postyX - June 28, 2025


Manufacturing Consensus and Mass Psychosis


Episode Stats

Length

16 minutes

Words per Minute

159.39197

Word Count

2,555

Sentence Count

141

Misogynist Sentences

1

Hate Speech Sentences

2


Summary

In this episode, we discuss two concepts that, while seemingly distinct, are becoming increasingly intertwined in our modern society: The Manufacturing of Consensus and the unsettling phenomena of Mass Psychosis. In the 21st century, the tools are more sophisticated and insidious than ever before, making it easier for us to form and maintain consensus.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Let's talk about two concepts that, while seemingly distinct, are becoming increasingly
00:00:07.940 intertwined in our modern society. That would be the manufacturing of consensus and the
00:00:14.380 unsettling phenomena of mass psychosis. Now before we dive in, let's be clear, this isn't
00:00:23.020 about pointing fingers or promoting a particular agenda, although I, you know, do believe in
00:00:28.000 a particular agenda. Instead, it's just to have some critical thought and to examine the
00:00:34.240 ways in which perceptions are shaped, how in certain circumstances, collective beliefs
00:00:38.760 can take on a life of their own, and sometimes with profound and even, you know, bad or troubling
00:00:44.520 consequences. So what is manufacturing consensus? And it sounds a little bit like a shadowy cabal
00:00:52.120 pulling strings, doesn't it? Kind of, it's kind of like that. In reality, though, it's more
00:00:56.600 subtle and pervasive. Think of it as a strategic construction of widely accepted beliefs, opinions
00:01:04.060 or norms. This isn't necessarily outright lies, but more often about the selective presentation
00:01:10.320 of information, the amplification of certain narratives, if you will, the marginalization
00:01:16.360 of dissenting voices. Of course, this process can happen through many various channels. Obviously,
00:01:23.300 in, you know, modern society, we have way more than we did before. We have traditional media,
00:01:29.000 we have social media algorithms, government campaigns who also work with social media algorithms
00:01:35.660 and companies. We have corporate PR, and even education systems. We all know what they're doing
00:01:41.900 to our kids, they're indoctrinating our kids. So the goal, whether explicit or implicit, is to guide
00:01:47.360 the public opinion towards a desired outcome, to create a shared understanding that serves
00:01:52.400 someone's particular interest.
00:01:57.240 Now for the term mass psychosis. This is a more dramatic concept. Obviously, mass psychosis gets
00:02:04.120 everybody, you know, all freaked out and stuff. But thankfully, it's, it's rare in its extreme forms.
00:02:11.140 However, I don't think it's so rare anymore with the advent of social media. Historically, though,
00:02:16.820 we've seen examples like the Salem witch trials or the dancing mania of the Middle Ages. Psychologists
00:02:23.420 define mass psychosis as a collective delusion or an epidemic of mental disturbance characterized by
00:02:29.940 irrational beliefs or behaviors shared by a large group of people. It's essentially a shared departure
00:02:36.900 from reality. And it's often fueled by fear, anxiety, or highly charged emotions. We can all go back to the
00:02:43.780 COVID hysteria. This is exactly what happened. And unfortunately, they've been pushing propaganda of
00:02:50.380 different sorts since COVID died down. So the mass psychosis hasn't even really had a chance
00:02:55.380 to ease down. In the modern context, we're not necessarily talking about people that's literally
00:03:01.900 seeing witches, of course, they'll make people think that that's what you're doing. Instead, it's more
00:03:07.160 about a widespread susceptibility to specific narratives, a collective abandonment of critical
00:03:13.140 thinking in favor of emotional resonance, and a tendency to view those who don't conform as inherently
00:03:20.220 wrong or even dangerous. So how is consensus manufactured in the 21st century, the tools are more
00:03:29.860 sophisticated and insidious insidious than ever before. So first, let's look at the media landscape.
00:03:37.240 Well, traditional news outlets once held a near monopoly on information. The internet has definitely
00:03:42.780 fragmented this the advent of certain platforms that supposedly allow free speech, but really, they
