postyX - November 26, 2025


Maple Syrup & Mayhem 20： Digital SWAT


Episode Stats

Length

27 minutes

Words per Minute

156.59807

Word Count

4,246

Sentence Count

195

Misogynist Sentences

2

Hate Speech Sentences

14


Summary

On today's episode of Maple Serpent Mayhem, I discuss a new report from the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, and discuss the growing problem of mass surveillance in the modern world. I also discuss the new report by the JCCF, and how we should all be concerned about it.


Transcript

00:00:00.240 Those are just two guys who look like us.
00:00:02.260 Yeah, they just look like us.
00:00:03.220 Man, shut up, man!
00:00:04.660 You're trying to trick me, man!
00:00:05.980 Put smoke into my freaking head and shit, man!
00:00:08.400 Not at all, man.
00:00:09.540 Man, I don't know what to take no more, man!
00:00:11.560 Okay, okay, let's do this right.
00:00:13.240 No, it's not a thing.
00:00:13.640 No, it's not a thing.
00:00:13.800 No, it's not a thing.
00:00:14.440 No, it's not a thing.
00:00:15.480 Hello, and welcome back to Maple Serpent Mayhem with me, Posty.
00:00:20.560 Now, if you didn't already know this about me, and you probably do because I scream about it constantly,
00:00:26.020 I have a great interest in PSYOPs and manufacturing desired behavior through those methods.
00:00:34.380 Behavioral manipulation, if you will.
00:00:36.640 It's all in my mind.
00:00:37.880 It's all in my mind.
00:00:38.960 It's all in my mind!
00:00:40.660 I firmly believe that Convid, and I call it Convid for this very reason, was a massive PSYOP.
00:00:47.340 The largest ever pulled on a population since the propaganda of post-World War II and the Holocaust, obviously.
00:00:56.020 Get this through your head, you Jew motherfucker, you!
00:01:00.700 You only exist out here because of me!
00:01:03.340 I, like many others, have been, you know, cast onto Conspiracy Island, I guess you could say,
00:01:09.800 where all the virtuous people sent us, sent all the schizos who just happened to notice a little too much.
00:01:15.920 But things have been coming out slowly, as, you know, the truth tends to do.
00:01:20.300 But we still have a disturbing number of Branch Covidians roaming the Canadian streets.
00:01:27.360 I like to kind of compare them to the Fent Zombies that are also roaming the Canadian streets,
00:01:33.960 but just with different addictions, right?
00:01:36.300 Like the Branch Covidians are addicted to, you know, this kind of control of, you know,
00:01:42.220 trying to prevent a cold from infecting your system, and maybe it gives them some feeling of control or whatever.
00:01:49.180 And, you know, the Fent Zombies, I don't know, maybe they feel like they're in control of their life, but who knows.
00:01:54.440 But they basically both wander around with totally oblivious to what is going on in the actual real world.
00:02:01.160 Maybe it's not a great comparison, but you know what?
00:02:04.100 I'm fucking not great at that.
00:02:06.480 I'm not great at it.
00:02:08.420 So anyways, that being said, today we're going to discuss that report that came out from the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms.
00:02:17.480 And, you know, I always, I was thinking about this the other day,
00:02:20.140 because I think Fortisax has been posting tweets about it, and I'm just laughing.
00:02:25.840 It's like, we have a notwithstanding clause in our Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
00:02:32.420 So that clause basically makes anything in the Charter meaningless,
00:02:37.500 because at any time, they can use the notwithstanding clause, as they did during the scandemic,
00:02:43.320 and take away any rights and freedoms that you thought you had.
00:02:46.480 So the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, I appreciate everything they do,
00:02:50.200 but until we get some sort of constitution, and maybe that's what they're fighting for,
00:02:54.880 it really doesn't matter, because we have the notwithstanding clause.
00:02:58.560 But anyways, this report that they released, it's not just like another slop opinion piece
00:03:03.060 that you see like the National Post put out or whatever.
00:03:05.780 It's actually a well-written and research report.
00:03:07.960 It's not that long, but it took information from the infamous Twitter files,
00:03:12.940 you know, the internal documents that Elon Musk leaked,
00:03:16.960 showing how the old owner of Twitter, the old control team of Twitter,
00:03:21.960 were playing favourite with the narratives, which, again, we already knew.
00:03:26.640 And not that Elon doesn't either. So I mean, whatever.
00:03:30.040 But it argues that what we saw wasn't just like content moderation,
00:03:33.800 it was basically straight up manufacturing consent.
00:03:37.320 And again, anybody who is able to think outside of the box,
00:03:43.140 or outside of their own, you know, personal space,
00:03:47.240 would probably have realised that anyways.
00:03:50.680 The phrase manufacturing consent was actually made famous by a Jew in 1988,
00:03:56.600 by Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman,
00:03:59.460 to describe how mass media subtly, rather,
