By Faith Kuzma
Psychological programming isn’t just accomplished by the legacy media’s obsessive focus on terrifying images (e.g. people collapsing in China), nonstop bandwagon rhetoric (“safe and effective,” “do the right thing”) and official threats of coercion (e.g. loss of job and inability to support family). Under the radar of conscious awareness, a set of strategies collectively called mass formation (mind control) has been strategically deployed. Openly acknowledged by UK scientists working as advisors to the government, stealth techniques were utilized to gain compliance. According to one of these scientists, “You could call psychology ‘mind control’. That’s what we do.” The Canadian military also admitted implementing psychological operations against their own populace.
The active shaping of decisions regarding masking, essentially trauma-based mind control formed an early linchpin in the bigger operation to lead us quietly into a reset.
And they’re still at it. A recently dropped study aims to game perception of masked faces as more attractive than unmasked faces.
The photo chosen for the masking- is- sexy operation by the Daily Mail in their reporting on the mask study focuses viewers’ attention on the emotion evident in the eyes. The visual framing of the study invites a sympathetic response in a reader, as the model has been described as conveying sadness.
Of note is what emotions are still recognizable while masking. According to London psychologist Dr. Raj Persaud, a mask impedes the normal process by narrowing our perception: “spotting sadness and fear relies on focusing on the eyes, whereas disgust and happiness are more reliably detected by concentrating on the mouth area.”
Ignoring the 150 plus studies disproving mask effectiveness, https://brownstone.org/articles/more-than-150-comparative-studies-and-articles-on-mask-ineffectiveness-and-harms/
the media’s seized the study for a propaganda Blitzkrieg , as the COVID Blog reports: “Mainstream media had a field day with the study. SkyNews wrote that men who previously rejected wearing masks may change their minds after this study. The Guardian wrote that people being more attractive in masks is the one positive to come out of the so-called pandemic. No mainstream media outlet mentioned that the study involved only 43 college-aged women.”
On the basis of this one small study, then, The Daily Mail declares a seismic shift in the laws of attraction. Male readers might well conclude their sexual attractiveness is conditional on masking.
This same message is communicated in a popular meme which shows a woman physically repelled by an unmasked man. The meme exposes sneaking intrusion of social cues creating a new norm for attractiveness:
https://www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/publications/mindspace
The social dynamics illustrated by this meme epitomize how the formation process taps into basic needs and instincts. In particular, it shows “nudge theory” or the pinging of subconscious emotive and intuitive behavioral patterns, to influence decision-making. Deceitfully, nudges set up human heuristics– or mental shortcuts– to influence behavior.
It turns out there are countless unconventional tactics and covert strategies aimed at tricking people into compliance, and taking into account the negative outcomes of such compliance as well as comments by the strategists employing them, the goals are highly suspect. And in fact, this is a new era of information warfare. Recognizing the manipulation of subconscious forces as a form of unrestricted military attack, David Gosselin writes: “In trance warfare, social engineers are afforded the ability to directly trigger and steer the various automatic processes found in trance states without people’s conscious knowledge or consent. These techniques involve using NLP “framing” techniques, targeting natural “defaults” in the human decision-making process, using “cues,” “priming,” leveraging authority and the many “shortcuts” taken by the mind when faced with various choices.
P.G. Hansen, a. behavioral scientist, defines nudging as the systematic development and implementation of behavior changes by intervening in the context of the “choice architecture” surrounding the behavior, resulting in “careful steering or grooming of the target’s internalized thought processes along a preferred path.”
The cognitive shortcut involved here is easy to identify: one cue is the sexy young woman’s expression. Her face registers scorn, as much to say she doesn’t find the unmasked man attractive. The arm around her waist protectively anchors her in the context of the man beside her, and he is mask- compliant. The nonverbal messaging is unmasked men are not sexy. Interestingly, this message is effective despite the woman also being free- faced. Practically speaking, from a mask marketing perspective, a mask would prevent viewers from discerning her grimace of disapproval. Such steering of the sex instinct in limited pictorial delineation would make Edward Bernay proud. The meme uses the advertiser’s strategy of “images that would now think for you.” (Slate March 2017). If the viewer incorporates the information into their own conceptual map, a change is affected in their potential response or choice in various situations
Nudging mask wearing involves a broader toolkit than evoking the fear of rejection by young women such as tapping into specific needs and concerns within a person’s conceptual map. Interestingly, people with social anxiety appear to feel more secure being masked. On a Reddit support page, they describe enjoying the comfort of feeling more secure, anonymous and protected in a mask.