00:03:50.740 don't. Let's say they allow freer speech. But fragmentation doesn't necessarily mean more truth.
00:03:55.800 Instead, we see the rise of echo chambers and filter bubbles. And when you go and look on the
00:04:01.040 internet for information about this, they always the information is always leaning towards the right
00:04:05.260 and saying that they're misinformation, but it goes both ways, right? Like, there's misinformation on
00:04:10.780 both sides, more so on the left, I would argue than the right. But you know what I mean? Like,
00:04:16.040 they make it seem that it's all the misinformation is coming from the right, which is inherently
00:04:19.540 untrue. Algorithms on social media platforms are designed to show us more of what we already agree
00:04:26.480 with, reinforcing existing biases and confirmation bias, and making it harder to encounter rather
00:04:33.500 diverse perspectives, creates a fertile ground for narratives that are, you know, incorrect, and they
00:04:39.560 definitely take root and spread rapidly with the like minded groups. And it's easier to kind of just
00:04:45.540 believe what everybody else says. There's many, what do you call this, many different experiments
00:04:50.780 that was done, but there was one I was just reading about, or maybe I saw a video on it, was the line
00:04:57.020 experiment where like they, you know, convinced a whole bunch of people that the line was the same
00:05:01.660 size when it was clearly smaller. So that's what happens, but more so on a large scale.
00:05:06.560 Let's not forget something that I am greatly afflicted with. It's information overload. We are
00:05:17.040 bombarded with data, news, opinions, analysis, every second of the day, and most of them are total
00:05:22.920 absolute crap. But in this garbage dump of information, it becomes incredibly difficult to
00:05:29.800 separate fact from fiction for your average person, your average normie, I guess you could say.
00:05:34.780 Now people get overwhelmed when they're overwhelmed, rather, they'll often resort to what's called
00:05:39.680 mental shortcuts, latching on to simple narratives, especially those that confirm what they already
00:05:45.340 believe or what gives them a sense of certainty and like an uncertain world.
00:05:53.900 And now consider the also the power of emotional appeals. And this is largely this happens now largely
00:06:00.080 as my opinion, because of the feminist movement and the fact that there's a lot of women in
00:06:04.160 positions of power. So this whole, you know, sensitization of society and cuckification,
00:06:11.260 I think has a lot to do with that. But the power of these emotional appeals, facts and logic often
00:06:17.120 are secondary to narratives that evoke strong emotions, fear, anger, outrage, solidarity.
00:06:23.340 When a narrative is framed in a way that taps into our deepest anxieties or aspirations,
00:06:28.140 it can bypass our bypass our rational defenses, and become deeply ingrained. This is a particularly
00:06:34.920 effective in times of crisis or perceived threat. Again, look at the parallels in the, the same,
00:06:41.520 you know, things that happened during the 911. And then you had the, you know, COVID, right supposed,
00:06:48.740 you know, COVID scam. So, you know, 20 years or so in between. But like I said, it was very similar in
00:06:55.200 regards to the perceived threat, the fear they spread into everybody, in order to get people to
00:07:00.160 act. You know, most people, the reality is, most people don't know what to do in a crisis, right?
00:07:06.460 And there's the difference between the people that, you know, will stand up and fucking stand on
00:07:11.080 business, I guess, and sort it out. And the difference between the people who will just sit
00:07:14.660 there and cry that they don't know what to do. So, you know, like, they prey on that kind of
00:07:19.320 helplessness. And finally, the biggest thing that affects the boomers and the normies and the lefties
00:07:27.420 is the authoritative voices and opinion leaders, whether they're politicians, celebrities, experts,
00:07:35.440 or self-proclaimed experts, or even popular influencers. While these figures consistently
00:07:41.400 promote a particular viewpoint, it can significantly sway the public opinion, especially when their
00:07:46.720 followers rather trust them implicitly. Great example on the right of this is Nick Fuentes,
