【推文】James Lindsay - Another lesson on propaganda: manufactured consensus and audience capture

這是 James Lindsay 最近寫的長推文串

連結

• 原推文 - x.com/conceptualjame...

• Thread Reader App版本（一頁版本） - threadreaderapp.com/...

原文及個人翻譯

Let's do another lesson on propaganda! It's so important to understand the various elements of propaganda in shaping opinion, especially on social media, where it can look very organic. I want to talk about two paired phenomena here: manufactured consensus and audience capture. 🧵

讓我們來上另一堂關於宣傳的課吧！理解塑造輿論的各種宣傳元素極其重要，尤其是在社交媒體上，那裡宣傳可能看起來非常自然。我想在這裡談談兩個配對的現象：人工製造的共識和觀眾捕捉。

I actually want to start by talking about something the Communists did in Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China, which, in the latter case, got described with the term "planned spontaneity." Manufactured consensus very frequently follows from orchestrated spontaneity.

The idea of planned spontaneity is that a planned event occurs in such a way that makes it look like an organic groundswell. Everyone is suddenly thinking it. Using George Soros's dialectical technology, it's called "reflexivity" today, but it's ultimately fake. It's propaganda.

我其實想從談論共產主義者在蘇聯和中華人民共和國所做的事情開始，在後者的情況下，這被稱為「被計劃的自發性」。人工製造的共識很常從有組織的自發性中產生。

「被計劃的自發性」的概念是，一場被計劃的事件發生起來讓它看起來像是有機的、自發的浪潮的方式發生。每個人突然都在思考它。使用喬治·索羅斯的辯證技術，它今天被稱為「反射性」，但最終是假的。這是宣傳。

The goal of planned spontaneity is to get the population at large to believe something is happening, popular, and the right way to go, something exciting and organic and real and important, even though it's centrally orchestrated for a particular central agenda.

The mechanism is achieved by creating conditions where some (actually rather many) paid agents initiate from undercover what looks like a grassroots movement in a particular direction while encouraging lots of organic involvement to jump in all over the place. Looks spontaneous.

「被計劃的自發性」的目標是讓廣大人口相信某件事情正在發生、很受歡迎、是正確的方向，是一件令人興奮、有機、真實且重要的事情，即使它為特定中央議程而精心策劃。

這種機制是通過創造某些狀況實現的，一些（實際上相當多）付費代理人從地下開始發起看似草根運動的行動，朝著特定方向進行，同時鼓勵許多有機參與者隨處加入。看起來很自發。

In the People's Republic of China, planned spontaneity was usually achieved through orchestrated "popular" demonstrations and Big Character Poster campaigns, where everyday people joined in or made their own posters to add to the planted ones. Mass opinion is rapidly shaped.

The idea, according to cult expert Robert Lifton, is to create an almost magical sense that everything in society is suddenly moving a certain direction that everyone must move in together right now. It's what's happening. Again, Soros incorporates this in his "reflexive" model.

Soros's reflexivity works by exploiting the gap between belief and reality in productive ways, including by manufacturing the gap between belief and reality through the planting of what he calls "fertile fallacies." The goal is to get people to believe in the wrong belief.

The quintessential example of Soros's idea of reflexivity is a bank run or stock run. People believe it is going to crash, so they pull their money out, which causes it to crash. Soros's method often included creating false beliefs in booms or busts that became true by belief.

在中華人民共和國，計劃自發性通常通過有組織的「人民」示威和大字報運動來實現，在這些運動中，普通民眾加入或製作自己的海報，添加到植入的海報中。群眾意見迅速形成。

根據邪教專家羅伯特·利夫特（Robert Lifton）的說法，其目的是創造一種近乎神奇的感覺，即社會上的每件事突然朝著某個方向移動，每個人都必須立即一起朝這個方向移動。這就是正在發生的事情。再次，索羅斯將此納入他的「反射性」模型中。

索羅斯的反射性通過利用信念與現實之間的差距來發揮作用，包括通過製造他所謂的「肥沃的錯誤」來製造信念與現實之間的差距。其目標是讓人們相信錯誤的信念。

索羅斯的反射性概念的典型例子是銀行擠兌或股票擠兌。人們相信它將崩潰，所以他們提取資金，導致它崩潰。索羅斯的方法通常包括創造對繁榮或衰退的錯誤信念，這些信念由於信念而成為現實。

Social media is almost the ideal environment for planned spontaneity manipulations to create mass movements in particular directions, particularly through their (witting or unwitting) propagandists, "influencers." This tactic is very common in ideological groups.

The way it works most often is by creating conditions that "love bomb" and promote particular opinions and views while "ratioing" others. Obviously, things go viral or get ratioed organically too, but these phenomena are extremely easy to manufacture with chat groups and bots.

社交媒體幾乎是理想的環境，適合進行「被計劃的自發性」操縱，以創造朝特定方向發展的群眾運動，尤其是通過他們（有意識或無意識的）的宣傳者、「影響者」（香港叫KOL）。這種戰術在意識形態團體中非常常見。

它通常的運作方式是創造條件，「愛的轟炸」和推廣特定的意見和觀點，同時ratioing其他意見（ratio意指通常被交媒體上回覆讚好數比原文多，令讀者認為原文的內容爛/多人反對）。顯然，事情也會有機地傳播或被ratioed，但這些現象通過聊天群組和機器人極易被製造。

The Woke Left did this extensively, buying bot farms to make sure their opinion-makers got tens of thousands of likes and shares on their idiotic agitprop, and this was extremely influential for years until people started realizing it was fake. All ideological groups do this tho.

The perception is that tens of thousands of people are agreeing with a particular ideological worldview (like bomb), or that hundreds or thousands of people are angry about some criticism or violation of that worldview (ratio), which is in itself persuasive and reflexive.