00:04:04.060 filters information to produce public compliance with elite interests.
00:04:08.080 Again, this is like commercials too, right?
00:04:09.820 You can put this as commercials,
00:04:11.740 could kind of do this as well with manufacturing consent,
00:04:14.620 because they make you think you might need something that you don't,
00:04:17.460 just it's based on the propaganda.
00:04:20.040 But the report they did is built on,
00:04:22.140 they basically gathered three primary sources of evidence,
00:04:25.480 those internal Twitter documents,
00:04:28.120 thousands of additional Twitter emails and Slack messages
00:04:31.420 that they were able to obtain through discovery and settlement,
00:04:34.340 because they actually sued Twitter for defamation against them,
00:04:38.980 and there was a settlement.
00:04:39.880 So they got discovery through that,
00:04:42.720 and parallel disclosures from the Facebook files,
00:04:45.300 and also the Missouri versus Biden litigation that happened in the U.S.,
00:04:49.540 in the U.S., rather.
00:04:52.260 And they actually even grabbed parliamentary inquiries in Canada
00:04:56.220 and the United Kingdom,
00:04:58.280 and I'll tell you why they got the United Kingdom involved,
00:05:01.220 because they based a division here,
00:05:04.920 what do you want to call it?
00:05:05.960 What would you call it?
00:05:08.500 A department of government overreach
00:05:10.920 that was probably very strongly based on the U.S. one,
00:05:15.920 so we'll get to that in a second.
00:05:17.760 I guess the summary of the video,
00:05:19.820 or the picture,
00:05:20.420 the overarching picture,
00:05:21.400 is basically that it was not just occasional overreach
00:05:25.360 during a public health emergency,
00:05:27.000 but it was actually a sophisticated,
00:05:29.840 cross-country system of narrative control,
00:05:33.280 and it was operating in full steam,
00:05:36.200 at full steam, rather,
00:05:37.580 from 2022 at least,
00:05:40.700 and it still has not,
00:05:43.440 actually, and it has since rather hardened
00:05:45.500 into what the JCCF calls
00:05:48.140 a permanent architecture of censorship.
00:05:51.100 So it's kind of like taxes, right?
00:05:53.080 They always tell you it's going to be a temporary measure,
00:05:55.180 and then all of a sudden,
00:05:56.620 you know, something else comes up,
00:05:57.840 and it's like,
00:05:58.240 hey, wait a minute,
00:05:58.920 weren't these taxes supposed to be temporary?
00:06:00.300 And it becomes a permanent thing.
00:06:02.080 That's why nothing is temporary in here.
00:06:04.260 So that's basically what they're saying,
00:06:06.160 that it became a permanent architecture of censorship.
00:06:10.900 Why does it even matter now, right?
00:06:12.720 But as we barrel towards full-blown anarcho-tyranny,
00:06:18.160 I think more people need to realize,
00:06:20.800 most people need to realize,
00:06:22.600 how government censorship of differing opinions
00:06:25.800 on, you know, digital platforms like X or Twitter,
00:06:29.340 it becomes tools for narrative control.
00:06:31.840 And, you know, that old saying,
00:06:33.740 you know, they came for the Nazi,
00:06:35.640 but I wasn't a Nazi,
00:06:36.860 so I didn't like whatever, however it goes,
00:06:39.080 it's coming for you eventually, right?
00:06:41.500 So it may seem like it's targeting
00:06:43.840 all your ideological enemies right now,
00:06:46.480 and that makes you happy.
00:06:48.080 But one day you will be the ideological enemy
00:06:51.260 over something.
00:06:53.460 The mechanics of digital consent.
00:06:55.440 The old media filters that are Chomsky and Herman,
00:07:02.200 ownership, advertising, sourcing, flack, and ideology,
00:07:06.060 they've been augmented to, you know,
00:07:08.460 adjust to our new kind of reality,
00:07:10.460 our digital universe, our digital world,
00:07:12.700 and they've been now replaced by five digital filters,
00:07:17.180 which, you know, we've,
00:07:18.440 anybody who has been censored or banned,
00:07:21.360 or who had any opposing opinion,
00:07:23.620 has probably experienced at least a few of these,
00:07:25.420 if not all of them.
00:07:27.420 Government flagging portals.
00:07:29.560 So Twitter, Facebook, and Google
00:07:31.460 created dedicated reporting channels
00:07:33.520 through which officials at the White House,
00:07:36.340 the CDC, Health Canada, PHAC,
00:07:40.160 which is the Public Health Agency of Canada,
00:07:41.920 and even municipal health units
00:07:44.240 were able to flag content for removal or demotion.
00:07:47.280 So demotion means shadow ban.
00:07:50.360 These were not public tip lines.
00:07:52.800 They were privileged high-priority cues.
00:07:56.260 They must have loved that.
00:07:57.440 They loved the power.
00:08:00.400 I remember this one.
00:08:01.860 They had trusted flagger programs.
00:08:03.520 So certain NGOs, academics,
00:08:05.860 and fact-checking organizations,
00:08:07.600 many of them who were publicly funded,
00:08:09.660 I can think of a few,
00:08:10.660 I can't think of the fucking names of them,
00:08:13.120 but if it comes to me, I'll let you know,
00:08:14.600 and I know you guys know too,
00:08:15.880 of these people that were just totally,
