information and disinformation Archives

No one wants to hear this, but we are all being mind-controlled, and the truth is not true anymore. You may think that this is a harsh statement, maybe it is, maybe it is not. It depends where you are standing. The problem these days is how do you know what’s true and what is not true? The truth of the matter is, we are living in a world of information overload, making it very difficult to know what and who to believe.

[This blog article is another one of those not-for-the-faint-hearted kind of articles, so if you feel brave enough to stay with me for a minute or two longer, please read on.]

Hoaxes, hysteria, misinformation, and scams have been around a long time. Con men and Ponzi schemes are in every corner of recorded history. You might think that our access to vast oceans of information on the internet would change that, but it hasn’t. In fact, humans are just as gullible and as easily led as ever. And then you have those who refuse to look at the evidence and prefer not to see it. They are happily burying their head in the sand and content in the knowledge that if they don’t know about it, it doesn’t exist and can’t affect them.

No one wants to hear this, but most of us are being mind-controlled

Where does human behavior come from? Behavior comes from our perception of an event or a situation. Where does perception come from? Perception comes from information received, be it from personal experience, newspaper or media. Controlling human perception can therefore become a weapon used to control what people think. The best way to do this would be to filter or censor the type of information that the public receives, or by using deceptive tactics such as subterfuge, propaganda or misinformation to make the public believe something that is not true.

The human psyche can easily be manipulated, and this is why critical thinking is so important because we need this skill in order to navigate our way through all the information, misinformation, and disinformation that is being served to us on a daily basis on all media platforms. Trying to nail down the authenticity of anything and verify our knowledge about the world is a tall order, especially when you have a media machine that spins everything you see and everything you hear.

Misinformation is false information that is being spread regardless of intent to mislead. Dis-information on the other hand is false information that is deliberately misleading or biased information, manipulated narrative or facts, or propaganda that is being spread with the intent to hurt or damage a person or organization. We are huge consumers of all types of media but often lack the willingness to check the accuracy of what is presented to us, and instead of taking notes of all the inconsistencies and questioning the narrative, we are happily drinking the Kool-aid.

We are comfortable in our echo chambers, devoid of people and ideas who challenge our own beliefs and we are rarely thinking about how our own biases affect how we think about the world. We expect Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and Google to filter the truth for us, rather than putting in the hard work to do some thinking for ourselves. Some social media posts go viral in minutes after they are posted whether they carry with them the truth, or an exaggeration of the truth or total falsehood.

And then you have, repetition, which is another powerful tool to manipulate people’s psyche. There is a term for this in psychology, it is called the Illusory Truth Effect also known as the Reiteration Effect, which is the tendency to believe the information to be correct (even if it is not) after repeated exposure to that same information. Repeated affirmation fixes itself in the mind in such a way that it is accepted in the end as a demonstrated truth. Many studies have been conducted on this, and the conclusion is that familiarity overcomes rationality. No one wants to hear this but the truth does not matter. Repetition does!

“The media is the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent. The media will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing. This is the sort of propaganda tactic that I would call psychological warfare”.
Malcolm X

No one wants to hear this, but the truth is not true anymore.

Whether we are aware of it or not, most of us are assessing the veracity of the information we receive based on how it is going to make us feel as opposed to looking at the actual data and try to determine whether it is actually true or not. Our perception of what reality is can be different from the actual truth of what is and what is not, and most of us rely solely on our perception and what we want the truth to be when we form an opinion about this and that. We make ourselves the arbiter of truth, and in doing so we inject our personal beliefs, conviction, and biases into the mix, before sharing with whoever wants to listen what the truth of the matter is, according to us.

“I have come to realize that the biggest problem anywhere in the world is that people’s perception of reality is compulsively filtered through the screening mesh for what they want and do not want to be true.”
Travis Walton

No one wants to hear this, but your perception does not matter. The Truth is an objective concept that is not dependent upon the perception of human beings. The Truth does not waver. The Truth doesn’t care what people think. The Truth doesn’t even care if people see it or ignore it. It has always been there, and it is there still, no matter what people think or do.

The concept of Natural Law epitomizes and illustrates the concept of Truth as an objective reality. Natural means having a basis in nature, not made or caused by human beings. Law is an existing condition that is binding. The law will bind you whether you know its existence or not and whether you understand it or not. Natural Law is something that is non-man-made, and binding. Human belief is completely irrelevant when it comes to the existence and operation of Natural Law; just as it is irrelevant in relation to any other Laws of Nature such as gravity for example.

Take someone who has strong convictions about gravity. That person is convinced that the law of gravity is non-sense and to prove his point, he decides to jump from a cliff without any parachute; that person will no doubt suffer greatly from the consequence of his belief. The truth of the matter is that gravity is an existing, immutable, non-man-made truth of nature and whether you believe in it or not makes no difference. The Truth remains. At the end of the day, you are free to believe what is true or not true but in both cases your belief will have consequences you have to live with or die for.

