mainstream media in the United States is by far the worst I have ever seen.

If you look at the social posts of today, and with a corruptible mass media that is telling the lie over and over again, (i.e. climate change, dividing us group by group by calling us racist, ad infinitum), than maybe we are falling for this political paradigm that is misleading us away from the constitution?

There are countless memes used to shut debate. The assumptions made in many of these memes are fallacious and ridiculous, but on the other hand many simple-minded people tend to fall for them. I hope not to offend any readers. I myself am peeved by the outrageous claims that others do not share my belief system, yet we are exposed to the same set of data points and arguments made to us by educators, family and friends or business associates. Heck, the internet alone if used properly can be a useful tool if you know the pitfalls, along with fully researching the information.

In conclusion I claim that the cult like activities seen in protest rallies around the USA in 2016 are full of propaganda. The George Soros funded events around the globe were designed to plunder the outcomes of those that globalists oppose to gain credibility in these false scenarios. If you read the Wikileaks emails, if you “think for yourself” and not allow others to think for you, you have half of the problem solved in the critical analysis of information that is highly politicized in this day and age. I happen to believe that the democratic party (and much of our government), has sold us out, and does not believe in the constitution. The democratic party demonstrates it’s policy in communicating like a cult! Look at the voting record through-out history and see how the democratic party traditionally voted. If you look it up on the voting record the party voted against civil rights legislation, they are the party that supported slavery, they are now against the 2nd amendment, and against the 4th amendment in the previous Obama administration. They are against the 13th amendment, among many others that they have spun to impune their opposition and suggest the other party are the ones that are against the people. I am completely open to agree if there are truths about these claims, yet I find little evidence to support them despite some differences in modern-day political party corruption cases. Yes it does happen in both parties. Yes, I try not to be partisan, but I find many cases used as examples of my thesis in this claim that are overwhelming and complicit in the evidence mentioned.

If you would like more examples, just pay attention to your local social media feed, or turn on the television and watch the news.

The historical accounts of propaganda are definitely home grown. Before Hitler and others, there was Edward Bernays, nephew of Sigmund Freud, can be considered the father of public relations and propaganda. Bernays literally wrote the book on propaganda, public relations, and manipulating public opinion. Yes, Bernays was born in Vienna, and later moved to America becoming an American publicist. His notorious book written in 1929 was Propaganda.