{"id":2013735,"date":"2023-08-27T17:26:01","date_gmt":"2023-08-27T21:26:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-conformity-impulse\/"},"modified":"2023-08-27T17:28:02","modified_gmt":"2023-08-27T21:28:02","slug":"the-conformity-impulse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-conformity-impulse\/","title":{"rendered":"The urge to conform."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">8<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fthe-conformity-impulse%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2013735&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><h2>In a\u2063 recent\u200b episode \u200cof &#8220;American Thought Leaders,&#8221; host Jan Jekielek and \u200dStella Morabito discuss the fear of ostracism involved in the suppression of free speech and\u2063 the\u200b ways \u200cin which dictators seek to break trust among families and friends.<\/h2>\n<p>Morabito \u2062is a\u200d senior contributor to The\u200d Federalist and a former CIA\u2062 intelligence analyst \u200bwho studied the \u2064psychology behind Soviet Union\u200d propaganda. Her latest book is \u201cThe Weaponization of Loneliness: How\u200d Tyrants Stoke Our Fear \u200dof Isolation to\u200b Silence, Divide, and Conquer.\u201d<\/p>\n<h3>Jan Jekielek:<\/h3>\n<p>Stella, viewers of American Thought Leaders\u200b know I talk about the megaphone, a\u2064 mechanism used to manufacture perceived consensus in society. Prior to reading\u2064 your\u2063 book, I didn\u2019t understand how that mechanism really worked.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<div class=\"border-comp-divider mb-4 mr-4 w-full max-w-[500px] border px-5 py-4 text-[16px] leading-[20px] text-[#262626] md:float-left\">\n<div class=\"mb-3 font-sans text-[16px] font-semibold uppercase leading-[19px] text-[#2F2F2F]\">Related \u2062Stories<\/div>\n<div class=\"mb-4 flex gap-2\">\n<div class=\"grow\">\n<div class=\"mb-1 line-clamp-2\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/changing-hearts-is-key-to-ending-abortion-according-to-former-top-pediatric-surgeon-ben-carson-5430151\">Changing \u200bHearts Is Key to Ending Abortion, According to Former Top\u2064 Pediatric Surgeon Ben Carson<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"text-comp-caption text-[14px] leading-[18px]\">8\/8\/2023<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"shrink-0 basis-[120px]\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/changing-hearts-is-key-to-ending-abortion-according-to-former-top-pediatric-surgeon-ben-carson-5430151\"><\/a><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mb-4 flex gap-2\">\n<div class=\"grow\">\n<div class=\"mb-1 line-clamp-2\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/world\/former-downing-street-adviser-woke-ideology-infesting-classrooms-and-pushing-teachers-out-5451037\">Former Downing Street\u2063 Adviser: Woke \u200cIdeology Infesting \u200bClassrooms and \u2062Pushing Teachers Out<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"text-comp-caption text-[14px] leading-[18px]\">8\/8\/2023<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"shrink-0 basis-[120px]\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/world\/former-downing-street-adviser-woke-ideology-infesting-classrooms-and-pushing-teachers-out-5451037\"><\/a><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n<h3>Stella Morabito:<\/h3>\n<p>The\u200d megaphone \u200dis propaganda combined with\u200d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/secretary-of-state-michael-pompeo-time-to-put-wokeism-to-sleep\/\" title=\"Secretary of State Michael Pompeo: Time to 'Put Wokeism to Sleep'\">political correctness<\/a> \u200dto create an illusion of \u2062consensus. Why do \u2063so many people fall in line \u2064with it, and how do those pushing a\u200c propagandist narrative get away with it? Those two questions\u2063 were driving\u2062 me in \u201cThe Weaponization of Loneliness.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The way it works is that human beings have a hardwired need to connect with \u200bothers. We\u2064 really can\u2019t survive in isolation.\u2062 The flip side\u2063 is \u200da primal fear of ostracism. Those who apply this megaphone of \u200cpropaganda and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-conformity-impulse\/\" title=\"The urge to conform.\">political \u2063correctness operate<\/a> the\u2063 machinery of loneliness that triggers this conformity impulse,\u2062 this need to \u2063obey whatever we perceive as a consensus, even \u2062if it\u2019s not really the consensus.