覺醒文化的左翼人士廣泛地這樣做，購買機器人農場以確保他們的輿論製造者在其愚蠢的宣傳中獲得數萬個點讚和轉發，這在幾年內極具影響力，直到人們開始意識到它是假的。但所有意識形態團體都這樣做。

這種看法是，數萬人同意特定的意識形態世界觀（如炸彈），或數百或數千人對某種批評或對該世界觀的違反感到憤怒（比例），這本身具有說服力和反射性。

Social media algorithms are actually at least partly tuned to reflexive campaigns too. That which is getting attention, positive or negative, even inorganically, gets promoted in the algorithm and therefore attracts more of the same, especially in viral campaigns.

Unbeknownst to most participants and observers, however, the like-bomb, virality, or ratio campaign was inorganically orchestrated in huge chat groups (e.g., discord servers and telegram channels), sometimes with tens of thousands of people, many with multiple accounts, or w/bots

The propaganda campaign is successful in creating the image that a particular opinion is what all people "like us" should hold or should not hold, even though it's mostly fake and manipulative. It's very effective propaganda but relatively easy to spot when it happens.

社交媒體演算法實際上也至少部分調整為迎合反射性運動。獲得關注（積極或消極）的內容，即使是無機地獲得的，也會被演算法推廣，因此吸引更多類似的內容，尤其是在病毒式傳播的運動中。

然而，大多數參與者和觀察者並不知道，這個「喜歡炸彈」、「病毒式傳播」或「ratio運動」是在巨大的聊天群組中（例如Discord伺服器和Telegram頻道）有組織地進行的，有時有數十萬人參與，許多人擁有多個帳戶或機器人。

宣傳活動成功地創造了這種形象，即特定意見是所有「像我們這樣的人」應該持有或不應該持有的意見，即使它主要是假的和操縱性的。這是一種非常有效的宣傳，但當它發生時，相對容易識別。

A second version of this phenomenon is manufactured audience capture. The exact same thing happens, following the CCP propaganda/operant conditioning strategy of "dripping." You're rewarded by the farm when you do what's wanted and ignored/punished when you don't, artificially.

In a sense, the operators behind the scenes create a false audience or even false cult environment in your replies, likes, shares, etc., that slowly condition you to do more of what they want and less of what they don't want. This is subtle and sophisticated manipulation.

第二種現象是人工製造的觀眾捕捉。同樣的事情發生了，遵循中共宣傳/操作性條件反射的策略「滴灌」。當你做他們想要的事情時，農場會獎勵你，而當你不這樣做時，你會被忽視/懲罰，這是一種人工操作。

在某種意義上，幕後的操作者通過你的回覆、點讚、轉發等，創造了一個虛假的觀眾或甚至是虛假的邪教環境，這慢慢地讓你習慣做他們想要的事情，而不做他們不想要的事情。這是一種微妙而精緻的操縱。

In the PRC, this technique was utilized in thought reform (brainwashing) prisons. Guards would randomly reward prisoners with treats, cigarettes, privileges, without ever explaining why except that they were feeling generous, but these rewards followed desired behaviors only.

Prisoners were operantly conditioned to chase rewards usually without even realizing they were doing it. This is the idea behind "dripping." Rewards are "dripped" in when you do what they want, seemingly organically or randomly without explanation, and you seek more rewards.

The PRC/CCP is well known for doing this with money, as are many nefarious funders too. They give a little when you're doing what they want, maybe a little bit more when it's the right stuff, and fall to baseline or below (without explanation) when you've gone wrong.

在中華人民共和國，這種技術被用於思想改革（洗腦）監獄。獄警會隨機獎勵囚犯，給予他們零食、香煙、特權，從不解釋原因，只說他們心情好，但這些獎勵只會跟隨期望的行為。

囚犯們被操作性條件反射地訓練去追求獎勵，通常甚至沒有意識到自己正在這樣做。這就是「滴灌」背後的想法。當你做他們想要的事情時，獎勵就會「滴灌」進來，看似有機地或隨機地，沒有解釋，而你會尋求更多的獎勵。

中華人民共和國/中國共產黨以使用金錢來進行這種操作而聞名，許多惡意的資助者也是如此。當你做他們想要的事情時，他們會給一點點，也許在你做對了事情時給更多，而當你做錯了時，就會回到基線或以下（並不給任何解釋）。

You're trained to do what your handlers want and to chase it without ever realizing they're handling you, without ever being given any explicit instructions. You're led like by a Pied Piper to be their tool. Manufactured audience capture works exactly like this, and it works.

So, remember, social media is a permanent propaganda battlefield, and you're constantly being subjected to these forces and manipulations, so you should be wise to them, wary of them, and have your head on a swivel for manipulations of these kinds.

Ever since the Arab Spring, the big manipulators out there ("intelligence") has known the power of doing this kind of thing through social media and has been good at it. Massive wrongheaded movements can be manufactured and amplified through them. Why? For color revolutions.

你被訓練去做操作者想要的事情，並追逐它，而從未意識到他們在操縱你，也從未收到任何明確的指示。你就像被吹笛人領著，成為他們的工具。人工製造的觀眾捕捉正是這樣運作的，而且它有效。

所以，請記住，社交媒體是一個永久的宣傳戰場，你不斷地受到這些力量和操縱的影響，所以你應該對它們保持警惕，提防它們，並隨時留意這種操縱。

自阿拉伯之春以來，那裡的「情報」機構就認識到通過社交媒體進行這種操縱的力量，並擅長這樣做。大規模的錯誤行動可以通過它們被製造和放大。為什麼？為了顏色革命。