How Government Psychological Manipulation of the Public Became Normal

https://dailysceptic.org/2024/06/26/how-government-psychological-manipulation-of-the-public-became-normal/

If you're wondering about those incredibly emotionally manipulative campaigns during "covid", wonder no more:

... How did the U.K. evolve into a nation saturated with state-funded behavioural scientists whose raison d’être is to facilitate the Government’s top-down control of its citizens? ...

Article then goes on to describe the work of several important US psychologists

... The influential work of the above-mentioned U.S. scholars, together with a series of U.K. political leaders ideologically wedded to technocracy and top-down control of the populace, has had important consequences for British society. The tools of behavioural science are now embedded within the U.K. Government’s communication infrastructure – alongside other non-consensual methods of persuasion and propaganda – collectively constituting a potent armoury for manipulating the beliefs and behaviours of ordinary people. Currently, whenever the political elite choose to announce a ‘crisis’, our leaders (aided and abetted by their chosen ‘experts’) are happy to covertly shape citizens’ behaviour in line with their (often dubious) goals, routinely deploying methods that rely on fear, shame and scapegoating. ...

Jacques Ellul's book "Propaganda: The Formation of Men's Attitudes" defined propaganda as when an organization (often a government) manipulates peoples' natural psychological mechanisms for the benefit of the organization. The UK "nudge unit" is 100% pure distilled propaganda.

... Is it ethically sound for our political elite to strategically inflict emotional discomfort on the populace as a means of encouraging the populace to adhere to their diktats? Contemplation of these and similar questions by people residing in once-liberal democracies may lead to more visible dissent, with escalating numbers opting to reclaim their basic human right of deliberative decision-making. I certainly hope so.

I hope so too.