The War On Critical Thinking
I’ve been a member of a certain online forum for a few months now. The topic of the forum centers around truth, logic and exposing conspiracies as well as government and media corruption.
The owner, an ex NSA analyst, and core members there are very astute critical thinkers and they have cut through many of the lies rammed down the throats of the unwitting using sheer logic and common sense to investigate the legitimacy of the stories pushed out through the media. They have proven that the Fukushima nuclear reactors were sabotaged in March 2011, the 9.0 earthquake reported on that date didn’t happen, and most recently, that the explosions in Damascus, Syria were nuclear detonations rather than conventional explosives. So as you can imagine, the people and groups who want to keep these facts hidden under a veil of lies have been taking a lot of interest in the community.
After each new revelation the forum gets hit by trolls either working as individuals or with software allowing them to log in to multiple accounts at once and they spam the hell out of the place. We’ve come to expect it over there now, but I took a great interest in the methods they were using. I kept asking myself why they were posting the types of messages and replies and after several months, I’ve formed a theory: It’s not the site, the forum or the topics they are attacking, it’s not even really the people – it’s the minds of the members – specifically: the critical thought process itself.
Here’s why I’ve come to this conclusion:
When a person is thinking critically, they are using and developing the area of their brains that allow for that type of thinking. The more you think this way, the more refined and astute that area of the brain becomes. And in a world where critical thinking is the enemy of the control structure of the elites, they and their minions will do anything to make sure the critical thinking portion of the brain gets as little use as possible.
When a troll injects religion into the forum – and they have expended a great deal of time and energy trying to do so – they bring the reader’s brain out of critical thinking mode and into reflective, belief or creative mode. Now that the brain is in this mode, it’s nearly incapable of the critical thinking part because it’s busy elsewhere.
Slinging personal insults is another one of their tactics. Not only does it cause tension and deter casual readers or new people from joining the discussion, it puts the brain of the person being attacked into defensive emotional mode where critical thought is overpowered by emotion. You’re not thinking critically and using logic when you’re mad. You are reacting, not acting.
Calling things into doubt puts the brain into cognitive dissonance mode where the reader struggles with him/her self. What’s really true and what’s a lie? Are demons controlling everything? Is reality a hologram or program playing out in some glalctic super computer? We see topics like this over there all the time and their sole purpose is to distract and give the impression that logic is futile.
It’s fascinating to watch this play out. On the majority of forums online, those topics and tactics have flooded the discussions but on this particular forum, the members are so astute that they recognize the troll tactics instantly and the moderators simply delete the threads. It’s a constant game of whack-a-mole but the trolls are powerless over there. It’s actually hilarious seeing their reactions. But, I digress…
Online trolls will do anything they can on forums, social media, blogs, etc. to pull your mind out of logic and critical thinking mode and into anything but. Your best defense against this is simply knowing what they’re doing and why.
The forum full of smart people and critical thinkers I’ve been talking about is here: Jim Stone’s Forum. The domain name is a bit strange, but it’s that way because his other sites have been targeted so baqdly he had to abandon them. If you decide to visit the forum, please leave your religious ruminations and existentialism at the door, or you won’t last long 
By Paul Short on 19/05/2013
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Excellent post, Paul.
Anyone out there who reads this and wants to help find paths through the smoke and mirrors, please do join us at the Jim Stone forum.