00:08:19.160 you know, on fucking X.
00:08:21.700 It was like they were right up
00:08:22.560 the fucking public health's ass about everything.
00:08:25.960 They were granted accelerated takedown privileges.
00:08:29.060 The report reproduces internal Twitter correspondence
00:08:32.420 showing that content flagged by these partners
00:08:34.400 was actioned at rates exceeding 90%.
00:08:37.300 Wow, something they were able to do successfully.
00:08:41.180 Algorithmic demotion and de-boosting.
00:08:43.320 This is also like shadow banning.
00:08:44.700 Rather than outright removal,
00:08:46.620 which might trigger the Streisand effect backlash,
00:08:49.420 which we're seeing right now
00:08:51.320 with the whole Second Sons thing demonstration in London,
00:08:55.220 you're seeing it's the same thing,
00:08:56.800 and it's been happening in Australia
00:08:58.200 for at least, you know, a year or so,
00:08:59.800 is that the more they try to either ban it,
00:09:03.480 the more it makes people interested in it.
00:09:05.380 The Streisand effect, come on.
00:09:07.440 Most problematic content was quietly throttled,
00:09:10.860 removed from trends,
00:09:12.100 stripped from recommendation engines,
00:09:13.620 and limited to reply-only visibility.
00:09:16.440 So instead of taking it down
00:09:18.020 and then, you know, having people say,
00:09:19.260 oh my God, they took that down,
00:09:20.460 a lot of people are going to want to know why,
00:09:21.860 they kept it up,
00:09:22.900 but the person that posted it
00:09:24.300 probably didn't realize
00:09:25.220 that it was being throttled.
00:09:26.420 In the algorithm.
00:09:29.860 Account level penalties.
00:09:31.180 Repeated violations led to
00:09:32.720 de-amplification of entire accounts,
00:09:35.540 permanent suspension,
00:09:36.620 or the dreaded visibility filtering.
00:09:38.820 Do you remember that?
00:09:40.320 That rendered user ghosts
00:09:41.760 in their own networks.
00:09:43.880 And then finally,
00:09:45.360 preemptive self-censorship.
00:09:47.200 Knowing that when you found out
00:09:48.620 that all these above tools existed,
00:09:50.180 many users and small media outlets
00:09:51.860 simply stopped posting the stuff.
00:09:54.460 The replies cites internal Twitter data
00:09:56.840 showing a measurable decline
00:09:58.380 in certain keywords
00:09:59.340 like ivermectin,
00:10:01.140 lab leak,
00:10:01.840 and vaccine injury,
00:10:03.400 even on accounts
00:10:04.240 that had never been penalized before.
00:10:05.860 So, very subversive shit.
00:10:08.120 It's not surprising
00:10:08.980 that a Jew was the one
00:10:10.100 who created the,
00:10:13.240 what do you want to call it,
00:10:15.760 the, you know,
00:10:16.660 manufactured consent or whatever.
00:10:19.600 Now, taking it back
00:10:20.780 to the Canadian realm
00:10:22.600 or the Canadian case study
00:10:23.940 that they used,
00:10:26.260 much of the Twitter file leaks
00:10:28.700 or what Elon released,
00:10:31.640 I guess you could say,
00:10:32.340 was focused on U.S. government pressure.
00:10:34.020 But through the JCCF's litigation,
00:10:37.140 they also revealed
00:10:37.960 that the Canadian authorities
00:10:39.300 were disproportionately aggressive
00:10:41.380 and that was quite obvious.
00:10:43.840 Between March 2020 and May 2022,
00:10:47.160 Canadian officials submitted
00:10:48.320 at least 17,000
00:10:50.160 individual content flagging requests
00:10:52.980 to Twitter.
00:10:55.280 More per capita
00:10:56.380 than any other G7 country.
00:10:59.380 Think about that.
00:11:00.460 More per capita
00:11:01.640 than any other G7 country.
00:11:04.360 Health Canada
00:11:05.240 and Public Health Agency of Canada
00:11:07.060 emerged as particularly active players
00:11:09.640 sending emails to Twitter,
00:11:11.420 urging them to zap content
00:11:12.820 questioning lockdowns
00:11:14.000 or vaccine efficacy.
00:11:15.880 Not suggestions,
00:11:17.120 they were actual demands
00:11:18.220 with failed threat
00:11:18.980 of regulatory action.
00:11:20.980 And of course,
00:11:21.480 at the time,
00:11:22.560 I don't believe,
00:11:23.260 well, Elon didn't own Twitter
00:11:24.380 at the time.
00:11:24.980 And of course,
00:11:25.440 they complied
00:11:26.000 because they were also complicit in it.
00:11:27.680 I'm sure the previous owner,
00:11:29.020 and I can't remember
00:11:29.620 his fucking name now,
00:11:31.080 is a lefty.
00:11:31.720 So they did it
00:11:34.180 even though it meant
00:11:34.740 silencing accounts
00:11:35.520 like the JCCFs,
00:11:37.220 which had 50,000 followers.
00:11:39.900 And they basically
00:11:40.740 lost their account
00:11:42.140 for asking simple questions
00:11:43.800 like,
00:11:44.440 hey,
00:11:44.800 where's the fine print
00:11:46.120 in this mandate?
00:11:47.180 Stuff like that.
00:11:48.300 And like I said,
00:11:49.280 they ended up
00:11:51.780 taking legal action
00:11:52.700 against Twitter,
00:11:53.620 and they did reach
00:11:54.760 a settlement.
00:11:55.240 So I guess good on them.
00:11:58.420 The report drops stats
00:11:59.820 that are pretty eye-opening.
00:12:02.040 During peak COVID,
00:12:03.520 70% of flagged content
00:12:05.220 in Canada
