Groups, cults and propaganda
Influence over whole groups: high-control groups, propaganda and influence operations. 34 tactics on this line, in the order the guide walks them.
Open this line in the guideEvery tactic on this line, with look-alikes on other lines.M 01Information CascadesA belief or reputation spreads because each person sees others accepting it, so agreement takes the place of anyone checking whether it is…M 02Controlled OppositionA protest group, critic or movement secretly funded, steered or shaped by the power it seems to oppose, so dissent goes somewhere harmless.M 03Agent of Influence OperationsA public figure, such as a journalist, academic, politician or executive, who is secretly guided by an outside party while seeming to…M 04AstroturfingMaking a campaign look like spontaneous public support when it is staged, funded or run by a hidden sponsor.M 05Computational PropagandaUsing bots, fake accounts and automated tools to flood public talk with political messages posing as real opinion, at a scale no crowd…M 06AI-Driven Narrative HijackingUsing machine-made, tailored messages in huge numbers and at high speed, so that one party ends up setting the terms of a public debate.M 07Manufactured ConsentSteering what the public sees and hears so that agreement with a decision looks like free choice when it was guided.M 08Normative MessagingClaiming that ‘most others’ hold a view or act a certain way, which pulls people toward that apparent norm.M 09Overton Window ManipulationMaking extreme positions loud and visible so that ideas once seen as unacceptable begin to sound reasonable next to them.M 10Post-Truth Epistemic ManipulationA flood of contradictions and denials that wears down belief in knowable facts, until people trust no source and nobody can be held to…M 11Cognitive WarfareEfforts to wear down a population’s ability to think clearly, trust shared facts and reach agreement, by working on beliefs and attention.M 12PSYOP Message FramingMessages built on psychological principles to steer how a population sees legitimacy, inevitability, loyalty or hopelessness, and…M 13Cyber Manipulation Operations (CMOs)Quietly changing, inventing or deleting data inside a system, so people make decisions based on records they believe are real.M 14Strategic Deception (Denial & Deception / D&D)Organized efforts by a state or institution to hide what is real and show something false, so an opponent plans against a mistaken picture.M 15False Flag OperationsArranging an event to look like another group’s work, so a response seems justified or the blamed party is harmed.M 16Reflexive ControlControlling which facts someone gets, so their own reasoning leads them to the decision the sender wants and they never notice.M 17Strategic LeakingReleasing sensitive information through channels that look unauthorized, so a planned disclosure looks like a secret that got out.M 18Honey TrappingUsing a romantic or sexual relationship as cover for an intelligence aim, like getting secrets, recruiting someone, or collecting material…M 19MICE Framework ExploitationBeing pulled into helping an outside party through pressure on one of four common motives: money, ideology, coercion or compromise, and ego.M 20Wedge Issue ExploitationUsing a heated social issue to split a group, pull attention elsewhere or fire up supporters, with no wish to settle it.M 21Echo Chamber ConstructionArranging what another person reads, hears and talks about so they mostly meet one view and see every other source as unreliable.M 22Milieu ControlA group’s tight control over what members can read, hear and discuss and whom they see, so the group becomes their only source of…M 23Bounded ChoiceShaping a member’s world so that every remaining option looks like a free personal pick, while the only choices left serve the group.M 24Demand for PuritySetting a standard of moral perfection that no one can meet, which leaves members ashamed and looking only to the group for forgiveness.M 25Dispensing of ExistenceA group’s doctrine sorts people by who deserves to exist or counts as fully human, which makes harm to outsiders, critics and former…M 26Phobia IndoctrinationIntense, out-of-proportion dread attached to actions like leaving, disagreeing or trusting outsiders, until avoiding them is a bodily…M 27Doctrine Over PersonTeaching members that if their own experience, memory or conscience contradicts the group’s doctrine, then the experience, and not the…M 28Thought ControlControlling the words, explanations and conclusions a person may use, so doubt is labeled a symptom and only one reading of events is…M 29Sacred ScienceTreating the group’s doctrine as beyond question, so a doubt is read as a flaw in the doubter and the claim goes unexamined.M 30Charismatic Authority DependenceMaking a single leader the only trusted source of truth, meaning and safety, so that winning the leader’s approval becomes a member’s…M 31Mystical ManipulationStaging events that look spontaneous or divine, like visions, healings or signs, to persuade members that a leader holds special spiritual…M 32Forced Confession / Self-Criticism RitualsRequired, repeated sharing of faults, doubts or past wrongs with the group, which brings shame and gives the group material it can hold…M 33Humiliation RitualsA formal routine of shaming people in front of others, presented as initiation or growth, where the pain is treated as proof it works.M 34Information LaunderingPassing a false or unverified claim through a series of apparently credible sources until it looks like established fact and its origin…