#manipulation

Welcome to the human race. Nobody controls his own life, Ender. The best you can do is choose to fill the roles given you by good people, by people who love you. ↗

— Orson Scott Card

#humanity #manipulation #life

Jesus, you'd think the Black Death was sweeping the globe every three months or so...ebola, SARS, avian flu. You know how many people made money on those scares? Shit, I made my first million on useless antiradiation pills during dirty bomb scares. ↗

— Max Brooks

#manipulation #pharmaceutical-industry #scares #death

The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. ↗

— Edward Bernays

#democratic #democratic society #element #habits #important

China's idea of fair trade is government subsidies of its textile and apparel exports to the United States, currency manipulation, and forgiveness of loans by its government banks. ↗

— Virginia Foxx

#banks #china #currency #exports #fair

The words “I love you” could contain all the bloodthirsty despair of the abattoir, all the hopelessness of the most isolated, frozen gulag, all the lurid sadness of death row. ↗

— Pat Conroy

#manipulation #death

Manipulation can give you anything in life you want, if you can afford it. ↗

— M.F. Moonzajer

#life

They’re called sock puppets. We create armies of artificial online personas – user accounts that espouse views certain interested parties want espoused. We flood forums, online comment sections, social media. ... It’s amazing what a few people and a little money can accomplish online. Our puppets have turned whole elections. … Everything the public sees is managed. If there’s a valuable brand to protect – whether it’s a person or a dish soap – these fuckers are out there protecting it, shaping the narrative. I mean… who the hell follows dish soap on Twitter? How does anyone believe that shit’s real? (p. 292-294) ↗

— Daniel Suarez

#artificial #computer #election #internet #manipulation

The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. ...We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized. Vast numbers of human beings must cooperate in this manner if they are to live together as a smoothly functioning society. ...In almost every act of our daily lives, whether in the sphere of politics or business, in our social conduct or our ethical thinking, we are dominated by the relatively small number of persons...who understand the mental processes and social patterns of the masses. It is they who pull the wires which control the public mind. ↗

— Edward L. Bernays

#manipulation #mind-control #psychology #business

Like an apparently strict musical form it breaks the five minute whole into its structural parts - a descriptive preamble, the action of taking the cards, the development of the cards' manipulation and the revelation of what has been achieved. ↗

— Gavin Bryars

#action #apparently #been #breaks #cards

Half of the people lie with their lips; the other half with their tears ↗

— Nassim Nicholas Taleb

#liars #manipulation #men-and-women #narcissism #narcissists