00:12:05.700 was conservatively leaning
00:12:07.520 or contrary
00:12:08.980 into the government narrative
00:12:10.640 as per the internal metrics.
00:12:12.880 And they can back it
00:12:13.640 with charts.
00:12:14.320 So imagine a pie graph
00:12:15.420 where narrative alignment
00:12:16.780 gets 80% of the airtime.
00:12:18.980 Basically,
00:12:19.480 anybody who agreed
00:12:20.500 with the government narrative
00:12:22.040 got 80% of the airtime,
00:12:25.220 so to speak,
00:12:26.340 on social media.
00:12:27.760 And again,
00:12:28.260 that's not random.
00:12:29.200 It's obviously engineered.
00:12:30.360 It was routinely requested.
00:12:32.760 They routinely requested
00:12:33.940 the removal of posts
00:12:34.800 that questioned
00:12:35.280 lockdown efficacy
00:12:36.240 and school closures,
00:12:37.580 vaccine mandates,
00:12:38.660 the accuracy
00:12:39.220 of the PCR tests,
00:12:40.920 et cetera, et cetera.
00:12:42.160 I mean,
00:12:42.460 there was one
00:12:42.980 illustrative exchange
00:12:43.980 exposed in this report
00:12:45.620 where a senior
00:12:46.940 health official,
00:12:48.320 Health Canada official,
00:12:49.780 writes to Twitter's
00:12:50.960 trust and safety
00:12:51.860 team,
00:12:52.880 a trust and safety
00:12:53.880 team on the fucking
00:12:54.820 internet, man.
00:12:55.540 This is not the
00:12:56.440 early aughts internet,
00:12:58.360 let me tell you.
00:12:59.700 This was in October 2021.
00:13:01.460 We are seeing
00:13:02.080 persistent spreads
00:13:03.060 of claims that vaccines
00:13:04.440 cause widespread infertility.
00:13:06.640 This is causing hesitancy.
00:13:08.700 Can you ensure
00:13:09.280 this narrative
00:13:09.740 is suppressed in Canada?
00:13:11.440 And of course,
00:13:12.720 Twitter's response,
00:13:13.900 and it was only
00:13:14.400 12 minutes later,
00:13:15.620 said,
00:13:16.060 we're working on it.
00:13:16.960 We'll reply,
00:13:17.800 we will apply a label
00:13:18.980 and reduce the distribution
00:13:20.240 of any tweets
00:13:20.960 that are basically
00:13:21.900 saying that.
00:13:22.480 Get this through your head,
00:13:23.940 you Jew motherfucker,
00:13:26.820 you.
00:13:27.160 You only exist out here
00:13:28.700 because of me.
00:13:30.360 And the post
00:13:30.880 that they were questioning,
00:13:31.840 get this,
00:13:32.540 was a thread
00:13:33.280 by a Canadian obstetrician
00:13:34.860 citing a peer-reviewed study
00:13:37.020 on temporary menstrual changes
00:13:39.180 post-vaccination.
00:13:41.460 Now,
00:13:41.720 beyond the statistics,
00:13:43.340 the report also include
00:13:44.900 anonymized stories
00:13:46.140 of ordinary Canadians
00:13:47.580 whose livelihoods
00:13:48.800 were damaged.
00:13:49.840 Mine was almost damaged,
00:13:51.120 and I've talked about
00:13:51.720 this before,
00:13:53.600 and it,
00:13:54.400 I would say,
00:13:55.040 if anything,
00:13:55.460 radicalized me
00:13:56.260 as far as I have been,
00:13:57.820 it was that,
00:13:58.600 definitely.
00:14:00.000 So,
00:14:00.460 good on you,
00:14:01.140 you little Karen,
00:14:01.880 whoever it was
00:14:02.440 that was reporting
00:14:03.300 and calling my boss
00:14:04.900 about my memes
00:14:06.300 about masks.
00:14:07.120 I hope you're happy.
00:14:08.240 A nurse suspended
00:14:10.460 after her misinformation
00:14:11.660 flagged tweets
00:14:12.880 were sent to her employer
00:14:14.200 by public health officials.
00:14:17.460 A university professor
00:14:18.700 whose promotion file
00:14:19.600 was derailed
00:14:20.240 after an automated system
00:14:21.760 flagged his private
00:14:22.880 Facebook posts,
00:14:24.700 and a small-town journalist
00:14:25.820 whose account
00:14:26.280 was permanently suspended
00:14:27.460 for sharing
00:14:28.020 a government memo
00:14:29.020 that contradicted
00:14:30.160 the official narrative
00:14:31.040 of the day.
00:14:31.700 It was just total
00:14:32.880 fucking craziness,
00:14:34.320 and I think that was
00:14:34.920 part of it
00:14:35.420 because it made you think
00:14:36.680 that you are
00:14:37.760 fucking insane.
00:14:48.380 The report's
00:14:49.560 most sobering claim
00:14:51.300 is that the
00:14:52.400 emergency censorship
00:14:53.320 apparatus never
00:14:54.500 fully stopped.
00:14:56.580 Instead,
00:14:57.040 many of the policies
00:14:57.900 that they brought out
00:14:59.080 for COVID-19
00:15:00.280 have been repurposed
00:15:01.660 for climate change,
00:15:04.240 election integrity,
00:15:05.300 and of course,
00:15:06.540 now we have
00:15:07.140 the new vague categories
00:15:08.340 such as hate speech
00:15:09.100 and online harms,
00:15:10.220 which is the Canadian
00:15:11.120 government's Bill C-63.
00:15:14.320 And this is actually cited
00:15:15.620 as the domestic
00:15:16.900 legislative capstone
00:15:18.840 that would institutionalize
00:15:20.460 many of the ad hoc measures
00:15:22.000 that were revealed
00:15:23.020 in the Twitter files
00:15:24.260 that they did.
00:15:25.360 Now,
00:15:26.000 with Bill C-63
00:15:27.240 and this whole thing
00:15:28.940 that we talked about
00:15:29.640 this report,
00:15:30.320 one of the things
00:15:31.520 that comes out
00:15:32.340 that they,
00:15:33.140 a tactic that they use