“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what is not true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.”
Soren Kierkegaard

The truth of the matter is: men’s wishes and perception cannot defy Natural Law. Wishing or believing otherwise makes no difference. Thomas More’s refusal to acknowledge King Henry VIII as Supreme Head of the Church of England and the annulment of his marriage to Catherine of Aragon lead him to be imprisoned and put on trial for treason. During his last remarks to court – defending himself in his trial for treason and knowing in advance his fate of being found guilty for his refusal to assert in writing that the King was the Head of the Church, he made the following arguments to the jury

Some men say the Earth is flat, and some men say the Earth is round. But if it is flat, could Parliament make it round? And if it is round, could the King’s command flatten it?
Thomas More

And that my dear friend is the question you have to ask yourself.

Personal Note

DDI Chat – Personal Growth – One-to-one Chat with Joanne Reed

In addition to publishing my articles on my website, I have also been publishing on Medium. I have been working closely for the past months with Data-Driven Investor (DDI) Publication. DDI has recently launched a new marketplace/platform where people can book a paid one-to-one session with an expert of their choice. DDI asked me to join their panel of advisors/experts in the Leadership, Coaching, and Personal Growth category. Here is my profile. If you wish to book a one-to-one chat with me you can do so on this platform.

For more on this subject you can purchase my book This is Your Quest online at BookLocker, from Amazon or from Barnes & Noble. The Ebook version is available on Amazon (Kindle), Barnes & Noble (Nook), Apple (iBooks) & Kobo. Check out my Amazon Author Page here or my listing on Booksradar.com

Where does human behavior come from? Behavior comes from our perception of an event or a situation. Where does perception come from? Perception comes from information received, be it from personal experience, newspaper or media. If our behaviors are influenced by information, how can we be sure that what we receive is information or disinformation?

Controlling Perception

It is possible to control human perception, the best way to do this would be to filter or censor the type of information that the public receive, or by using deceptive tactics such as subterfuge, propaganda or misinformation to make the public believe something that is not true.

The “Carrot Myth”

According to conventional wisdom eating lots of carrots will magically enhance your vision?! While there is a little bit of truth in this, the ‘Carrot Myth‘ was engineered by British Intelligence and popularized and reinforced by the British Ministry of Information – the government department responsible for publicity and propaganda – during WWII.

During the 1940 Blitzkrieg , the Luftwaffe often struck and bombarded London under the cover of darkness. In order to make it more difficult for the German planes to hit targets, the British Government issued city-wide blackouts. The Royal Air Force (RAF) were able to repel German fighters in part because of the development of a new secret radar technology. The on-board Airborne Interception Radar (AI) was invented and first used by the RAF in 1939 and had the ability to pinpoint enemy bombers before they reached the English Channel. To protect their secret weapon, British Intelligence invented a propaganda campaign that claimed that British Pilots could see in the dark because they ate a lot of carrots!

There is no denying the fact that carrots, by virtue of their heavy dose of vitamin A (in the form of Beta Carotene) are very good for the health of your eyes; but this truth was stretched a little by granting carrots the “superpower” of improving your night vision and give you the power to spot enemy planes in the dark?! The truth is that eating carrots does not help you see better in the dark any more than eating blueberries will turn you blue. That said, the carrot campaign of subterfuge helped hide a new technology that was critical to the Battle of Britain, a major campaign fought entirely by air forces and the first defeat of Hitler’s military forces, and to the eventual Allied victory.

*Joanne Reed – Author of “This Is Your Quest”*

Information and Disinformation Overload

Today, we are living in a world of information and disinformation overload; data about almost anything is available at the click of a button, we are constantly bombarded by streams of information (and sometimes disinformation), making it very difficult to know what and who to believe.

Hoaxes, hysterias, misinformation and scams have been around a long time. Con men and Ponzi schemes are in every corner of recorded history. You might think that our access to vast oceans of information on the internet would change that, but it hasn’t. In fact, humans are just as gullible and easily led as ever. Skepticism is just as rare as any other time, and most people are willing to believe something they read on the internet, heard second or third hand, without subjecting their curiosities to even the most basic fact-checking.

It is important to remain skeptical. Some people may dismiss you as a cynical, but that’s likely to be the person who’s actively trying to influence you or sell you something. There are no awards for coming to a conclusion the fastest, so take your time, and don’t form an opinion based on emotion. Here are some quick ways to keep yourself in check:

Check your sources
Understand the difference between opinion and fact
Beware of anecdotal evidence
Ask a lot of questions
Question your beliefs
Turn to history for clues

Skepticism is healthy. Be discerning about the information you receive and the medium through which it is transmitted, they are skills worth developing.

And this, my Dear Companion, is Your Quest!

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