Imagine a powerful dictator…
The media praises him like a living God, an entire population is working to please his every whim, and anyone who dares to question his authority ends up in prison or on the ground.
No doubt that he has convinced himself that he’s invincible.
But then, things start falling apart.
Years of systemic oppression have led to people being destitute and desperate. They have nothing left to lose, so they rise, and before he knows it, his little kingdom crumbles.
All because he ignored a core lesson of history:
If you rule by sheer force and fear, people will obey, but only for as long as they’re afraid. Once the fear fades away, they’ll take their sweet, sweet revenge.
The powerful few, at least the smart ones, don’t rely on brute force to keep people in line.
They’ve learned that Dostoevsky was right:
The best way to keep a prisoner from escaping is to make sure he never knows he’s in prison.
So they engage in subtle psychological warfare. They shape the environment in such a way that people don’t realize they’re being manipulated. People believe they’re making their own choices, but most of the time, they’re not.
4 Major Structures
The powerful few have spread their influence in these major societal structures, and that’s how they shape your environment through covert propaganda and psychological control.
First, we have Ideology. They’ll intervene in the educational system and the popular culture to push their beliefs and values. Once people embrace a certain ideology, they’ll defend it even if it goes against their best interests.
Second, we have Systemic Authority. The government, courts, law enforcement, and schools ensure that people are civil. And that’s vital, of course. But these institutions often provide unfair advantages and unequal treatment that favor the powerful few.
Next, we have Economic Monopolies. Every precious resource, from water to personal data, is hoarded by a small group of corporations. This makes survival very expensive, so we have to accept low wages and poor working conditions.
Finally, we have Information Control. By dominating algorithms and media networks, they control the narrative. They use information warfare, media manipulation, and psychological operations to limit what we see and hear and eventually what we believe.
Now, I don’t think that there’s a secret society controlling the world because these individuals have massive egos; they’d never accept being part of a hierarchy where they’re not on top.
So on each quadrant, you have titans fighting for total control.
As a result of this war, they create an immensely exploitative environment for the rest of us.
Another thing to understand is that manipulating people on a massive scale is not easy. It requires a different skill set that the powerful few do not have.
So they hire some experts in psychological warfare strategy.
I like to call these people:
The Gifted Machiavellians
These people are the Don Drapers and Nick Naylors of the world. They couldn’t care less about the morals. You know, for the right price, they can come up with innovative ways to sell you anything… worthless products, toxic products, wars, politicians, ideologies… You name it. They can plant ideas in your mind and make you think it was your own.
They are masters of persuasive influence, manipulative storytelling, and propaganda techniques designed to bypass your logic and hit you where it hurts… your identity.
I know it seems overwhelming to figure out what’s true in a world filled with illusions. But trust me, it doesn’t have to be.
Because once you understand the core principles of psychological warfare and propaganda, you’ll be able to see through all of their bullshit and outsmart them.
In other words, you’ll be able to escape this invisible prison.
So, let’s start with the first principle:
#1 Weaponizing the Stories
Imagine you’re a PR strategist and your job is to sell a political agenda.
You don’t sit people down, lay out the facts, and give them the choice to decide for themselves. That’s a rational approach, and you’re not in the business of rationality.
No. Your job is to craft a gripping story. A story that has a hero to root for, a villain to despise, and a cause so righteous that even questioning it feels like treason.
That’s why political leaders obsess over branding their opponents as existential threats. The goal is not to debate ideas. It’s to make sure that your rivals are seen as a direct danger to the country, freedom, democracy, or whatever sacred value fits the moment.
Because look, you don’t argue with evil, you eliminate it. And once you’ve convinced your followers that your opponents are evil, they’ll scorch the earth for you.
So by crafting a simple, black-and-white narrative, you’ll be able to radicalize your followers. This is one of the oldest propaganda tactics in the book.
But there’s still a problem: What do you do about those pesky people who dare to disagree?
#2 Weaponizing Language
Anyone who doubts your narrative must be discredited or silenced.
You start by undermining their credibility with labels like Fake news, Misinformation, Disinformation, Hate Speech, Conspiracy Theory.
Then you escalate. They’re not just some fucking idiots. They’re a direct threat.
Now, of course, some of your opponents have actually extreme views and they’re a threat, but still, your goal is not to debate. Your goal is to Attack! Attack! Attack!
You use words like: Radical Left, Extreme Right, Woke Mob, Cancel Culture Warriors, Terror Sympathizers, Soft on Crime.
Now to tighten your grip even further, you inject fear.
You flood the conversation with apocalyptic language:
Deep State, Invasion, Mass Unrest, National Emergency, Epidemic, Imminent Disaster, Unprecedented Crisis, Point of No Return, Society on the Brink, Catastrophic Failure, Collapse of Civilization.
This is classic fear-based psychological warfare.
You use these thought-stopping, fear-inducing phrases because you know that the more terrified people are, the more they cling to your authority.
However, you can also weaponize language to defend your client.
Anytime a corporation or a government is involved in a scandal, its goal is not to expose the flaws in the system and prevent future mistakes. No. That would be a rational approach. We cannot have that.
