The War of Words: The Invisible Logic of Political Language and Automated Influence

Language activates neural frames that shape unconscious political beliefs
Emotional narratives consistently defeat factual arguments
Social influence can be systematically engineered and automated
Cognitive autonomy requires awareness of linguistic manipulation

Human Factory Settings - The psychology of conviction and persuasion
Psychology of Scarcity & Abundance - How resource perception shapes cognition

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The War of Words - Part 1: The Invisible Logic of Political Language

The War of Words: The Invisible Logic of Political Language and Automated Influence 1 The War of Words - Part 1: The Invisible Logic of Political Language 2 The War of Words - Part 2: The Tyranny of the Narrating Self 3 The War of Words - Part 3: The STEPPS of Automated Influence ← Series Home The Anatomy of Assault: Why Language is the First Line of Defense Imagine being presented with the phrase, “Don’t think of an elephant!”. The attempt to follow that instruction instantly fails, because the very mention of the word activates a mental structure in your brain, forcing the image and its associations into consciousness. This simple test reveals a profound vulnerability in human thought: language does not merely describe reality; it actively constructs the mental arena in which all persuasion must occur. This insight explains why a political figure arguing, “I am not a crook,” guarantees that his audience will immediately associate him with criminality. The ensuing political or commercial contest is often won or lost before a single policy or price is debated, fundamentally because the terms of engagement—the frames—have already dictated how reality will be perceived. ...

The War of Words - Part 2: The Tyranny of the Narrating Self

The War of Words: The Invisible Logic of Political Language and Automated Influence 1 The War of Words - Part 1: The Invisible Logic of Political Language 2 The War of Words - Part 2: The Tyranny of the Narrating Self 3 The War of Words - Part 3: The STEPPS of Automated Influence ← Series Home The Calculating Machine’s Fatal Flaw The enduring Western ideal of the political actor is framed by the dispassionate mind, a figure often celebrated by philosophers and economists who weighs evidence objectively before making a reasoned decision. This conception gives rise to the belief that citizens should respond primarily to detailed policy arguments, cost-benefit analyses, and factual lists. Yet, decades of scientific inquiry reveal that this vision is fundamentally inconsistent with how the human mind and brain actually function; in reality, decisions are rarely dispassionate, particularly when they involve deeply held political commitments. The profound disconnect between this idealized rationality and the actual workings of human cognition means that political messaging built solely on logic is perpetually vulnerable to defeat by appeals rooted in emotion and narrative coherence. ...

The War of Words - Part 3: The STEPPS of Automated Influence

The War of Words: The Invisible Logic of Political Language and Automated Influence 1 The War of Words - Part 1: The Invisible Logic of Political Language 2 The War of Words - Part 2: The Tyranny of the Narrating Self 3 The War of Words - Part 3: The STEPPS of Automated Influence ← Series Home The Scarcest Resource: Commodifying Attention and Volition Attention is the most fiercely contested resource in the modern age, continually harvested at industrial scale and converted into profit. This ongoing appropriation transforms every waking moment into a zone of potential commercial exploitation, ensuring that few times or spaces remain uncultivated by those seeking to resell human awareness. To successfully colonize this most personal of resources, influence professionals have developed precise, scalable methods for spreading ideas and modifying behavior, shifting their focus from broad persuasion to targeted, automated coercion that operates just beyond the threshold of conscious thought. ...

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