00:15:34.320 and it has been used
00:15:35.800 by the,
00:15:36.760 in the UK,
00:15:38.660 they have a behavioral
00:15:39.680 unit,
00:15:40.660 and I can't remember
00:15:41.340 for the life of me
00:15:41.980 what it's called exactly,
00:15:43.000 but it is definitely
00:15:43.740 a behavior modification unit,
00:15:45.200 I believe.
00:15:46.560 They use
00:15:47.340 what's called nudging.
00:15:48.560 It's like a tactic
00:15:49.360 in behavioral manipulation
00:15:50.860 that,
00:15:52.060 you know,
00:15:53.020 gives you the illusion
00:15:54.100 of choice.
00:15:55.780 So,
00:15:56.500 we're going to talk
00:15:57.800 about it a little bit,
00:15:58.700 what nudging is,
00:15:59.740 because it is a concept,
00:16:01.180 like I said,
00:16:01.700 from behavioral science,
00:16:03.320 specifically from
00:16:04.360 behavioral economics.
00:16:05.740 I didn't even know
00:16:06.560 there was a department
00:16:08.020 of behavioral economics
00:16:09.280 that involves
00:16:11.740 subtly
00:16:13.100 altering the way
00:16:14.420 choices are presented.
00:16:15.740 Now,
00:16:16.180 it's kind of like
00:16:17.120 when you have children
00:16:18.700 and you say,
00:16:20.380 you know,
00:16:20.600 your kid wants to wear shorts
00:16:21.820 in the wintertime,
00:16:23.160 and so,
00:16:24.140 obviously they can't
00:16:25.080 wear shorts,
00:16:25.560 so you give them
00:16:26.640 three choices of pants
00:16:27.860 to wear.
00:16:28.560 So,
00:16:28.920 at that point in time,
00:16:30.400 most kids
00:16:31.320 will still feel
00:16:32.600 like they're making a,
00:16:33.420 they've made a choice,
00:16:34.540 but really you've
00:16:35.340 influenced their
00:16:36.200 actual,
00:16:37.540 you know,
00:16:38.100 desire
00:16:38.600 by giving them
00:16:40.320 the choice of three things
00:16:41.200 that you wanted them
00:16:41.920 to wear.
00:16:42.520 It's kind of like that,
00:16:43.540 but I guess
00:16:44.100 maybe it is as simple
00:16:45.800 as that,
00:16:46.180 and we're just
00:16:46.960 reverting to our
00:16:47.940 child minds,
00:16:48.780 I don't know.
00:16:50.680 But the term
00:16:51.580 itself
00:16:52.360 was popularized
00:16:53.360 by economists
00:16:54.400 Robert,
00:16:55.440 Richard rather,
00:16:56.460 Richard Thaler
00:16:57.040 and legal scholar
00:16:58.020 Cass Sunstein,
00:16:59.540 I'm sure he's a Jew,
00:17:01.000 in their 2008 book
00:17:02.240 Nudge,
00:17:02.960 Improving Decisions
00:17:03.780 About Health,
00:17:04.540 Wealth,
00:17:04.780 and Happiness.
00:17:05.920 And he actually,
00:17:07.280 the guy Thaler
00:17:07.980 won a Nobel Prize
00:17:08.920 in Economics
00:17:09.460 for his work
00:17:10.380 on this topic.
00:17:12.180 They really love
00:17:13.320 the manipulation
00:17:13.900 of the public,
00:17:14.840 eh?
00:17:15.600 So,
00:17:16.240 the core principle
00:17:16.860 of it is
00:17:17.460 that they assume
00:17:18.480 or they basically
00:17:19.840 understand that
00:17:20.740 people are not
00:17:21.440 perfectly rational.
00:17:23.360 Instead,
00:17:26.200 we are humans,
00:17:27.520 obviously,
00:17:28.380 who are influenced
00:17:29.220 by multiple,
00:17:30.440 you know,
00:17:30.700 different things,
00:17:31.520 biases,
00:17:32.480 you know,
00:17:32.760 mental shortcuts,
00:17:34.520 social norms,
00:17:35.940 limited attention span,
00:17:37.500 et cetera,
00:17:37.960 et cetera,
00:17:38.320 framing effects.
00:17:40.500 A nudge
00:17:41.060 uses these predictable
00:17:42.540 patterns
00:17:43.240 of irrationality
00:17:44.900 to help people
00:17:46.180 make decisions
00:17:46.760 that improve
00:17:47.340 their own welfare
00:17:48.240 or mostly
00:17:49.840 society's welfare
00:17:50.940 or what the government
00:17:52.160 thinks is society's welfare
00:17:53.520 while preserving
00:17:55.280 what you believe
00:17:56.160 is your freedom
00:17:56.720 of choice.
00:17:58.280 The classic definition
00:17:59.240 is that a nudge
00:18:00.400 can be considered
00:18:01.100 any aspect of choice
00:18:02.200 architecture
00:18:02.680 that alters
00:18:03.480 people's behavior
00:18:04.500 in a predictable way
00:18:05.600 without forbidding
00:18:06.460 any options
00:18:07.180 or significantly
00:18:07.980 changing
00:18:08.780 their economic
00:18:10.340 incentives.
00:18:10.960 So when they say
00:18:12.640 economic,
00:18:13.160 I think this was like,
00:18:14.320 I'm thinking
00:18:15.120 it was probably
00:18:15.480 like a sales tactic
00:18:16.440 that they had used
00:18:17.720 in economics
00:18:18.400 to get people
00:18:19.020 to buy stuff.
00:18:20.100 I mean,
00:18:20.420 they do it now,
00:18:21.300 right?
00:18:21.520 We're constantly
00:18:22.100 buying stuff
00:18:22.700 that we don't need.
00:18:23.680 They create,
00:18:24.640 you know,
00:18:25.240 impulse buy sections.
00:18:26.880 They create
00:18:27.380 these infomercials
00:18:29.540 and stuff like that
00:18:30.240 and get people
00:18:30.820 that are constantly
00:18:31.920 consuming stuff
00:18:32.580 they don't need.
00:18:33.120 So that's probably
00:18:33.800 how that started.
00:18:35.620 There's some
00:18:36.200 famous examples
00:18:37.080 and actually
00:18:37.580 when I read
00:18:38.060 through this,
00:18:38.460 I was like,
