The Electric Mat
If trolling is pushing some person towards desired outcome, then politics is trolling. And one of the most effective mass technologies for that is what I call "An Electric Mat".
Trolling is not a negative word for me. I believe many people start doing this to figure out how to cope with distressful and uncomfortable situations for themselves. And the more they see how people are unable to control their own minds, the more fun it becomes to continue. I've encountered quite a few people becoming furious at the idea that trolling is fun. I don't know what their experience was, and that overreaction to something that I personally don't find very worthy or attractive, is what makes the whole stuff very exciting. I believe trolls are bounding with people in a love and hate relationship, and in this aspect they are much better than politicians, whose goals are probably control and power.
I constantly tell people that there are no words "politics" and "freedom" in my lexicon. I live in Belarus, so with time I couldn't see how they work. People build pictures of the "freedom" in their minds, and you ask them is the one specific things that they want exactly, in a S.M.A.R.T. way, you know, they can not respond right away. For 10 years "no freedom" was an excuse for me for not doing anything at all. And 10 more years later I know 3 specific things I want, and these are not "freedom" or "politics". But many people I questioned responded to me that they want "freedom", "civil rights", or some other ideas, which quite often were not even of their own, because they failed to explain it. And yet they still were furious, ready to fight, and that got me interested.
Imagine an ordinary person from 90s. Not woke, no political preferences. Hanging out with people, trying to enjoy its time. Calm, steady, smiling. Now let's put a wet mat under his feet. The person may experience a slight discomfort, but not something really sinister to worry about. And now short circuit the mat to a battery. In ideal world, the person will start shaking from electrical discharge. Experiencing pain and maybe even screaming. "Becoming furious". This is The Electric Mat. Quite dumb, but easy to explain why the person is furious. That person is not neutral anymore. The person is charged. Or maybe not. The thing is - every time a short circuit is made, that person would get a hit. And you can connect that mat to a clock or timer, such as the news time.
The exciting part is that the Electric Mat technology works without the physical mat. The explanation why a person could get agitated all of a sudden is that there is another kind mat right in person's head weaved from thoughts and fears. The mat that don't even needs external electricity, because it short circuits neurons and becomes self-sustainable.
The mechanism is the following. The person is being told some "fact" that contradicts with the person belief or security. Mass media works best to affect a lot of people at once. Because the person is media illiterate, it can not validate that the fact is fake, and if the risk is high, the person would believe that. This is the electric mat, but it doesn't trigger yet. The trigger is any word or actor that can make the risk connected to the "fact" real. Because the person can not validate facts, it becomes anxious, worrying, charged, and once the trigger word appears, the person becomes furious and agitated. The interesting side effect of that is that the logical part of his person doesn't work anymore. The person could be calm on the surface, but can not say anything.
For example, somebody tells you that blue people are torturing kids. Torturing kids is against your beliefs, so you become woke that some blue people may be torturing kids. Then you encounter a blue person with cryting kid. It can be anything, but you have only a single, charged knowledge about blue people. The fear that you are witnessing the torturer triggers, anxiety pours out, the logical part of the brain turns off, and now we have one person who is shaking from the shock. If that person is with friend, it will explain his condition as "blue people are torturing kids", and the other person may believe that, because it doesn't have the way to check it. They both frown at the situation and either intervene or drive away. If there are a group of people, they could get into a combined agitated state, because the logical part is turned off. It's like panic - another contagious condition when logical part of the brain turns off.
So, check facts, know you fears, and observe the boiling points - times when you mind shuts downs logic and goes furious. You might have the electric mat there.
0.1-init