However, this is not universally true, especially as mask exhaustion sets in and people begin to feel stressed out by one- dimensional mask personas. In an article significantly called “Masks Are Another Way To Control Society Through Isolation,” Stella Morabito observes masks impede our ability to interpret expressions, resulting in “a Borg-like facelessness that isolates and atomizes every one of us.” More than physical separation, masking severs our connecting to others, as Morabito details, by disrupting communal ways of “knowing truth, seeing beauty, loving others, and being joyful. Those things all require a willingness to go bareface, to reveal who we are in order to speak honestly and invite others to do the same.”
Interesting too that Morabito ties mask isolation to mechanisms of control, since that is named as the linchpin of Biderman’s Chart of Coercion. Moreover, isolation is recognized by Amnesty International as one of the “universal tools of torture and coercion” because it disables the support needed to resist.
Leave it to the UK Nudge Unit (nickname for their cutting edge Behavioral Insight Team) to target those most vulnerable to nudging, including those experiencing distress as a direct result of masking. Mind, a volunteer- based UK charity, operates a website extending help to anyone experiencing distress as well as an entire taxonomy of mental health issues. Surprising is the lack of credentialed psychologists on the site, and the approach is based on peer support, and looking at the sophisticated level of NLP (neurolinguistic programming) evident on the mask help pages, it’s a good bet neither psychologists nor volunteers created the NLP content.
Noteworthy in this light is the public face of health issues Mind became during COVID. Contributing to Public Health England’s messaging in 2021, Mind “continued to identify the biggest challenges people were facing – from mask anxiety to concerns about lockdown easing – and created new resources in response. …viewed 60,000 times.” Annual Review .https://www.mind.org.uk/about-us/our-impact/
Natural discomfort with masking does not qualify strictly as a mental health issue; anyone can experience distress at prolonged masking. Yet those landing on the Mind mask anxiety page would assume that is the case. Devoted to friendly -sounding advice on mask wearing, the page is directly linked to UK health policies and reads like an unofficial organ of the government. Mind deploys seemingly every subconscious slight- of- mind.
Triggered to Re-Experience Trauma
Mind provides readers with opportunities to reframe their masking experience according to the norms they establish. Recreating the senses signaling mask panic, Mind structures a series of triggering states of distress with exacting similitude. Then, they lead a reader along “choice architecture” in which they associate negative experiences with noncompliance.
Because masking long term is not stress reducing, the Mind page indicates “a wide range of negative impacts can arise, including panic attack, feeling of being suffocated, the experience of feeling breathing and voice constricted as well as being cast into the outer darkness for nonconformity.”
The last item, “being cast into the outer darkness for nonconformity” does not sound at all like the friendly, credentialed psychologist a naïve reader would presuppose. Instead, this is peer-to-peer talk, replete with the self -irony typical of a Reddit support group. Scrolling down the page, we see the “Patient Information Forum” identifies this persona in self-accrediting lingo as “Trusted Information Creator.” Such overt labeling as well as more subtle linguistic formulas produce a sense of shared identity which favors agreeableness in going along with likeminded folks. If it was a regular forum, moreover, the reader would encounter a true diversity of viewpoint.
What Mind leaves out of their apparently all-encompassing information overview is key to understanding their covert means of leading the reader into mask compliance. NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) establishes the thought terrain, including subjects for “deletion” from consideration. Notice what is left out or deleted in their list of questions:
The questions presuppose the need to consult others before one’s own sovereignty. Every question references the wishes of other people, such as “Is it ok if I take my mask off?” In this way, mask wearing is construed as an opting out of a social norm. Not only that, the questions portray masking to be exclusively a socially- contingent decision, and in fact, this section is sub-headed: “Minding your ‘mask manners.’” The social context established for masking by the NLP map is thus nonsensical and unserious; mask wearing may induce keen distress and worse. Mind nudging influences masking by eliminating alternatives; in this case, consulting one’s right to refuse is disappeared (or deleted) from consideration.
