In 2002, the French writer Sylvain Timsit published a decalogue of the strategies that are most frequently used by the media and political elites. to manipulate the masses
It is a list that has been attributed due to a press error to Noam Chomsky, a philosopher, linguist and politician who has also described how through entertainment and mass media They achieve the reproduction of certain relations of domination.
Timsit’s list has become very popular because it specifically describes ten situations in which surely all of us could identify. Below we will describe Sylvain Timsit’s strategies for manipulating public opinion and society
1. Encourage distraction
Distraction is a cognitive process that consists of paying attention to some stimuli and not others in an involuntary way and for different reasons, among which is the interest that these stimuli generate in us and the intensity or attractiveness of these
It is a process that can easily be used as a strategy to divert attention from political or economic conflicts. It is generally done by encouraging information overload, or when said information contains a strong emotional charge
For example, when the news programs dedicate entire days to reporting tragic events and minimize the moments intended to report problematic political events. This type of distraction fosters a disinterest in acquiring in-depth knowledge and discussing the long-term implications of political decisions.
The author explains this method through the formula: problem-reaction-solution, and explains that a situation can be explained with every intention of causing a specific reaction to a specific audience so that this public demands measures and decision-making that solve the situation.
For example, when political powers remain indifferent to the increase in violence in a city, and then deploy police laws that affect freedom and not only reduce violence. The same when an economic crisis is defined as a necessary evil that can only be counteracted by cuts to public services.
3. Appeal to gradualness
It refers to applying changes that are important gradually, so that public and political reactions are equally gradual and easier to contain.
Sylvain Timsit gives neoliberal socioeconomic policies as an example that began in the 80s, and that have gradually had repercussions without their negative consequences being able to open the way to a truly massive revolution.
4. Defer and leave for tomorrow
Many of the measures taken by governments are not popular among the population, so one of the most used and effective strategies is make people think that this measure is painful but necessary and that it is necessary to agree on it in the present although its effects will be perceived years later.
In this way we get used to the process of change and even its negative consequences, and since it is not an issue that affects us immediately, we can more easily associate ourselves with possible risks.
As an example, Sylvain Timsit mentions the passage to the euro that was proposed in 1994-1995, but was applied until 2001, or the international agreements that the US imposed since 2001 in Latin America, but that would be in force until 2005.
Another of the strategies that are used very frequently is to position the public as a group of people who are naive or incapable of taking responsibility for themselves or to make critical and responsible decisions.
By positioning viewers in this way, the media and political powers make it easier for the public to effectively identify with that position and end up accepting the imposed measures and even supporting them with conviction.
5. Appeal more to emotions than to reflection
It refers to sending messages that directly impact the emotional and sensitive register of the public, so that through fear, compassion, hope, illusion, among other emotions or sensations, it is easier to implement ideals of success, or norms. of behavior and of what interpersonal relationships should be like
6. Recognize the other as ignorant and mediocre
This strategy is reflected, for example, in the significant differences between the quality of education and the resources allocated to it according to the socioeconomic and political class at which it is directed.
This means that the use of technologies is reserved for a few, which in turn makes large-scale social organization difficult. In addition, makes some populations recognize themselves as simply victims without possibilities of being active.
7. Promote complacency in mediocrity
It is about reinforcing the feeling of success and satisfaction with the situation we find ourselves in, even if it is a precarious or unfair situation which means that we do not develop critical thinking about that situation or even justify it.
At the other extreme is making us think that the situation we are in is our fault, that is, making the individual believe that he is responsible for his own misfortune (thinking that he is not very intelligent or that he makes little effort; instead of recognizing that there is a social system that tends towards injustice).
So organization and the exercise of resistance or revolt are avoided ; and people tend to self-evaluate and blame ourselves, which in turn generates passivity and favors the appearance of other complications such as depressive or anxious states.
10. Know people better than they know themselves
Timsit proposes that the advances that science has made in the understanding of human beings, both in the areas of psychology, biology or neuroscience, have achieved greater knowledge about our functioning; However, they have not generated a process of self-knowledge at the individual level, with which the elites continue as the possessors of the wisdom and control of others.