00:18:38.780 holy shit,
00:18:39.540 like I never even
00:18:40.120 realized that these
00:18:40.760 were considered
00:18:41.340 nudges,
00:18:42.480 right?
00:18:42.700 But like,
00:18:43.400 for example,
00:18:43.940 one of the ones
00:18:44.600 they offer here
00:18:46.120 is organ donation.
00:18:47.660 So instead of saying
00:18:48.720 opt in,
00:18:51.060 they give you
00:18:52.000 the option
00:18:52.540 to opt out.
00:18:53.820 So they're going
00:18:54.980 on the assumption
00:18:55.520 which is right
00:18:56.220 that people are lazy
00:18:57.380 and that they're
00:18:58.300 not going to,
00:18:58.940 it's presumed consent
00:18:59.860 so that they're
00:19:00.380 not going to go
00:19:00.920 through the trouble
00:19:02.100 to opt out
00:19:03.420 and it'll just be
00:19:04.440 on their,
00:19:05.320 you know,
00:19:05.640 their license
00:19:06.220 or whatever.
00:19:07.880 Whereas opposed
00:19:08.760 to opt in,
00:19:09.700 again,
00:19:10.100 you have to
00:19:10.500 make an effort
00:19:11.100 to,
00:19:11.640 you know,
00:19:12.340 opt in,
00:19:13.040 right?
00:19:13.320 So it's not
00:19:14.180 just presumed consent
00:19:15.020 but they're
00:19:15.420 capitalizing on
00:19:16.400 people's laziness
00:19:17.480 in current society
00:19:18.680 and the fact
00:19:20.200 that most people
00:19:20.960 will stick
00:19:21.440 with the default,
00:19:23.000 the status quo bias
00:19:24.140 and apparently
00:19:26.140 countries with
00:19:27.240 that wording
00:19:28.300 that say
00:19:28.920 opt out,
00:19:29.900 they have
00:19:30.380 donation rates
00:19:31.220 60 to 90%
00:19:32.680 higher than
00:19:33.460 countries who do
00:19:34.100 not for
00:19:35.360 organ donations.
00:19:36.800 another one
00:19:40.280 was energy
00:19:40.840 conservation,
00:19:41.860 right?
00:19:42.140 You know,
00:19:42.360 we're all
00:19:42.740 on the climate
00:19:43.300 change and
00:19:43.820 stuff like that.
00:19:44.840 So home energy
00:19:45.420 reports showing,
00:19:46.620 home energy
00:19:47.760 reports showing
00:19:48.720 that your usage
00:19:49.660 versus your
00:19:50.400 neighbor's usage
00:19:51.860 with like smiley
00:19:52.940 faces or some
00:19:53.620 kind of,
00:19:54.220 you know,
00:19:55.180 virtual or
00:19:55.720 visual indication
00:19:58.220 will,
00:20:00.460 can result in
00:20:01.480 1 to 3%
00:20:02.200 average reduction
00:20:03.000 in energy use
00:20:03.700 for that person
00:20:04.460 because they
00:20:05.540 feel like you're
00:20:06.240 comparing them
00:20:06.920 at social norms,
00:20:08.000 you're comparing
00:20:08.360 them to their
00:20:08.760 neighbor,
00:20:09.280 right?
00:20:10.160 And another
00:20:12.800 one,
00:20:13.100 although I don't
00:20:13.460 know that it
00:20:13.980 works too much
00:20:14.600 in a multi-racial
00:20:15.800 society,
00:20:16.480 like it might
00:20:16.920 work in a
00:20:17.480 homogenous
00:20:17.900 society,
00:20:18.460 but like the
00:20:18.880 tax compliance,
00:20:20.080 they said that
00:20:21.060 if people get
00:20:22.960 a letter saying
00:20:23.780 that 9 out of
00:20:24.440 10 people in
00:20:25.660 your area pay
00:20:27.460 taxes on time,
00:20:29.260 it significantly
00:20:30.340 increases on time
00:20:31.780 payments.
00:20:32.340 And again,
00:20:32.760 I think that's
00:20:33.220 just because of
00:20:33.900 the,
00:20:34.540 you know,
00:20:34.760 people want to,
00:20:35.960 don't want to
00:20:36.380 stand out,
00:20:36.960 they kind of
00:20:37.540 want to fit in.
00:20:38.760 And the UK,
00:20:39.800 oh,
00:20:40.040 here it is,
00:20:40.400 the UK
00:20:40.820 Behavioral
00:20:41.600 Insights
00:20:42.120 Team,
00:20:42.580 this is what
00:20:42.980 they were
00:20:43.200 called,
00:20:43.820 and they had
00:20:44.460 a framework
00:20:45.060 and it was,
00:20:46.220 the acronym
00:20:46.760 was EAST,
00:20:47.860 and it stood
00:20:48.400 for easy,
00:20:49.300 attractive,
00:20:50.060 social,
00:20:50.520 and timely.
00:20:51.580 Basically,
00:20:52.220 make the
00:20:52.840 desired behavior
00:20:54.100 the path of
00:20:55.440 least resistance,
00:20:56.180 just like I
00:20:56.660 said earlier,
00:20:57.160 people want to
00:20:58.040 do what's easy.
00:20:58.740 So make it
00:20:59.140 simplify the forms,
00:21:00.720 make defaults,
00:21:02.100 people are going
00:21:02.580 to choose the
00:21:02.980 path of
00:21:03.320 least resistance,
00:21:05.940 attractive,
00:21:06.920 draw attention,
00:21:07.640 use images,
00:21:08.760 I said the
00:21:09.220 smiley face
00:21:09.820 things,
00:21:10.620 personalize it,
00:21:12.000 use incentives.
00:21:14.040 The social,
00:21:15.000 if you show
00:21:15.480 people that
00:21:15.980 most people
00:21:16.580 do it,
00:21:17.380 kind of
00:21:17.680 pressuring them
00:21:18.320 to be,
00:21:18.960 fit into the
00:21:19.560 social norm,
00:21:20.320 that encourages,
00:21:21.140 you know,
00:21:21.460 commitments.
00:21:23.120 And timely,
00:21:24.440 prompt when
00:21:24.820 people are
00:21:25.360 the most receptive,
00:21:26.380 so when there
00:21:27.040 is a crisis
00:21:27.740 going on,
00:21:28.620 or immediately
00:21:29.720 after a decision,
00:21:30.660 or when
00:21:31.240 there may
00:21:31.560 be distracted