00:07:52.460 obviously. The constant repetition of a message, even if it's lacking in substantial evidence,
00:07:58.100 can eventually lead to its acceptance as truth. Now, let's explore how these consensus manufacturing
00:08:04.620 techniques can, in extreme circumstances, contribute to what we may call a societal susceptibility to
00:08:11.360 mass psychosis. When a particular narrative, especially one built on strong emotional
00:08:16.380 appeals, and amplified by echo chambers, it becomes the dominant narrative. It can create a powerful
00:08:24.040 us versus them mentality. Dissenting voices are not just disagreed with, they are often demonized,
00:08:32.600 ridiculed, or even silenced. Again, let's go back to COVID. This happened to so many people,
00:08:38.340 myself included, which is why this really hits me in the feels every time I talk about this.
00:08:44.000 So this creates immense social pressure to conform. And in my own situation, I never felt social
00:08:50.820 pressure to conform. I felt family pressure to conform and basically relationship pressure. I didn't
00:08:58.040 have a supportive, you know, person that was willing to support my desire rather to refuse all these
00:09:07.840 things because obviously I was going to lose my job and I wouldn't have been able to find another one
00:09:11.960 and all this stuff. So that is a huge, huge problem, the us versus them mentality. And the fact that
00:09:19.860 you're demonized and silenced. Humans are social creatures and the desire to belong and to be accepted
00:09:26.720 by the group is usually a very powerful motivator, especially for people who have weak minds.
00:09:30.880 In this kind of environment, cognitive dissonance plays a huge role. When confronted with information
00:09:39.100 that contradicts a deeply held, collectively reinforced belief, individuals may go to great
00:09:45.500 lengths to rationalize away the conflicting evidence rather than challenging their own assumptions or maybe
00:09:51.280 risking social ostracization. This can lead to increasingly irrational interpretations of reality.
00:09:58.340 Just go look on TikTok under the tranny hashtag. Think about how quickly certain narratives can spread
00:10:06.740 and become entrenched during times of collective anxiety or uncertainty. A pandemic, of course, let's
00:10:13.340 talk about COVID. An economic downturn, a social upheaval. These are all fertile grounds for the emergence
00:10:20.380 of simple, often emotionally charged explanations. During the summer of love, right, we were told that we
00:10:25.920 couldn't go out and see our families, but you know, it was okay for a bunch of black people to run wild
00:10:30.180 and burn the city down. That didn't affect any COVID. So, you know, these, these competing narratives,
00:10:35.780 they with neither one of them have any kind of factual basis. So people generally want to crave answers,
00:10:41.200 they're want to know what is going on, they're curious creatures rather. And if a readily available
00:10:48.600 narrative offers a sense of order or blame, it can be widely embraced. And even if it requires a
00:10:55.280 significant suspension of disbelief. So even if you doubt it at first, it can really put the pressure
00:11:00.640 on you to end up believing it. So when a significant portion of the population begins to operate under
00:11:10.740 these shared irrational beliefs. And when adherence to these beliefs becomes a litmus test for social
00:11:18.020 acceptance, you start to see the hallmarks of a societal susceptibility to mass psychosis. And don't
00:11:25.480 think they don't know this, like the people in control, the people in above the, you know, the
00:11:30.160 politicians, the all that don't think they don't know this. This isn't like a new phenomena, right?
00:11:34.440 This was stuff that that was used in, you know, the Cold War, and probably during World War Two,
00:11:39.740 wouldn't even want to, and who knows, probably further back than that. But critical thinking
00:11:44.860 diminish, diminishes rather, a nuance is lost, the ability to engage in any kind of civil discourse
00:11:50.900 with those who hold different views just erodes. So how do we navigate this complex landscape? How do
00:11:58.820 we avoid becoming unwilling participants in manufactured consensus or worse, falling prey to collective
00:12:06.560 delusions? People use the word critical thinking a lot. And you know, it is, I can't stress the