Instead, you use vague language to soften the backlash or shift the blame somewhere else.
The psychology of doublespeak
Doublespeak is when you don’t deny the mistake outright. But you reframe it so the public sees it as necessary or too complex to question.
Let me give you some examples:
Wells Fargo was caught creating over 2 million unauthorized customer accounts. Now, instead of admitting to systemic fraud, they called it the result of “a few bad apples” and claimed employees had “no incentive to commit unethical behavior.”
In 2021, a US Drone strike killed 10 civilians in Kabul, including 7 children.
Initially, they called it a “righteous strike” that eliminated an ISIS-K member.
However, days later they admitted that no terrorists were involved.
The final report concluded that “military surveillance may have misinterpreted information” and “multiple issues, including confirmation bias and communication breakdowns, led to the mistaken drone strike.”
To no one’s surprise, the Ops that killed 10 innocent people were not brought to justice.
In 2022, Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but he didn’t call it a war. He called it a “special military operation” to “denazify” the country.
Hopefully, he will end up like Saddam Hussein, and Russians will finally de-Stalinize.
Speaking of communists, the Chinese government has sent close to 2 million Uyghurs and other Muslims to internment camps. They’re calling them “vocational education and training centers.”
Recently, a massive scandal resurfaced in the UK. For nearly three decades, groups of mostly Pakistani men, have been systematically r*ping and torturing young girls and sometimes boys all over the country.
They would pick their victims in poor areas because evidently, the authorities don’t really care.
And now the media is calling these monsters “Grooming Gangs”.
I don’t have any sources on why they coined this term, but I find it suspiciously soft. I believe that since the police, the media, and the politicians failed to protect these children, they’re using the term to soften the backlash.
So pay close attention to the repeated buzzwords in mainstream media. That’s likely psychological manipulation and modern propaganda in action. Question them. Because there’s a PR team crafting a narrative, and they’re betting you won’t notice.
Let’s continue with our own narrative that you’re a PR advisor for powerful people.
So far, you’ve radicalized your supporters and demonized your opponents.
But your work is not done. You make use of the third principle:
#3 Recruiting the Undeciders
These are the people who haven’t picked a side yet. Maybe they sense something is off, or maybe they don’t care enough about the subject to get involved.
And that’s a problem. Because if you don’t pull them into your camp, they might start poking holes in your narrative, or worse, they might side with your opponents.
So, how do you win them over?
You start by manipulating what they see online.
Look, most people do not carefully analyze both sides of an argument.
Instead, they consume whatever content pops up from authority figures on YouTube, social media, or forums.
Then they do something even more predictable. They scroll through the comments to see what other people are thinking.
That’s your window.
If the general sentiment is overwhelmingly against your narrative, you intervene by flooding the comment section with bots.
These digital foot soldiers wage online psychological warfare. They will drop pre-approved talking points, upvote each other, and boost those real users who agree with your narrative.
But keep in mind that right now, your goal is not to convince anyone.
You want to inject enough noise to drown all the opposing views.
So what ends up happening is that the Undeciders get annoyed and confused by all this mess, OR they feel too intimidated to go against the crowd. Either way, it’s a win for you. Because as long as they stay on the sidelines, they’re not a threat.
Then you move on to the next step. You launch marketing campaigns to seduce the Undeciders to your way of thinking. Little by little, you shift their perception until they see the world through your lens.
So far, we’ve talked about how to demonize your opponent.
But what if you have no enemy and you still need to rile up your supporters… either to push an agenda or justify an extreme measure?
#4 Manufacturing an Enemy
One of the most iconic examples of this strategy is Guatemala in 1954.
A man named Jacobo Árbenz is elected president.
And he has a crazy idea.
What if he buys up unused land from a major corporation… and redistributes it to poor farmers so they can lift themselves out of poverty.
Sounds fair, right?
Wrong.
The biggest landowner in Guatemala is United Fruit Company, and they have zero intention of giving up their monopoly.
So, instead of negotiating, they hire Edward Bernays.
Edward Bernays, being the evil genius that he is, runs a full-blown propaganda campaign that reframes a local land dispute into a Cold War crisis.
He feeds false stories to major newspapers and coordinates messaging with key US officials to push the idea that Árbenz is a puppet of the Soviet Union.
The American public, already terrified of communism, buys into the hysteria. And just like that, a democratically elected leader fighting corporate greed is rebranded as a US security threat.
Unfortunately, the CIA succeeds in overthrowing him, and Guatemala plunges into decades of dictatorship, civil war, and mass suffering… a crisis it has never fully recovered from.
The strategy of manufacturing an enemy has been proven to be effective over and over because when people panic, they don’t stop to question whether the threat is real. They just want it gone.
Most importantly, a terrified public is an obedient citizen and a compulsive consumer. That’s why every problem is inflated into a world-ending threat.
In other words, Panic = Power.
How to Defend Yourself Against Psychological Warfare
Propaganda is not about blunt manipulation. It doesn’t yell or demand. It is designed to make you believe you came to a conclusion all on your own.
Edward Bernays called this the engineering of consent. The idea is that you can influence the public through emotion, repetition, and manufactured authority.
