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Emma M.'s avatar

It seems to me like there is some kind of 'overcorrection effect' that society and people are vulnerable to. I've noticed this with many things throughout time. Does anyone know if there is any academic writing describing something like that? The sentence illustrating the point about rule-following societies exemplifies it, "if it's bad to underrepresent them, it must be good to overrepresent them."

Obviously, propaganda or 'cultural messaging' plays a significant role on pretty much everything and its importance can't be overstated, but in order for it to be so effective, there must be some neurobiological, psychological, or sociological (or a combination thereof) vulnerability for us to respond to this messaging so well. I wonder if this is something specific related to rule-following behaviour. Perhaps it involves thought in general, as I believe this happens with more abstract (non-social or political) matters too, but I can't think of an example off the top of my head.

E.g.: in response to learning of an overestimation of crime (or some other kind of antisocial behaviour) in a certain demographic, there comes to be an underestimation; in turn, I suspect that rather than there being an equilibrium toward a more accurate view of reality, the bias will turn the other direction.

Thanks for another thought provoking piece, Frost. I always look forward to your writing, and it always expands my mind and gives me something to think about for some time after.

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United Against Oligarchy's avatar

Thank you for this. I think it's important to understand how the owners/rulers of society are using mass migration to farther their own hierarchical anti-egalitarian ends. Some of this is described here http://johnspritzler.substack.com/p/german-and-us-rulers-are-using-weapons and here (with a focus on US, but same pattern is true also for the corporate empire's colonies in europe) https://johnspritzler.substack.com/p/illegal-immigration-to-the-us-myth

And finally, here https://www.pdrboston.org/inventing-the-enemy

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