The Bermuda Triangle of Manipulation
What is it, how does it work, and how to avoid it?
What is the Bermuda Triangle of Manipulation?
One of the strongest and most effective strategies to manipulate people consists of looping three steps, which we can call as The Bermuda Triangle of Manipulation (BTM) (we just made this name up, so don’t Google it 🙂):
- Overwhelming Emotions
- Spreading Misinformation
- Censoring Counter Narratives
The Bermuda Triangle, also known as Devil’s Triangle, is a loosely triangular area in the North Atlantic Ocean. It was claimed that ships or aircrafts passing through it would be trapped in there and disappeared.
We called this three steps of manipulation as the Bermuda Triangle of Manipulation because it is very unlikely for the people to get free of it and see the reality as it is once they get trapped by into it. Let’s see how.
How Does It Work?
For this method to be successful, all of its three steps must be carefully carried out.
There are two main faculties that we use to make decisions. One is our mind and the other is the faculty of our emotions. We use our mind to evaluate the information we have and determine which decision is the best. However, while knowing the best decision, our emotions can affect us to make a decision which is not the best or even make us knowingly make the worst decision.
The best examples are the decisions and actions taken while being angry. Even when people know that cetain words or actions are extremely bad, they can say or do them without hesitation when they are angry and then regret it.
Another example is how emotions of mercy and compassion affect some people to unjustly defend their children while knowing that their children did something terrible.
So, overwhelming people with the emotions of hatred, anger, and/or mercy would decrease the role of their mind and intellect in making decisions. In this case, if you present them just a claim in line with their emotions, they would consider it as evidence in that state.
In other words, overwhelmed emotions would push people to make irrational or less rational decisions.
Overwhelming Emotions
The key step to manipulating people is to overwhelm their emotions of anger, mercy, or worry.
An example would be the Reichstag Fire which prepared the suitable grounds for the establishment of Nazi Germany. The parliament building was burnt, and the Nazi party blamed the communists claiming that this is a national security issue. This overwhelmed people with the emotions of worry, hatred, and anger so that they didn’t oppose the “ruthless confrontation” following the Reichstag Fire Decree.
Another example is the claims that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and this threatened the lives and safety of Western countries. This overwhelmed people with emotions of worry, hatred, anger, etc. So, 1 million innocent civilians were killed in Iraq by the UK and the US forces while the whole world watched and did nothing about it.
Spreading Misinformation
Once people get overwhelmed with emotions, then it is time to provide them with specific information that pushes them to make decisions in line with what the manipulators want. This is where spreading misinformation comes into play.
The media is the best tool that is used by the manipulators to spread misinformation. When all the media says the same things and people don’t have any other sources to check if that is true and while they are not willing to do detailed investigations due to being extremely emotional, then most of them will just accept it to be true and move on.
Here is an example of how different channels were orchestrated by a single “manipulation” center.
Another tool for misinformation is making famous people and celebrities say the same things. This is a very effective way of making people believe that the information is true without making any further investigations. It is because of its effectiveness that companies pay large amounts of money to celebrities to advertise their products.
When the majority of people around you say and believe in the same narrative, then it is highly likely that this will eventually cause you to fall into that same narrative.
Censoring Counter Narratives
The truth is extremely powerful. A single truth can destroy years or decades-old propaganda campaigns and reset the affected people back to their “factory settings”. Again, Germany and the end of Nazi propaganda can be considered as a good example.
So, for the manipulation to last long, the truth (or anything that goes against or refutes the propagated narrative) must be censored and people must be prevented from accessing it.
Best examples of such censorship can be observed in some countries like China where they restrict what people can access on the internet. To access different information, some people use a VPN or they do so when they go abroad.
In the West, censorship is done by controlling almost all the big media companies and letting them present only what the manipulators want. People can access any source on the internet. However, they are brought up in a particular way that they just trust those companies. Therefore, there is no need to restrict their access to other sources.
In other words, in the West, the information is censored by the media companies while it is censored by restricting people’s access to the internet in the East.
The BTM works successfully by continually carrying out these 3 steps, “looping them” in coding terms.
How to Avoid BTM?
Now you know how BTM works and how effective it is in manipulating people. The important question is: How can you avoid it?
Consider a conflict between two groups (e.g., Israel-Palestine or Israel-Hamas (yes, they are two different conflicts)). When two sides of a conflict have two opposing views or narratives, then at least one side is (or maybe both sides are) a victim of BTM, since both narratives cannot be true at the same time.
If you only follow the sources that usually or always provide information in favor of one side of the conflict, then it is highly likely that you are being manipulated. Don’t forget that occasional criticisms or occasional partial support of the other side by these sources could be a strategy to make you believe that they are objective and only delivering the truth.
You cannot control those sources, such as media. It is almost impossible for every individual to verify the accuracy of the information they provide.
Therefore, the best method to avoid being a victim of false propaganda and manipulation is to follow and evaluate the narratives, information and evidence provided by both sides from their original sources.
This still doesn’t guarantee that you will find the truth. However, it increases the likelihood of finding the truth, or at least seeing which side provides stronger supportive evidence for their claims.
Shortly, listening to both sides and evaluating them as objectively as possible is one of the most reasonable and easiest ways for any individual to avoid being falsely manipulated.
You can try this method in the case of Israel-Palestine and see if your position changes. Try to follow channels and accounts on social media from both sides. For every news channel or account you follow who supports one side, follow one news channel or social media account that supports the other side.
Also note that there are other ways of manipulation that are used on us, like producing fake evidence. So, try your best to verify any information you receive to the best of your ability. Think about the possible alternatives by which information could be interpreted. Think about the possibility an interpretation could be false.
In the next article, we will see some examples of how BTM was and is still being applied in the Israel-Palestine conflict.
You may like to read the following article which is “NOT” related to Israel-Palestine.