How can you fight back and protect your mind from being killed? Or how do you prevent becoming a useful idiot for someone else’s agenda?
The first move is to educate yourself. You need to recognize that everything around you… every headline, Ad, slogan, talking point… is designed to frame how you perceive the world.
So pay attention to what words or messages are emphasized, and what is left out in a subtle way.
It’s similar to how Italian prosecutors used to do when investigating mafia… Follow the money. Well, who benefits from framing an issue in a certain way? That’s usually who paid for it or stands to gain the most.
Next, you need to pay attention to your emotional reactions. Look, propaganda thrives on urgency and emotional intensity.
When you’re very excited or outraged, then your logical brain takes a backseat. And you’re very prone to accept whatever subtle message they’re transmitting.
So if something instantly triggers you, pause and ask, “Why am I feeling so strongly about this issue? And who benefits from my reaction?”
Finally, make a habit of thinking critically or clearly.
Whenever we are faced with an issue that means a lot to us, the instinctual reaction is to pick a side and fight. Well, instead of consuming content that appeals to your biases, you need to study the other side.
But don’t listen to people who spread divisive views. You can easily spot them because they look at the world as black and white.
Find those people with a more moderate view. For example, if you’re on the left, don’t consume content from the far right but from center right. It’s the same thing with any kind of ideology.
What’s better is to figure out unbiased sources that can help you form a full picture. In other words, learn to study for yourself without relying on other people.
And just because you’ve trusted someone for a long time, doesn’t mean they deserve your trust today.
The reason is that the individual might not be able to maintain their wisdom. This can be more difficult when they gain a lot of fame and power.
You see, a popular, wise person might slowly get radicalized and after some time, might be a different person.
So don’t give trust lightly. They have to keep earning your trust.
Once you start actually questioning the primary narratives and paying attention, the propaganda fog starts to lift.
You move from being a pawn on someone’s chessboard to taking back full control over your mind.
Everyday Propaganda You Likely Overlook
One of the biggest lies we tell ourselves is, “I’m too smart to fall for manipulation.”
The thing is that propaganda is not like it used to be… Full of colorful posters and cheesy TV Ads.
Those gifted Machiavellians have become smarter. They include their messages in Ads, memes, carefully worded headlines, “balanced” news articles or TV programs, classroom lessons, and trending topics.
So every day your mind is assaulted with this constant barrage of messages and it can slowly change your values and how you look at yourself or the world.
Here are some examples:
Advertising do not sell products but identities. It tells you who you are if you drive this car, wear this brand, or eat this type of food.
In media and education, debates are often an illusion. Some views are framed as healthy while opposing ideas are painted as dangerous or hateful.
Even silence can be strategic. Whenever a corporation or politician is involved in a scandal, they frame it as “not a big deal” or “it could be worse”. Or they create more drama and then the primary scandal is buried under the noise.
Entertainment also plays a major role. Many people view entertainment as harmless. But that’s one of the most effective ways to sell an ideology.
They use archetypes, humor, scripted conflicts, and emotional payoffs that subtly shape your perception.
Over time, these portrayals sink deep into public consciousness. They become cultural reflexes.
For example, if you’re from the Middle East and you live in a Western country, you may have noticed how quickly people form impressions.
Sometimes, you’re instantly perceived as less likable, less trustworthy… NOT because of anything you said or did, but because you fit into that stereotype.
There’s an interesting story Hugh Laurie shared in an interview.
He was in a cab in LA, and the driver asked him about finding an acting agency where he could work as a lookalike.
Hugh says, “Who do you think you look alike?”
And he responds, “Well, you see, I’m Middle Eastern, therefore I could get work playing a terrorist on films or tv shows.”
He wasn’t joking. He was being pragmatic. “If people already see me this way,” he figured, “why not make a buck out of it?”
Finally, there’s the illusion of choice. We think we are choosing freely because we have so many options. But they’re often variations of the same script. And often, when a better option (product, politician, worldview) becomes available, the current system will do whatever it takes to choke it.
FAQ About Psychological Warfare and Propaganda
What is psychological warfare?
It’s when you deliberately use tools to manipulated how people think and behave. The keyword is “Manipulate”. Because the intention is clearly to influence people to do something against their interest.
How are algorithms used in modern propaganda?
Algorithms have become an immensely powerful tool to shape people’s worldviews. Because they isolate you just like cult leaders would in an island. You have noticed how within the same family you might have people who feel very strongly about certain issues.
For example, the father might be a die-hard conservative while his son might be a die-hard liberal. Now, they’re the same blood but they’re likely to engage in strong debates.
Why do smart people fall for propaganda?
Intelligence cannot protect you against emotional manipulation. In fact, it can be an impediment. You see, the more intelligent you are, the easier it is to rationalize stupid beliefs.
How can I tell if a narrative is being manipulated?
The easiest way is to look for the extremes. It’s when the situation is presented in a black and white manner. Some people are labeled as traitors or extremists while others as protectors. At the same, there’s a tremendous sense of urgency to do something about it.
So you don’t have time to carefully analyze the issue, you need to trust them that the narrative is true and you need to support them.
