Understanding the 2024 U.S. Election Psyop

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” ― George Orwell, 1984

Photo by Matthew Fassnacht on Unsplash

On December 24, 2024,

Robert Reich

published an excellent article entitled “Do not move to the ‘center’, Democrats!” In response to this article, I wrote the following:

Democrats have been effective in governing time and time again. However, what the party leadership tends to miss is the psychological warfare techniques used by Republicans to manipulate their marks.

For example, consider the seemingly innocuous question: "Are you better off today than you were four years ago?" This question came about after months of programming people to feel vulnerable. Once they had baited their marks into feeling vulnerable, this question set the hook and the more the question was asked, the deeper the marks were committed to the lie.

Even "Make America Great Again" was the culmination of extensive psychological programming to make people believe America was better at some moment in the past. Sure, nobody in that camp can define when that might have been, but that's not the point. By first encouraging, then enticing, and finally manipulating a specifical emotional response, they fertilize their marks to take root with whatever seed is then planted. Making the marks believe that the problems are because of Democrats - despite history clearly showing that most of the ills of the US government are due to Republican actions and inactions - would have been a brilliant outcome to the operation were it not so damaging to the nation.

Democrats have a solid message and an even more solid track record, focusing on the good of the people. The achievements of the Biden administration have made more progress for the everyday American than any other in my lifetime. Can I list all of them? No, I cannot. The result is great, the message is solid, but they've done little to make the message 'stick' mentally.

Republicans have no actual platform and a terrible track record of governance, focusing instead on pandering to compromised interests to increasing campaign contributions while convincing poor people that the problems are because of "someone else." However, they come up with silly soundbites like "MAGA", "Stop the steal", "woke agenda", and "Are you better off today than you were four years ago?" to plant the seeds of doubt in soil specifically fertilized to make lies take root.

Republicans, however, should be terrified that Democrats may realize the side effects of their manipulation. Once a mind has been opened to suggestion, it can be programmed to any outcome, even one of honesty, decency, and integrity. It's a bit more difficult, but the first step is in recognizing what we're up against and to respond accordingly.

How is it that seemingly “normal” people can believe even a fraction of the lies and hyperbole coming from the Melon Felon, the Traitor Tot, Don the con? He is quite possibly the most unapologetic destroyer of truth that has come out of America. Now he wants to annex Canada, Greenland, Mexico, and the Panama canal? How exactly does this bring down the price of eggs?

The short answer is that it won’t. It can’t. But that’s not the goal. Instead, his goal is to fertilize the soil of an open mind to blindly accept the next suggestion that - I am certain - is far worse than this guano-crazy invasion idea.

Before we pull out the string to connect some dots on this wall of batshittery, let’s take a look at the history of Don the con. Mentored by Roy Cohn, an American lawyer who convinced the American people that the country was being overrun by communists, he served as chief counsel to Joseph McCarthy during the Second Red Scare trials to persecute Democrats in the mid 1950’s.

As a lawyer, Cohn was a master of a psychological warfare pseudo-science known as NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming). Using NLP, a person can influence the outcome of most any situation using only suggestion, repetition, and a bit of time.

Now fast forward to 2024. Republicans have a stranglehold on the mainstream media. ABC, NBC, CBS, Fox, Newsmax, OAN, and now even CNN and MSNBC are showing signs of being in the pocket of the Reich. What media does the progressive left have beyond podcasters and bloggers?

When Joe Farmer from somewhere in Wyoming comes off his field at the end of a long day and sits down in front of the TV to decompress, all of his choices of “entertainment” are most certainly Reich-leaning. He doesn’t know he’s being influenced, but he’s entertained watching the bright lights of the studio shining on folks like Sean Hannity and that shouty Ingraham lady. But make no mistake, just as he was out plowing his field to prepare for the seed for crops, they are plowing his brain to prepare it for the seeds of suggestion.

Witness the rise of Tucker Carlson. The guy who was famous for saying “I’m just asking the question” has been handsomely compensated for being the lynchpin in that operation. With him (effectively) off the air, this “asking questions” business has fallen to other hosts.

But what’s the big deal about asking questions? I’m glad you asked!