00:21:32.440 by something
00:21:33.040 else.
00:21:34.200 Very nefarious,
00:21:35.680 subversive shit.
00:21:37.320 They have
00:21:37.980 different types
00:21:38.540 of nudges even.
00:21:39.580 There's like
00:21:39.920 eight different
00:21:40.440 ones.
00:21:41.220 Defaults,
00:21:41.760 which is the
00:21:42.300 most powerful.
00:21:44.400 Simplification,
00:21:45.540 salience,
00:21:46.300 so salience is
00:21:47.040 make important
00:21:47.620 information novel,
00:21:48.700 vivid,
00:21:48.880 or accessible.
00:21:50.760 Social norms,
00:21:51.760 again,
00:21:52.300 describing most
00:21:52.940 people on
00:21:53.740 so-and-so do
00:21:54.620 this,
00:21:55.120 and this is
00:21:55.640 approved by
00:21:56.200 90% of
00:21:56.960 the people.
00:21:58.340 Framing and
00:21:58.960 labeling,
00:21:59.780 this can be
00:22:00.780 used as
00:22:01.260 like,
00:22:02.360 let's see,
00:22:04.100 95% fat-free
00:22:05.520 on something.
00:22:07.560 Commitment
00:22:08.040 devices and
00:22:08.600 pre-commitment,
00:22:09.580 feedback and
00:22:10.140 reminders,
00:22:10.960 and ego
00:22:11.540 nudges,
00:22:12.440 appeal to
00:22:12.920 the identity.
00:22:13.780 So instead
00:22:14.440 of saying
00:22:14.800 go vote,
00:22:16.000 say be a
00:22:17.120 voter,
00:22:17.460 which everybody
00:22:18.500 wants to
00:22:18.980 belong,
00:22:19.480 at least most
00:22:19.940 people want
00:22:20.540 to belong to
00:22:21.060 something,
00:22:21.540 so by saying
00:22:22.080 be a voter,
00:22:22.820 you're implying
00:22:23.340 that if you
00:22:23.880 do that,
00:22:24.220 you're going
00:22:24.400 to belong to
00:22:24.920 something bigger
00:22:25.400 than yourself.
00:22:26.200 Now there
00:22:28.440 was some
00:22:29.140 ethical debates
00:22:30.420 about this,
00:22:31.000 obviously there
00:22:31.820 should be.
00:22:32.920 Critics are
00:22:33.380 arguing that
00:22:34.240 it's manipulation,
00:22:35.600 or sorry,
00:22:36.060 the manipulation
00:22:36.600 versus persuasion
00:22:37.460 line is very
00:22:38.100 blurry,
00:22:39.080 which it is.
00:22:40.640 Who decides
00:22:41.420 what is a
00:22:42.140 better decision
00:22:42.660 and the
00:22:43.220 slippery slope
00:22:44.100 that we always
00:22:44.600 talk about
00:22:45.080 towards more
00:22:45.760 coercive
00:22:46.600 policies.
00:22:49.080 There are
00:22:49.760 some major
00:22:50.220 organizations,
00:22:51.100 like I mentioned
00:22:51.660 earlier,
00:22:52.200 using this
00:22:52.820 nudging tactic
00:22:53.900 on the
00:22:54.600 populace.
00:22:55.300 the
00:22:56.180 aforementioned
00:22:57.300 behavioral
00:22:57.900 insights team
00:22:58.840 BIT from
00:22:59.980 the UK.
00:23:00.460 It started
00:23:00.980 in 2010.
00:23:01.480 It is now
00:23:02.220 global.
00:23:03.360 The White
00:23:03.660 House had a
00:23:04.140 social and
00:23:04.580 behavioral science
00:23:05.560 team under
00:23:06.300 Obama,
00:23:07.180 and then of
00:23:07.860 course,
00:23:08.320 as I mentioned,
00:23:09.180 Canada had
00:23:09.840 their own,
00:23:10.640 hundreds of
00:23:11.180 governments and
00:23:11.660 companies worldwide,
00:23:12.880 Singapore,
00:23:13.500 Australia,
00:23:14.360 shout out to
00:23:14.720 the Aussies,
00:23:15.340 they also have
00:23:16.100 one,
00:23:16.860 World Bank,
00:23:17.540 Google,
00:23:17.980 etc,
00:23:18.440 etc.
00:23:18.740 Now,
00:23:20.260 in my
00:23:21.440 opinion,
00:23:22.560 it is
00:23:23.100 blatant
00:23:24.020 societal
00:23:25.220 manipulation.
00:23:26.720 People will
00:23:27.380 argue that
00:23:27.800 it's not
00:23:28.520 because,
00:23:29.780 you know,
00:23:29.920 we need to
00:23:30.560 use these
00:23:31.020 tactics to
00:23:31.860 kind of get
00:23:32.460 some kind
00:23:32.920 of compliance
00:23:33.400 from people,
00:23:33.960 but this is
00:23:35.520 something,
00:23:35.940 again,
00:23:36.040 that you use
00:23:36.560 on children,
00:23:37.380 right?
00:23:38.000 It gives
00:23:38.920 you a subtle
00:23:39.780 influence without
00:23:40.440 awareness for a
00:23:41.260 lot of people.
00:23:41.760 They often work
00:23:42.300 below the level
00:23:43.140 of conscious
00:23:43.820 decision-making,
00:23:44.920 exploiting,
00:23:45.620 you know,
00:23:45.860 biases and stuff
00:23:46.680 like that,
00:23:47.140 like the
00:23:48.100 default one
00:23:48.740 or framing
00:23:49.300 things and
00:23:50.740 it kind of
00:23:51.160 pushes behavior
00:23:52.000 a certain way.
00:23:53.200 Now,
00:23:54.280 this bypasses,
00:23:55.500 I believe,
00:23:56.380 your rational
00:23:56.940 choice,
00:23:57.500 making it
00:23:57.940 manipulative
00:23:58.440 because a
00:23:59.600 lot of people
00:24:00.020 don't realize
00:24:00.660 that they're
00:24:00.940 being pushed
00:24:01.460 in one
00:24:01.760 direction.
00:24:03.880 A power
00:24:04.740 imbalance,
00:24:05.420 the choice
00:24:05.840 architects,
00:24:07.100 governments,
00:24:07.780 companies,
00:24:08.460 and the
00:24:08.760 designers or
00:24:09.400 whoever of
00:24:09.880 these things,
00:24:10.820 they hold
00:24:11.420 the power
00:24:11.740 to shape
00:24:12.120 the opinions,
00:24:13.440 potentially
00:24:13.820 advancing their
00:24:14.440 agenda over
00:24:15.000 individuals.
00:24:15.800 So,
