Thursday, October 22, 2015

Scam Psychology: the echo chamber effect (and how it turns you into a recluse)

Sheeple
That's sheeple. Does that look familiar to you?
(Photo credit: hermetic hermit)
MLM is all about your "team", team spirit and camaraderie, don't let the team down, we'll be there for you, blah blah blah.

But have you ever considered the NEGATIVE effects of a team environment?  (Or is that merely "negativity" to be avoided?)

When you are in a social group such as a team, clan, whatever, you automatically try to fit in. You will conform yourself to the team, just as the team will conform to you. You will all have to same position, same opinion, etc. You may have differences in minor details, but you will go along on the "big stuff".

You are suffering from the "echo chamber effect", because you only hang out with people that you think have similar ideology to yours. Your ideas are echoing back to you, and other people's ideas are passing through you, and being echoed back to them. Soon everybody think alike, and like seeks like. Such things does NOT happen when you have a mix of people holding opposite views and have a nice proper discussion of the issues.

The advent of internet only made it EASIER for like to seek like. You can find all sorts of bull**** on the Internet nowadays, and forums hosting such. If you can't find one, start one yourself. People will agree on absurd topics such as "ISIS has infiltrated every church in America" to "school shootings were staged with shill mourners".

After a while in the echo chamber, you will suppress your own thoughts because you reasoned that the your group would never accept your "anti-group" thoughts. That's known as the Semmelweis Reflex.

That's fine when the ideas are logical and proper, but when they are not, it can be very dangerous.

Scammers have understood this for a long time. They are out seeking sheeple who hadn't gotten wise to the schemes, esp. when the scheme caters to one of an universal wants: trying to make one's life better.  However, scammers will pervert such wants into feeding your fears and sell you a bogus solution.



Ever seen the news, where a crowd was yelling at a suicidal man on the roof to "go ahead and jump already"? WHILE the police was trying to talk him down safely? It's not a joke. It really happened. And more than once.

Ah, but you say, that's in the UK. But it also happened in the US... San Francisco, in fact. People actually cheered and laughed, like ghouls, when a man jumped off a ledge and fell to his death.  At least in San Francisco, they didn't yell "jump!" according to people on scene, but they didn't yell "DON'T DO IT!" either.

But you ask, how is this related to network marketing?

Consider this: are you *sure* you are really thinking for yourself, and not just repeating an echo you picked up from your team / echo chamber?

Are your thinking REALLY your own, or merely that you've been Borg-ified, and you're now just a drone, only able to repeat what the leader (Borg Queen) ordered?
Patrick Stewart as Locutus, the assimilated Je...
Patrick Stewart as Locutus, the assimilated Jean-Luc Picard
(Photo credit: Wikipedia)

How would you know if you're really thinking for yourself, without getting AWAY from the echo chamber / team and see if you think differently, by hanging out people who don't think like your team?

Will you believe stuff like "the 1% are out to oppress us, and this scheme is my chance to 'stick it to da Man!'?"  or somewhat more benign "The 1% have secret programs to make money and this guy can help me make that kind of money... if I give the money to him"?

You may if you're in an echo chamber, full of other people who also want to believe.

And your leaders and fellow members fervently want you to STAY in the echo chamber, even as you realize you may have made a mistake, that you were hasty in making that decision. They will pull every string on you, insult you ("you're clearly not ready / not good enough"), shame you ("you're a quitter who let everybody down"), pray for you ("you're clearly confused and we pray for your wisdom"), and perhaps, even lie to you ("everything will turn out all right"), to force you to change your mind and reaffirm your earlier hasty decision.

Why would your team leader tell you to "avoid negativity", which basically means they *want* you to stay in the echo chamber, and NEVER consider there may be a different way to look at the situation?

Why are they megalomaniacs who cannot admit they could be wrong?  Why are they so confident, when wise men throughout history have told us that the really smart people are full of doubt, and it is the stupid that are so sure of themselves?

Why do they want you to avoid exposure to the possibility that they could be wrong? What are they afraid of?

The answer is simple: they are afraid they will lose control over you.

They do NOT want you to think for yourself.

They want you to be sheeple, and stay sheeple.

Sheeple don't run. They stay around to be fleeced.

Don't be sheeple. 


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