Here’s one angle of how NLP can be applied. It starts with innocuous, either true or wishfully false statements, like “It’s been reported that there’s a problem with the water in Flint” or “We’re getting word that there’s been extensive voter fraud in Ohio.” Now, has it really been reported, or are they making this shit up? We may never know. Mainstream media went crazy once it was discovered that Lachan Riley was killed by a foreigner who was in America illegally. All of a sudden, every outlet is reporting “illegal immigrants are killing Americans.” Pay no attention to the fact that the homicide rate of immigrants - legal or otherwise - is far below the murders of Americans by Americans. Or as the MAGA-faithful like to say, “don’t let the facts get in the way of your feelings.” Ironic.

As this continues, the hyperbole increases. “We’re getting reports of 100 million border crossings by illegals.” While the 100 million number might have some basis in fact, it is misleading without identifying a specific span of time. Sure, in the history of the border maybe 100 million people have crossed from Mexico into America. Were they all illegal? Not likely. Many of these may have been Americans returning home from a vacation.

The NLP practitioner uses this little grain of misleading truth to influence the listener to believe that the entire statement is true. Also note that the statement ends on the false assertion. By placing the false assertion after the misleadingly true portion of the statement, the listener believes the statement is factually true before the falsehood is included.

Once a truth is established in a person’s mind, the mind marks it as true and continues processing the remainder. For example, which of these ridiculous statements seems more true?

• “The water in Flint was contaminated by aliens from outer space”

• Aliens from outer space contaminated the water in Flint”

It’s generally accepted that there was a problem with the water in Flint. It’s also generally accepted that if there are space aliens, there’s no evidence of them dumping their waste in Flint. By putting the marginally true statement in front of factually false one, the first statement implies truth more than the second, especially to a passive attention.

Phase 2 ramps up the hyperbole. They do this with phrases like “Illegal immigrants are stealing your jobs!” This stage is intended to evoke a negative emotional response, usually fear, anger, or outrage. Is any of it true? Did any immigrants - legal or otherwise - steal your job today? As an employer, it would be entirely idiotic of me to fire someone that’s been on my staff for years to replace them with someone who may not have the same skills, just to save a buck or two. For this reason, I have zero confidence that this is anything other than emotional manipulation, the final stage of the operation, one we call:

SETTING THE HOOK

A good fisherman knows when the fish has committed to the bait, and with a gentle tug, sets the barb so that the fish can be reeled in. NLP practitioners do the exact same thing. Once the programming has made the target’s mind pliable to accept lies as truth and true as “fake news”, next comes the barb, commonly in the form of a seemingly innocuous question:

“Are you better off today than you were four years ago?”

Suddenly the outrage of the mark boils to the surface. “All these gawddam illegals taking my jobs, eating my dawgs, raising the price of groceries, killing our daughters, WE GOTTA STOP THIS.” Never mind that none of it is true. In the mind of the mark, this is DOCUMENTED TRUTH because they came to that conclusion ON THEIR OWN, which really wasn’t their own because they were programmed over time to produce that very result.

This is just one example. The same thing is happening on numerous other fronts like abortion rights, healthcare, even democracy itself. The marks have been led to believe that Don the con is going to make groceries more affordable, whereas his attention seems to be world domination. (It’s not, read on.) They tout that there were no wars under the 45 administration and no Americans were killed on the field of battle under 45’s watch, but conveniently forget about Syria and Afghanistan. And what about the mysterious capture and execution of American agents serving abroad under 45? Instead, they blame Joe Biden for being President during the execution of 45’s agreement for the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan.

Regarding Don’s grand scheme of world domination, I believe this is a distraction. He’s using this distraction of “bad” to more ply minds to readily accept the “tragically bad” imprisonment, deportation, torture, and killing of American citizens who don’t bend the knee to the Melon Felon and his evil band of “celebrity” misfits. As with anything a Cohn proxy does, everything is a long game of Three-Card Monty where the lady is always in his pocket and the mark always loses. The only difference is that with Don the Con, you can bet he’s already raped the lady.

If you’re read this far, thank you. I’ll be along shortly with more information about what we can do about it, because if I’ve done this right, that should be exactly the question in your mind right now.