00:24:16.500 again,
00:24:16.760 with this
00:24:18.000 stuff,
00:24:18.620 it's a
00:24:18.920 tool,
00:24:19.380 once again,
00:24:19.980 that had a
00:24:21.160 benefit,
00:24:21.640 like I said,
00:24:22.100 for children
00:24:22.620 when you're
00:24:22.940 trying to get
00:24:23.420 them to,
00:24:23.940 you know,
00:24:24.780 keep themselves
00:24:25.460 safe or behave
00:24:26.320 in a way that
00:24:26.840 is safe and
00:24:27.360 healthy for
00:24:27.780 them,
00:24:28.180 but it's been
00:24:29.060 taken a step
00:24:29.680 further now
00:24:30.320 to make it,
00:24:33.020 you know,
00:24:33.940 people use it
00:24:35.240 to advance
00:24:35.840 their own
00:24:36.340 agenda over
00:24:37.060 individual rights
00:24:37.980 and freedoms.
00:24:38.980 Philosopher
00:24:39.500 Sarah Conley
00:24:40.740 has called
00:24:41.140 this course
00:24:41.660 of paternalism
00:24:42.640 in disguise.
00:24:43.860 Well,
00:24:44.220 other people
00:24:44.620 also mention
00:24:45.340 that it is
00:24:46.160 enabling hidden
00:24:46.860 propaganda
00:24:47.460 or corporate
00:24:48.880 profit,
00:24:50.200 and that is
00:24:50.880 in regards
00:24:51.600 to,
00:24:52.000 you know,
00:24:52.500 apps nudging
00:24:53.260 you to
00:24:53.720 toward impulse
00:24:54.740 buys or
00:24:55.380 stores,
00:24:56.520 grocery stores
00:24:57.120 are set up
00:24:57.560 a certain way
00:24:58.120 to nudge
00:24:59.340 you towards
00:24:59.740 impulse buys
00:25:00.360 and it's
00:25:00.620 usually the
00:25:00.980 unhealthy
00:25:01.300 stuff.
00:25:02.100 The slippery
00:25:03.160 slope thing
00:25:03.840 that we talked
00:25:04.360 about,
00:25:04.680 so if this
00:25:05.620 stuff is
00:25:05.960 normalized,
00:25:07.000 nudges are
00:25:07.440 normalized,
00:25:07.980 they could
00:25:08.200 evolve into
00:25:08.820 obviously more
00:25:09.700 overt controls
00:25:10.700 like we saw
00:25:11.500 in the novel
00:25:12.040 1984,
00:25:13.740 soon to
00:25:14.100 be,
00:25:14.500 you know,
00:25:15.060 going to
00:25:15.340 be,
00:25:15.780 what,
00:25:15.940 2054
00:25:16.580 maybe here.
00:25:19.360 Bioethicist
00:25:20.040 Julian
00:25:21.300 Savalescu
00:25:22.180 has raised
00:25:22.920 concerns that
00:25:23.760 nudging might
00:25:24.500 undermine
00:25:25.000 autonomy,
00:25:26.200 especially in
00:25:26.900 sensitive areas
00:25:27.600 like health
00:25:28.160 or voting,
00:25:29.120 turning society
00:25:29.880 into a
00:25:30.500 nanny state.
00:25:32.420 Sound familiar?
00:25:34.080 And obviously
00:25:35.100 the last thing
00:25:36.260 I believe
00:25:37.400 and the
00:25:38.660 why,
00:25:39.580 rather I can
00:25:40.120 say it's
00:25:40.540 societal
00:25:40.940 manipulation,
00:25:41.800 is the
00:25:42.120 lack of
00:25:42.460 transparency.
00:25:43.560 They're not
00:25:44.160 always disclosed,
00:25:45.200 right?
00:25:45.400 And as we saw
00:25:46.020 with the
00:25:46.420 COVID thing,
00:25:47.580 none of it
00:25:48.600 was disclosed
00:25:49.660 to us,
00:25:49.980 so there's no
00:25:50.400 transparency,
00:25:51.180 so how can
00:25:51.760 it not be
00:25:52.860 manipulation?
00:25:55.120 It feels
00:25:55.920 like deceit
00:25:56.580 because it's
00:25:57.460 not transparent
00:25:58.480 and it's
00:25:59.420 kind of like
00:26:00.120 psychological
00:26:01.100 mind tricks
00:26:02.460 on you,
00:26:03.120 you know,
00:26:03.440 Jedi mind
00:26:04.000 tricks,
00:26:04.580 psychological
00:26:05.160 warfare,
00:26:05.980 whatever.
00:26:07.400 Now,
00:26:07.820 I could
00:26:07.980 probably go
00:26:08.420 on forever
00:26:09.540 about this
00:26:10.300 one,
00:26:10.800 but just
00:26:11.420 I wanted
00:26:12.140 to talk
00:26:12.440 about it
00:26:12.640 because it's
00:26:13.040 one of the
00:26:13.420 things that
00:26:13.860 really fucking
00:26:14.580 angered me
00:26:15.120 the most
00:26:15.720 about the
00:26:16.880 whole debacle
00:26:18.100 of Convid,
00:26:19.900 that was Convid,
00:26:20.820 was the
00:26:21.260 manipulation and
00:26:21.860 the gaslighting
00:26:22.460 of anyone
00:26:23.180 who had
00:26:24.960 questions with
00:26:26.280 their little,
00:26:26.800 you know,
00:26:27.100 world psyop test
00:26:28.320 that they ran.
00:26:29.820 We got to
00:26:30.760 remember continuing
00:26:31.860 going on into
00:26:33.260 this world in
00:26:34.720 the future,
00:26:35.800 pushing forward,
00:26:36.580 we have to
00:26:37.080 remember that
00:26:37.540 we don't
00:26:38.020 need daddy
00:26:39.420 government to
00:26:40.080 tell us how
00:26:40.520 to live and
00:26:41.060 a lot of
00:26:41.460 people forgot
00:26:41.980 that and
00:26:43.040 that's because
00:26:43.440 they manufactured
00:26:44.160 a crisis making
00:26:45.060 people feel
00:26:45.580 helpless but you
00:26:46.640 don't need daddy
00:26:47.660 government to
00:26:48.420 tell you what to
00:26:48.880 do, believe me,
00:26:50.020 try it.
00:26:51.220 We don't need
00:26:52.100 them to raise
00:26:52.980 our kids or
00:26:54.060 tell us what's
00:26:55.080 good for us
00:26:55.860 because if you
00:26:56.940 don't know these
00:26:58.180 things as an
00:27:00.460 adult then that
00:27:02.020 is entirely on
00:27:02.860 to you.
00:27:03.240 I will see
00:27:06.200 you next time.