6 ms·

The BITE Model of Authoritarian Control (2020)

95 points by WaitWaitWha 5y ago

sjbr 5y ago
B(I)TE Information control Illustration: http://www.crustaceansingles.com/2016/04/inquiring-minds.html http://www.crustaceansingles.com/2016/04/inquiring-minds.htm...
- ScarletEmerald 5y ago
  I haven't read the dissertation yet. But just reading the cartoon you linked put me in mind of a friend who's spendt the last year headed down various cult/conspiracy theory rabbit holes, despite the efforts of their friends and family. They would absolutely agree that our society is dominated by authoritarian mind control. And angrily complaining that no one takes them seriously when they question the consensus narrative has become their favorite pastime. As presented in the previous posters cartoon, from their perspective B(I)TE describes what they see as a conspiracy against "the real truth". For example: >"Of course you're allowed to ask questions. Here is the list of approved questions." Why aren't candidates for office all tested by <my pet kook> to make sure they aren't really lizard people? Why don't flat-earthers get equal academic research funding? What are the real reasons why we haven't gone back to the Moon? >"You're absolutely free to study and investigate for yourself. Here is the list of approved sources." These YouTube videos all tell me I'm right. So do all these people on Twitter. Academic journals, mainstream media and PhD are all in on the scam, except for this one who agrees with what I think. >"We're not trying to stifle thought! We want you to learn everything you can as you reach the approved conclusions." Why does no one take my concerns about cancer from 5G wifi seriously? Why do you all look at me strangely when I saw the Earth is really only 6000 years old? Lamarckian evolution really makes sense. You're all sheep for believing in that Darwin crap!
  - verisimi 5y ago
    Is it possible that you and I are as susceptible as all humanity throughout history to consensus beliefs? You would probably disagree with how Christianity framed the common worldview in Europe in the Middle Ages. Or how Islamic beliefs did the same in the Islamic countries. Or Ancient India. Etc. But you are convinced that you are closer to a true understanding of reality now than they were. Why? Can you explain why your view of reality is better via the use of reason alone, without reference to your culture? I would think you would struggle. Perhaps some older views of the world were as well or better reasoned than the beliefs we presently take for granted. And I say 'belief' because even if we think such-and-such is 'known to us' unless you have personally verified it, is is a belief not knowledge to you. It is an illusion of knowledge. Questions about understanding objective reality are mostly answered by consensus answers ('palmed off', is more accurate). Most of us live in a world of belief, where we cannot truly claim to know very much. For example - how did you prove the earth was a ball to yourself such that you can call that knowledge, even though the intuitive working assumption that we all share is that it is flat? Most likely you assume that some scientist has got this, so you don't need to know. I say that accepting this sort of 'fast and loose' belief despite any personal experience, is to do a dis-service to oneself. It leaves one susceptible to common misunderstandings, unable to evaluate things for oneself, demanding an authority figure to guide one through the morass of difficult questions. This is plainly a dis-empowered position. There are surely lots of nefarious characters that would seek to take advantage of people's misplaced faith, no?
Eddy_Viscosity2 5y ago
Did any one read this? Anything good bits?
- nonrandomstring 5y ago
  This looks bloody amazing. As someone who has worked in positive influence and wants to learn as much as possible in the fight against advertising, fake news, and the ever increasing abuse of technology to dominate and manipulate society I'll take a close look. It may be a few weeks before I find anything to say as it looks daunting.
  - raidicy 5y ago
    He's also got a book out, "Combating Cult Mind Control", although it looks to have been published before this. I'm curious of the differences.
    - zzzeek 5y ago
      the BITE model is essentially a refined, bullet-point style distillation of the same concepts that are in Combatting Cult Mind Control, which Hassan wrote many decades ago.
- sjbr 5y ago
  BITE = Behavior Information Thought Emotional Control All cults use that but all religions do too to a certain degree. No sane religion will allow members that can think for themselves to do an independent research and decide if they want to join or not. That would remove the easiest prey, children. Children have an implicit trust in his parents so religion will hijack that and insert themselves at the center of their lives. As Paine said: All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.
  - swayvil 5y ago
    Most of us don't independently research the science either. Trash epistemology is the norm. Also, every ideology seems to be enemies with the others. No seeking of common ground. Each painting the other as pure crazy evil. That's an interesting constant.
zzzeek 5y ago
Yes. Been following Hassan since the late 80s and this is important stuff. Understanding of cult mind control is central to understanding so much going on today as well as things that have gone on for decades.
- verisimi 5y ago
  .. centuries
shmageggy 5y ago
Why are domains like ancestry.com in the required cookies list?
thot_experiment 5y ago
Interesting, I just heard of this today from this video https://youtu.be/aZyIjBxxpTY?t=6177 https://youtu.be/aZyIjBxxpTY?t=6177 in a not so flattering context. She doesn't cite any sources for the debunking and google didn't really bring much up, anyone have more info?
Synaesthesia 5y ago
Noam Chomsky's "Necessary Illusions" goes into the thought control exercised in free democratic societies. https://zcomm.org/necessary-illusions/ https://zcomm.org/necessary-illusions/
greatgib 5y ago
Just so you know, 'bite' in french means 'dick'...
- donpott 5y ago
  Do you think this was a factor when they decided to call bytes (data information unit) "octets" instead?

