As scary as those with the means and motivation to dominate the world are, there’s something immensely more powerful. The people. No matter how powerful you, or even your entire crew are, you still can’t quite stand up to the rest of the world alone. This was my primary motivation to write Tools of the Technocracy, the out-in-the-open desire to power up the tools of mass subjugation is a terrifying prospect. Fear, isolation, propaganda, and violence are all means which the powerful use to keep people in line. What’s less familiar to people is how bribery, flattery, and seduction can be used.
In my opinion, the greatest strategic mistake made by who (or what) rules the earth, is that they unloaded absolutely every dirty trick at once. I wrote the Tools of the Technocracy to take my part in documenting how technological weapons can, and could be used to dominate and control others. Not only is it incomplete, but even if it was, it would only be a very small fraction of the entire picture. I can definitely admit to being shockingly naive to mass mind control when I began writing it. At the time, I believed that the brainwashing was essentially 60% economic, and 40% mass media.
Despite being aware of even some of the examples listed below, it was only once I understood the magic trick did I begin to better conceptualize how highly motivated activists can be assimilated into the very same thing they want to fight. This really isn’t unique to any particular idea or movement. Every sufficient power structure is going to develop defenses against becoming overthrown.
One of the stronger adaptations a dominance hierarchy can have is flexibility. A rigid system is too vulnerable to being outright overthrown by radicals. Instead of single-handedly orchestrating your machinations, it can be quite effective to open bid those actions to those you will reward handsomely. This is an excellent tactic to prevent defectors, because those interested in their own self-advancement will align themselves to your goals. Suddenly your vast conspiracy to dominate others is working as a decentralized network with plausible deniability, with the added bonus of components being entirely replaceable.
There are two components to this:
- Allowing for particular changes, but nothing that undermines your power.
- Making your opposition complicit in maintaining it.
Instead of taking your opposition head on, redirecting their focus, energy and resources on means in your favor or even under your control saves you a phenomenal amount of work. This means that you don’t need to be convinced to stop fighting, you can self-destructively stew in anger and rage at the machine while it feeds on your essence. Anger is an important part of the human experience. Denouncing anger as a problem is its own problem, but it’s important that your anger is properly focused and channeled. Whatever you’re fighting for, it’s important to keep in mind why, and how you intend to achieve your goals.
False Saviors
A clear-cut example of how this is achieved is a false savior. A figure is thrust into the spotlight as the answer to major problems. By dressing the figure up with your ideals, goals, and dreams you replace an ordinary human being on an altar of your own hubris. False saviors can be the work of powerful interests choosing to lead the opposition themselves or made as leaders get corrupted by fame, attention, or other compromising factors.
False saviors are erected by placing the complicated task of solving vastly complicated problems on the shoulders of a single person. No matter how powerful a single person is, they are still mortal and have the same weaknesses as many of us. In addition to this, the more power you put in someone’s hands, the more it inevitably corrupts them. This is because power has strings attached, no system exists in a vacuum and there will always be constraints on how powers can be used. Just as human beings can and will be corrupted, entire organizations are arguably more vulnerable to all the same factors.
The Affinity Scam
If one wanted to financially liquidate their opponents, lawfare may be one option, but there’s a far more effective means of separating your enemies from their wealth: Affinity fraud. By dressing up your financial enterprise with sleek branding that gives your opponents the impression it’s run by those who are just like them with the same values and goals. It is naive to assume that frauds targeted at activists are merely interested in money, instead of other goals like sabotage and infiltration. With money taken from your opponents, you can then use it to buy influence over them.
Philanthropaths
There is a particular brand of “philanthropist” that dresses themselves up in the greater good, but who’s methods don’t pass even the most basic scrutiny. They may claim to use their vast wealth to solve important problems, yet are actually engaging in very profitable impact investing by seizing control over the problem and enabling it.
A philanthropath wants you dead … for the good of humanity.
A philanthropath wants you enslaved … for the good of liberty.
A philanthropath wants you silenced … for the good of free speech.
A philanthropath wants you confined … for the good of your health.
A philanthropath wants to surveil you … for the good of security.
A philanthropath wants you to eat orthopterans … for the good of the planet.
Philanthropaths will generally focus on the most widely appealing causes, who opposes solving poverty, hunger, and disease? Those who don’t have the desire or the time to evaluate or properly investigate the actual issues will very often fall victim to this kind of scheme. This kind of impact investing often builds power structures that get in the way of meaningful local solutions to these serious problems.