Opting-out of mask wearing requires overt thought processing, and behavioral engineers know saying no demands a more tenacious resistance than going with the flow, especially since we are conditioned to take into account the feelings of others. Far simpler to go along if opting out means someone else might be disturbed: “When we meet, I’ll be wearing my mask – could you do the same? It would help me to relax and focus on enjoying spending time with you.” Because greater mental effort –not to mention will power– is necessary to opt out of masking, undecideds may lean toward compliance.
Assaulted as well by legacy media’s synchronized messaging about everything Corona, the average trusting young person is an especially easy mark for mask nudging, even heavy-handed nudging. With a creepy intimacy, the TIC “Trusted Information Creator” minimizes trauma as “challenges” in a mask- norming environment. Leading with repeated simple syntax, the TIC “Trusted Information Creator” names each sensation: ”You might feel anxious or panicky, as covering your mouth and nose might affect the air you breathe. This can cause symptoms like feeling dizzy or sick, which you may then associate with your mask. “ Huh.
What’s going on here? Experiencing asphyxiation and vertigo are just “ways in which you may struggle with wearing a face mask or covering.” One can’t un-see the patronizing “it’s all in your head dear” tone. Other oddities include these tips—“avoiding eye contact and/ or socializing with others.” Avoidance behavior is not your typical therapist prescription. In every case, these suggestions—or nudges in one direction– seem designed to revivify angst. Phrasing such as “You might feel trapped or claustrophobic” lead readers into re-experience the distress.
This is classic trauma –based NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming) involving pacing- and- leading. Pacing can be seen in each of the itemized bullet points identifying the mask triggers and then detailing the emotional states that coincide with each so as to trigger trauma.
Trying to drive the reader’s internal emotional state, the TIC “Trusted Information Creator” is simultaneously leading the way by painting free face –the absolute norm for eons–as paranoia. So normal is free face that only the threat of social recrimination is sufficient to modify human behavior. And you can bet your new best friend, “Trusted Information Creator” is willing to take you there.
Mask compliance is portrayed as the norm, even with very strong adverse physiological responses and psychological consequences. Stated as a tagline by Mind, the purpose of the masking advice is to “Explain why masks or face coverings can cause difficult feelings, and gives practical tips on how to cope.” But reactions that might resemble asphyxiation are not “difficult feelings.” Just as in an abusive relationship, the perpetrator downplays the harm experienced. How to cope in this context means only one thing: finding mechanisms to cope with mask wearing. Noncompliance does not get reviewed fully as an option, despite exemptions referenced as a link.
The linguistic model frames reality as a false choice between living with the stigma of noncompliance or coping with masking. Bold face print is used to mimic the complaint of a person as much afraid of what people think as of the virus: “I get very anxious about all the people who wear masks, they make me feel like I am full of dirt and germs.” Enlisting the first-person script of a paranoid individual who worries in an obsessive manner what others will think makes it appear unreasonable to refuse to mask.
Readers who are hesitant for good reason, yet seek an exemption have already been implicated as shame deserving according to the framing on the main page:
Unlike a true advocate, “Trusted Information Creator” fails to stand up for your right of refusal. Instead of “Hey, you go girl,” “Trusted Information Creator” can almost be heard to mutter “quite rightly after each overtly friendly “You might feel.” Mind links to exemptions but with subtle suggestions (in effect, warnings) that the reader will be labelled disabled or mentally unable to cope. The link bolsters impression management since it is generally assumed a forum would not sneak in NLP and the link “proves” Mind has nothing to hide. And this is exactly the response behavioral engineers anticipate, in providing this link, a typical reverse psychology ploy. The subconscious assumes it is thus only being silly to object to masking. In addition, they know people fear being humiliated in public by having to explain an exemption generally associated with disability or a mental health issue.
Following the decision pathway set up by Mind [think Hive Mind] shows we are well past the era of classical rhetorical persuasion. Nudge theory navigates us past even the effective carrot- and- stick means of controlling behavior. It’s well past time to pull back the curtain on what David Gosselin has termed “trance warfare” to look at the key players of the Nudge Unit.
When we hear we are being subjected to refined mass hypnosis techniques targeting our reptilian brains, we may picture monotone loudspeaker commands reverberating the airwaves. The reality is much more like a secret gaming of our inner thoughts. As the linguistic Mind mapping presupposes a somewhat naïve youngish reader, not yet experienced in the manipulative ways of sales people and public service information, it’s clear the Mind Nudge Unit—is made up of treacherous experts in small emotional and conceptual prodding. It’s these self- same devious experts, the ones who lack scruples, who are consulted to declare “mass formation” not a thing.
