Techniques of Mind Manipulation According to S.G. Kara-Murza
Language
As soon as a politician or news anchor starts speaking in jargon, throwing in obscure words like “voucher” or “sequestration,” manipulation is at play (sometimes “secondary” manipulation, where the speaker is themselves a puppet of manipulators). If the speaker truly wanted their message to be understood and thoughtfully considered, not just memorized or absorbed, they would make it clear and present it in a dialog format.
In everyday life, except for strictly professional fields like science and technology, there are no problems that can’t be explained in plain language. Unfamiliar words are either meant to overwhelm the listener with fake “expert” authority or serve as a kind of shamanic spell to create a hypnotic effect. Sometimes, they are used to cover up blatant lies, as was the case with the “voucher.” In general, language is a crucial diagnostic tool—doctors check it for a reason.
Emotions
If a politician or anchor starts playing on your emotions, something is off. It’s best to temporarily “harden” yourself and not fall for their trembling voice or a tear in their eye. Politics is politics—emotions are just makeup. What does it mean to “feel sorry for a sick president”? He’s either a president or a patient. We see that politicians, regardless of their health, can be absolutely ruthless toward ordinary people—they act like machines.
For example, the elderly and frail Sakharov cold-bloodedly fueled the war in Nagorno-Karabakh, but if anyone tried to object to him in the Supreme Soviet, a swarm of his sensitive allies would immediately shame the “aggressive majority,” and they would sheepishly back down. When listening to messages laced with any kind of emotion (even tearful pity for a wounded soldier), we should first process them like a calculator—regardless of the feelings being played on.
We must quickly calculate interests in our minds, and emotions are just cheap seasoning. Always keep your own interests in mind (yours, your descendants’, your people’s), and try to imagine the interests of the speaker or their boss. Be especially alert when someone tries to make you angry, hurt, or insulted. This is not accidental or for the personal pleasure of the likes of Kiselyov or Svanidze. If they’re doing this, it means they want to turn off your reason and focus your attention on their theatrics. Don’t fall for it—watch dispassionately and try to understand what they’re hiding behind this smokescreen.
Sensationalism and Urgency
This is a general-purpose technique that creates noise and the necessary level of nervousness, undermining psychological defenses. Sometimes, creating an artificial background of sensationalism serves a specific purpose, usually to distract attention. Usually, the sensation is trivial—an elephant gives birth in Thailand, weeping Britons bring flowers to Princess Diana’s grave, a bus in Portugal crashes, or a goat is caught.
Why report this in a breathless voice? Everyone should develop a sense of proportion—compare the importance of the message to our real problems. Politicians and informers who abuse these attributes should be mentally added to the list of professional manipulators and always treated with suspicion. “Oh, we just received this news! We’ll keep you updated!” But what did you actually report? Tomorrow, you’ll forget it yourself. We’re tormented with “black boxes” after every disaster, but when they’re finally found, there’s silence. Why talk about them at all?
Repetition
Repetition is the main tool of dishonest propaganda, which is why it’s a good sign of its presence. If suddenly the same topic or phrases are repeated daily, something is fishy. As M. E. Saltykov-Shchedrin warned: “Woe, I think, to the city where both the streets and the taverns endlessly howl that property is sacred! Surely, the greatest theft is about to happen there!”
Repetition works on the subconscious, which we poorly control. Therefore, try to notice when a certain clichĂ© is being repeated—this will trigger an internal alarm. “Ah! They’re singing the same tune again—be alert.”
For example, our enlightened reformers periodically lament the lack of a land market but never clearly explain why they need it. This is a clear attempt at suggestion, since there are no reasonable arguments, but a shadowy “social order” has been accepted, and the client’s money has probably already been received and spent.
Fragmentation
If a politician or the media truly wants to explain a problem to citizens and gain their conscious support, they will always present the problem as a whole, even if briefly. A problem is like an organism—it has a history (“parents”), it arises and develops, gains “family and descendants” (related or resulting problems). When it’s resolved (“dies”), a new cycle begins—the next generation’s life, the future. A manipulative politician presents only a small piece of the problem, and even that is broken into parts—so we can’t grasp the whole or make an informed choice. We’re supposed to trust them like a priest who holds all the knowledge.
Taking Things Out of Context
This is closely related to the previous point. By removing a problem from its real context and not mentioning important external factors, the manipulator forces our thinking into a narrow corridor that suits them. So, if you suspect a politician or propagandist is omitting the broader context, your inner voice should warn you—manipulation!
Totalitarian Solutions
Even more obvious and related to the previous sign is the totalitarian nature of the solution being pushed on the audience. “There is no alternative! You can’t change horses midstream! There’s no alternative to Yeltsin!” When you hear such statements, you can calmly mark them as “manipulation.”
The essence of life is that we walk a winding path, and at every step there’s a crossroads, a fork. We make choices, thinking them through each time. Often, this decision-making happens so quickly we don’t notice, but it happens. When the choice is difficult and interests conflict, alternatives should be clearly presented. When we’re told there’s no choice, that “there’s no alternative to Chubais’s reform,” that’s manipulation taken to the extreme. The problem is that too many have become accomplices, so public opinion is pressured by a large army of “secondary manipulators.”
Mixing Information and Opinion
This is such a crude manipulation technique that European laws even have restrictions against it. Someone who is ready to learn the facts can hardly defend themselves from the opinion being suggested along with those facts. You’re told that someone sprayed sarin gas in the Tokyo subway—and immediately given the opinion that it was cultists. The next day, it’s “the cultists who sprayed sarin gas…”
This technique is used constantly and with unprecedented boldness. Training your mind to automatically separate information from opinion in any message isn’t very hard. When the flow of opinion is too thick, your mind should signal: attention, manipulation!
Hiding Behind Authority
When authority and respect earned in a completely unrelated field are used to support a purely ideological or political claim, that’s a classic manipulation—crude and primitive. For example, does French actor Depardieu, with his big nose, have any authority for us in a presidential election? Of course not. When he comes to Moscow to campaign for Yeltsin, he’s exploiting our feelings and subconscious.
When A.D. Sakharov, who spent his life studying weak interactions in atomic nuclei in a closed institute, tries to convince us that the USSR should split into 35 states and Armenians should start a war for Karabakh, and reminds us he’s an academician, that’s a crude manipulation. His scientific knowledge and life experience give him no authority on state structure or the Armenian-Azerbaijani conflict. Using his scientific authority is a fraud.
Yes, Rostropovich plays the cello beautifully—few can match him. But when he picks up a rifle to “defend democracy” or fall victim to Soviet militarism, and, exhausted, falls asleep in a chair “without letting go of his weapon,” it’s a cheap performance meant to move us.