00:12:14.240 importance of cultivating critical thinking. Like, don't accept information at face value. Ask
00:12:20.400 questions, who's presenting this information? What is their agenda? What evidence supports the claim? Is
00:12:25.080 there an alternative explanation? When someone, the first, anytime someone comes and tells me something
00:12:31.240 happened, and I asked them, well, where did you find that information? And they say, you know, CNN, or
00:12:36.280 in our case, Communist Propaganda 24, CP24, immediately disregard that opinion. So, you know, but it
00:12:44.780 regardless of where they get the information from, it doesn't hurt to check. I mean, things are at your
00:12:48.540 fingertips, right? You can always go and, you know, Google it if you want, or, you know, use maybe a
00:12:54.560 different browser that isn't so biased, but hey, that's on you. Secondly, you know, diversify, I hate
00:13:02.260 that word, but diversify your information sources, actively seek out perspectives that challenge your
00:13:08.280 own, talk to people who have different opinions, you know, you don't have to get into debates, but have
00:13:12.820 discussions with people, read news from different political leanings, listen to podcasts, listen to
00:13:19.260 YouTube videos with varying viewpoints. Other than the really lefty ones, like I wouldn't put anybody through
00:13:26.880 that. It's just so painful. But engage in respectful dialogue with people who think differently, break out of
00:13:32.620 your echo chamber. Again, the problem between the left and the right is that it's really hard to find somebody
00:13:38.420 on the left that can, you know, keep a cooler head or can engage in civil discourse. It's, you know, impossible
00:13:44.700 because they are ruled by emotions, which is something to be mindful of as well. But unfortunately,
00:13:51.080 you know, it seems that this is something that is significant or really exclusive to the right.
00:13:57.520 Finally, embrace the humility or embrace intellectual humility. Be open to the possibility that you may be
00:14:05.600 wrong. I am wrong quite often, and I'm humbled quite often. But you know what, it has made me a better
00:14:12.240 person. It has actually helped me learn a lot more to nobody likes to be wrong. Nobody wants to be the
00:14:17.640 one everybody's laughed at. But we all go through it. And it's a learning curve. So you know, there's
00:14:21.840 that the world's complex, the rarely issues are black and white. As they're often portrayed, that's a
00:14:27.920 Jewish construct. They want us to believe that kind of stuff. Actually, you know, they they want us to
00:14:32.420 believe that, you know, you can be a million different genders. But they also want us to believe that,
00:14:35.820 you know, everything is black and white. So go figure. True understanding often comes from a
00:14:41.140 willingness to adjust your views in the face of new evidence. This was very difficult for the COVID or
00:14:47.680 the branch COVIDians, as I like to call them. So manufacturing consensus is a very powerful force.
00:14:54.200 And it definitely puts us at risk of mass psychosis. And this, they like to say that this is extreme,
00:15:00.960 but really, it's not. I mean, it's been going on for a very long time. It's, you know, when it happens
00:15:07.060 in the extreme, it reminds us that the fragility of collective reasoning is, you know, again,
00:15:12.360 it's the fragility of it is pretty fragile. In an age of unprecedented information flaw and
00:15:17.920 increasing polar polarization, our ability to think critically, to question narratives and to engage
00:15:25.220 with diverse perspectives is more crucial. And this is definitely why the government wants to shut
00:15:30.940 everybody down. So this shouldn't be surprising that they're trying to ban people and have successfully
00:15:35.300 banned people on the free speech platform app. Took me three tries to get that. So it's not happening.
00:15:43.020 We know that, but they want us to believe it is so that we all just shut up. So that's my whole take
00:15:47.640 on this echo chamber manufacturing mass psychosis, because it's definitely going on. It's a huge,
00:15:53.760 huge issue. And I think in order for us to win, we're going to have to somehow reverse this. And I think
00:15:59.080 we maybe have to fight propaganda versus propaganda.