In a thorough analysis of the Reuters article denying the credibility of mass formation as a social phenomenon, Keri Smith and Carter Laren summarize how the Reuters Fact Check was used illegitimately to get ahead of Joe Rogan’s viral interview with Dr. Malone, who explained how the theory of mass formation applies to the pandemic.
The basic problem for the fact checkers is the concept of mass formation actually can be traced back to Plato’s Allegory in the Cave, and people can observe the heavy-handed tactics first hand. In fact, that’s the reason for the current attention to unseen forces and management efforts are gaining traction. Conflicts of interest are uncovered daily. Forget the fact that Reuters has shared a CEO with Pfizer and, as Kay Smythe observes, “Corporate media outlets such as Reuters continue to promote Pfizer products, defend pharmaceutical companies from criticism and move to silence skeptics.”
Fact checking whether covert mass formation is occurring by asking Jay Van Bavel, one of the proponents of secret and unscrupulous NLP manipulation to own up to the possibility is, of course, ludicrous, but this is exactly what Reuters did. Pointing out Van Bavel’s academic career is based on studying group conditioning related to political strategy, Libby Emmons encapsulates his willingness to “encourage and cajole and motivate people to do the right thing.”
Van Bavel appears to have no misgivings as to the “right thing.” The other expert Reuters consulted is Steve Reicher, whose research focus is the influence of socialization on individual behavior, with particular interest in forming group identity through language and motivating human action. Reicher has long been interested in crowd manipulation primarily by shaping norms to form cohesive social identity. Underhanded tactics units have orchestrated such efforts.
A level of coercion undreamed of by our forefathers and mothers, the UK’s Behavioral Insights Team, for instance, seems to have unabashedly deployed nudging as demonstrated in the deceitful masking shock- and -awe guidance found on Mind’s controlled information to produce a mask- compliance decision environment. Once inclined in the direction of compliance, people more readily accept further measures. A masked populace is more vulnerable to hammering propaganda.
In a pandemic the face looks like a threat, like it might be harboring an asymptomatic yet dangerous infection. In this environment, we have all along witnessed “Karens” publicly berating others for not wearing masks, and becoming violent on occasion, especially in the confined spaces of airplanes. An article in The Pluralist points out, the woman on the Delta flight, who recently both spit on and slapped an unmasked passenger, assumed the spirit of the Grinch, the well-known cynical antagonist who literally steals the presents from a baby in the classic Dr. Seuss book. To play out the role of the Grinch on a holiday flight is truly tragic.
In the end, it is tragic– not sexy– to be triggered by the unmasked to such an extent that the malign force of ill will is manifest. In response to the study on sexy masking, one commentator wrote; “Interesting that they assign “sexy” to masks. When I see what appears to be a healthy, strapping young man in a mask, I see a weak, scared individual who needs his mommy. I feel a sense of sadness and pity— a sense of sadness that people are so afraid, so gullible, so frozen in fear they can barely function.”
Many are now speaking up on behalf of children as well, especially as they experience the abnormal socialization around masking more deeply than do adults.
As summed up in another Facebook comment: “Wear the mask, show your papers, stand in line for your test, test again at home, get fired from your job for not complying, lose your house and be shunned by society because you won’t comply.”
Mask Resistance
Society’s recognition of the mask as a harmful psychological tactic is seen in the general response to sightings of such oddities as masked drivers in vehicles where no passengers are present. This is because it is generally understood; masking is not just face- covering but exists as an essential part of programming.
Notes
- The hosts of Unsafe Spaces provide an excellent analysis of the Reuters Fact Check used to unsuccessfully get ahead of Joe Rogan’s viral interview with Dr. Malone, who explained how the theory of mass formation applies to the pandemic.
“Elizabeth Holmes, Mass Formation Psychosis, and Novak Djokovic v. Australia,” [#Covfefe Break] Unsafe Spaces, 4,337 viewsStreamed live on Jan 10, 2022
2. COVIDLAND 2 – THE MASK provides an overview of concerns about masking.
Dr. Kuzma earned a Ph.D. in twentieth century literature from Ohio University, taught Composition and Literature and is now retired. She has recently moved to the state of Minnesota and enjoy living closer to family.