95 points by WaitWaitWha 5y ago

sjbr 5y ago

B(I)TE Information control Illustration: http://www.crustaceansingles.com/2016/04/inquiring-minds.html http://www.crustaceansingles.com/2016/04/inquiring-minds.htm...

ScarletEmerald 5y ago
I haven't read the dissertation yet. But just reading the cartoon you linked put me in mind of a friend who's spendt the last year headed down various cult/conspiracy theory rabbit holes, despite the efforts of their friends and family. They would absolutely agree that our society is dominated by authoritarian mind control. And angrily complaining that no one takes them seriously when they question the consensus narrative has become their favorite pastime. As presented in the previous posters cartoon, from their perspective B(I)TE describes what they see as a conspiracy against "the real truth". For example: >"Of course you're allowed to ask questions. Here is the list of approved questions." Why aren't candidates for office all tested by <my pet kook> to make sure they aren't really lizard people? Why don't flat-earthers get equal academic research funding? What are the real reasons why we haven't gone back to the Moon? >"You're absolutely free to study and investigate for yourself. Here is the list of approved sources." These YouTube videos all tell me I'm right. So do all these people on Twitter. Academic journals, mainstream media and PhD are all in on the scam, except for this one who agrees with what I think. >"We're not trying to stifle thought! We want you to learn everything you can as you reach the approved conclusions." Why does no one take my concerns about cancer from 5G wifi seriously? Why do you all look at me strangely when I saw the Earth is really only 6000 years old? Lamarckian evolution really makes sense. You're all sheep for believing in that Darwin crap!
- verisimi 5y ago
  Is it possible that you and I are as susceptible as all humanity throughout history to consensus beliefs? You would probably disagree with how Christianity framed the common worldview in Europe in the Middle Ages. Or how Islamic beliefs did the same in the Islamic countries. Or Ancient India. Etc. But you are convinced that you are closer to a true understanding of reality now than they were. Why? Can you explain why your view of reality is better via the use of reason alone, without reference to your culture? I would think you would struggle. Perhaps some older views of the world were as well or better reasoned than the beliefs we presently take for granted. And I say 'belief' because even if we think such-and-such is 'known to us' unless you have personally verified it, is is a belief not knowledge to you. It is an illusion of knowledge. Questions about understanding objective reality are mostly answered by consensus answers ('palmed off', is more accurate). Most of us live in a world of belief, where we cannot truly claim to know very much. For example - how did you prove the earth was a ball to yourself such that you can call that knowledge, even though the intuitive working assumption that we all share is that it is flat? Most likely you assume that some scientist has got this, so you don't need to know. I say that accepting this sort of 'fast and loose' belief despite any personal experience, is to do a dis-service to oneself. It leaves one susceptible to common misunderstandings, unable to evaluate things for oneself, demanding an authority figure to guide one through the morass of difficult questions. This is plainly a dis-empowered position. There are surely lots of nefarious characters that would seek to take advantage of people's misplaced faith, no?

Eddy_Viscosity2 5y ago

Did any one read this? Anything good bits?

nonrandomstring 5y ago
This looks bloody amazing. As someone who has worked in positive influence and wants to learn as much as possible in the fight against advertising, fake news, and the ever increasing abuse of technology to dominate and manipulate society I'll take a close look. It may be a few weeks before I find anything to say as it looks daunting.
- raidicy 5y ago
  He's also got a book out, "Combating Cult Mind Control", although it looks to have been published before this. I'm curious of the differences.
  - zzzeek 5y ago
    the BITE model is essentially a refined, bullet-point style distillation of the same concepts that are in Combatting Cult Mind Control, which Hassan wrote many decades ago.
sjbr 5y ago
BITE = Behavior Information Thought Emotional Control All cults use that but all religions do too to a certain degree. No sane religion will allow members that can think for themselves to do an independent research and decide if they want to join or not. That would remove the easiest prey, children. Children have an implicit trust in his parents so religion will hijack that and insert themselves at the center of their lives. As Paine said: All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.
- swayvil 5y ago
  Most of us don't independently research the science either. Trash epistemology is the norm. Also, every ideology seems to be enemies with the others. No seeking of common ground. Each painting the other as pure crazy evil. That's an interesting constant.

zzzeek 5y ago

Yes. Been following Hassan since the late 80s and this is important stuff. Understanding of cult mind control is central to understanding so much going on today as well as things that have gone on for decades.

verisimi 5y ago
.. centuries

shmageggy 5y ago

Why are domains like ancestry.com in the required cookies list?

thot_experiment 5y ago

Interesting, I just heard of this today from this video https://youtu.be/aZyIjBxxpTY?t=6177 https://youtu.be/aZyIjBxxpTY?t=6177 in a not so flattering context. She doesn't cite any sources for the debunking and google didn't really bring much up, anyone have more info?

Synaesthesia 5y ago

Noam Chomsky's "Necessary Illusions" goes into the thought control exercised in free democratic societies. https://zcomm.org/necessary-illusions/ https://zcomm.org/necessary-illusions/

greatgib 5y ago

Just so you know, 'bite' in french means 'dick'...

donpott 5y ago
Do you think this was a factor when they decided to call bytes (data information unit) "octets" instead?