I’ve been doing a lot of reading/listening/watching content discussing the science of manipulating people’s brains to create “social mania”. In the last 10-15 years there have been countless examples of the herd believing and amplifying whatever the new mania is overnight. Some examples being the #metoo movement, BLM, systemic racism, Covid lockdowns, Nazi’s, trans, Biden’s cognitive ability, Russia Russia Russia, etc. It really is fascinating to read how the media and politicians exploit the natural instincts in human beings to fear things and in turn negatively react to emotional stimulus. It is pure propaganda and it is extremely effective. Dan Crenshaw (who I don’t care for) did a podcast with Arthur C Brooks about it. I’ve linked it below. It’s a fantastic listen and worth the hour and a half of your time. Lionel Shriver has written extensively about this as well. I’ve posted a link to one of her articles.
The problem is, there are real negative effects on our society and how we interact with each other. Police officers have been killed due to policing hoaxes, 2 people were just shot and killed in DC by a guy shouting Free Palestine, Trump was nearly assassinated, etc. The endless race hysteria has created “black fatigue” which hurts race relations. At the very least, this mess puts people in boxes and those that believe the hysteria rarely, if ever admit they fell for the hoax. “a social frenzy seldom subsides because its agitators announce they were addled, just as the masses of ordinary people caught up in the derangement seldom acknowledge having been led astray. Everyone simply moves on, only to become consumed by something else.” - Lionel Shriver. We see this time and time again with people on this very board. People leave or never post again rather than admit they were wrong. Those that stay, often double or triple down on their opinions even when faced with the eventual historical truth.
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hold-these-truths-with-dan-crenshaw/id1498149200?i=1000634300667
https://unherd.com/2024/04/how-to-spot-the-next-mania/