Grifting
Are universal ideals too mainstream for you? How about something more specific? You’re completely different from the brainwashed masses, instead you see things how they actually are and are willing to pile up lots of money on top of your active social media engagement. “Grifting” is the art of liquidating a highly motivated niche. It’s just business after all.
So-called "Liberty Safes" actually had a backdoor into all their products. Source
Individuals, organizations, and even charities can run into the terminal stage where their existence is dependent on the problem they set out to ameliorate. Over time, insidious but disastrous conflicts of interest can pile up in very unintuitive ways. This is actually termed quite well by progressives, for environmental concerns it’s called greenwashing and in the tech space there’s privacy washing.
“The behavior of any bureaucratic organization can best be understood by assuming that it is controlled by a secret cabal of its enemies.”
Robert Conquest
Robert may be on to something that’s more than just a mere assumption.
Outright Robbery
By tapping into outrage, panic, and urgency, nefarious agents can short-circuit their victims better sense-making. The well-informed expert may be sponsored by outright scams while they deliver you hard-hitting critical information. We all need to make a living, but some blame can be put on those who take sponsorships without any due-dilligence. The more profitable a scam is, the more eyeballs it can purchase through buying more advertizing, if the only goal is to simply liquidate opposition of money this alone is sufficient to create a powerful feedback loop.
Resistance for Sale!
I would argue, that activist communities themselves have been commodified and resold online. We all feel a natural need to connect with others and work together. This is a very important facet of the game, but when money and dunbar hacking is involved, it can raise some serious red flags. Once you’ve got a captive audience, it’s very easy to then divert them with all the normal manipulative tactics to divert their attention and resources. Small insular communities are vulnerable to being transformed into a cult even when they don’t begin as one.
Understanding the difference
This wouldn’t be the Libre Solutions Network if I didn’t have any thoughts on how to proactively tackle this problem. Affinity scams are entirely about exploiting vulnerable, isolated, and scared people who are concerned about very real issues. It may be quite difficult to understand their concerns. Odds are if you have no idea why someone is wrapped up in a bizarre cult, it’s because you’re not sufficiently aware of their concerns.
Become a Human Again
The best way to rob would-be scammers of targets is to be a trusted judgement-free friend to someone. That way they can be potentially much more likely to consult you with something that’s raised red flags. Everyone needs a trusted circle of people who genuinely care about them, and tragically for some it can’t even be their own family. There will always be desperate lonely people, who may even be over-represented in activist groups because their work may be their own way to ask for help.
Learning from Others
Building on the last point, consider that those with different values and beliefs than you, even opposing ones, can be correct about issues you care about. By escaping your echo chamber you can learn from those who have a radically different perspective that gives you meaningful opportunities to grow. This requires you to humanize them as well as yourself to them. Be a great ambassador for your beliefs by being genuinely willing to listen to others, even when it’s exceedingly difficult.
Results Matter
Self-awareness is critical. Work to understand your principal concern well enough to at least explain how a particular initiative or cause will meaningfully solve the problem, ideally without causing harm. At the very least, try to evaluate products and services on their genuine merits, rather than who is endorsing them.
Walking the Walk
For any particular concern, there are at least a couple of actions a figure or community can take that demonstrate they understand the problem and are willing to spend meaningful effort to correct it. Choices matter and compromises add up like tetris blocks. Practical compromises may seem like a winning trade in the moment, only to turn out to be a deal with the devil over time.
All Money is Blood Money
Become incredibly skeptical of money, especially large sums of money. Wealth may not have to be a zero-sum game, but in many circumstances it certainly acts as one, or even negative-sum. Everyone needs currency to provide for their essentials, or to build the life they want, but understand that everything has a cost. It’s possible that the true cost of money is on your soul, rather than it’s pure monetary value. Remember, you can’t take it with you.
Imagine a giant picket line. The strike is over the future of humanity. People can either cross the picket line to work for those who want to enslave (and eventually destroy) humanity, being showered with fleeting opportunities and resources… or to stand up for oneself and find new ways to build elsewhere. The tragically sad truth is that there is a near limitless supply of desperate scabs who would happily (even knowingly) trade all of our futures for some present sustenance or comfort. You may be angry at these people, even willing to attack them, but they are not the root cause. Much of the harm that has already been done has created much tragedy and many victims.