<\/p>\n<h3>Jan \u200bJekielek:<\/h3>\n<p>I didn\u2019t realize\u2063 the importance\u2064 of our need to belong, and how it could be a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/indiana-republicans-pawned-social-conservatism-for-economic-growth-and-got-neither\/\" title=\"Indiana Republicans Pawned Social Conservatism For Economic Growth And Got Neither\">central organizing principle<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>Stella Morabito:<\/h3>\n<p>This hardwired impulse to conform\u2064 has a huge effect\u200c on society, especially when\u2064 people\u2064 keep falling in line with \u200da\u200b megaphone \u2063that only creates an illusion of consensus and when people aren\u2019t\u2063 really talking\u200c to one \u200banother because \u2064they\u2019re fearful of\u2064 saying the\u2063 wrong thing. It can\u2064 be operated by tyrants of all stripes.<\/p>\n<p>The only way around this is to have\u2064 strong relationships \u200din private life, family or \u200bgood friends. This is\u2063 why\u200d the private sphere of life \u2063becomes a target for tyrants\u200c and totalitarians. Loyalties on a \u2064personal level threaten those who want to achieve power and\u200b social control. So they \u200bweaponize our fear of being\u200c alone\u2062 and threaten us with loneliness if we don\u2019t \u200bgo \u200calong with \u200dtheir agenda.<\/p>\n<p>In my book, I discuss the machinery of\u2062 this loneliness. It has three \u200bmain components, and I would add those to the megaphone. The first component is identity politics, which erases us as individuals and \u2064pigeonholes us according to \u200bvictim or oppressor status. Second, there\u2019s political correctness, where one-sided propaganda can\u200b control discussion \u2062and induce self-censorship by our fear of rejection for saying the \u200cwrong \u2064thing.<\/p>\n<p>The third component is mob agitation, like \u200bthe \u200bmobs on social media and street \u200cmobs like Antifa. \u200dThese mobs take different forms, but \u200dserve to\u200c enforce political correctness, identity politics, and the propaganda driving the agenda.<\/p>\n<h3>Jan Jekielek:<\/h3>\n<p>You wrote, \u201cPretending to go along with the \u2064belief you don\u2019t actually \u200dhold creates a ripple effect.\u201d You cite some work done on availability cascades. Please explain this to us.<\/p>\n<h3>Stella\u200d Morabito:<\/h3>\n<p>The\u2062 availability cascade is a term that comes \u200dup in an article co-authored by \u200cCass Sunstein, Obama\u2019s regulatory czar in his second term, \u2062and Timur Kuran, a social\u2064 economist.<\/p>\n<p>They explain that \u2063you can create the illusion of a consensus on just about \u200danything if people keep \u200dquiet about what they truly believe. They said that it\u2064 doesn\u2019t \u2064even matter how\u200d fringy \u2063an idea \u2063is. If you keep injecting it into \u2062public discourse\u200b over and over again,\u2062 you create this \u2062cascade of public opinion.<\/p>\n<p>If you look at some \u2063of the absurdities we\u2019re dealing\u2063 with today, that\u2019s \u2064exactly what\u200b happened. Certain issues get injected time\u200d and again. I keep coming back to the transgender\u2063 issue because it\u2019s so fascinating.<\/p>\n<p>In \u200b2014, Time magazine came out with a big article, \u201cThe Transgender Tipping Point.\u201d \u2062Then, \u2064Caitlin Bruce Jenner had that Vanity \u200dFair article, and \u200bhe was a\u200d star and athlete. So you had \u2062this intersection of popular\u200c culture and Hollywood,\u200d and\u2064 a lot of academics \u200brepeatedly injecting this idea into the public discourse. That\u2019s really all it took before\u2063 people \u200dsaid, \u201cOK, so this is what\u2064 I should \u2064believe.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the availability cascade, and\u2063 it in<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>the impact of suppressing free speech on social relationships. In their conversation on &#8220;American Thought Leaders,&#8221; Jan Jekielek and Stella Morabito explore how dictators manipulate trust within families and friends to instill fear of ostracism. Morabito, a former CIA analyst and senior contributor to The Federalist, sheds light on the dangers of silencing dissent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2349,"featured_media":2013736,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[543],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2013735","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2013735","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2349"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2013735"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2013735\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2013736"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2013735"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2013735"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2013735"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}