Think like the Enemy
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Think like the Enemy
How Today's Media Manipulates Your Reality: Tactics and Techniques
Ever wonder why some stories dominate your feed while others vanish overnight? The manipulation isn't accidental—it's by design.
Modern propaganda doesn't announce itself with marching bands or angry speeches anymore. Instead, it slides into our daily lives through blue check marks, carefully framed news reports, and what gets strategically left unsaid. What appears as simple bias has evolved into something far more sophisticated: a system designed to control not just what information you receive, but how you feel about it.
In this penetrating exploration, we uncover how media manipulation has transformed in the digital age. From the political segregation of news sources to the emergence of AI-generated deepfakes that can make fiction indistinguishable from reality, we're facing unprecedented challenges to our perception. During the COVID-19 pandemic, we witnessed how the same data generated completely different narratives depending on which outlet presented it—same facts, different emotional responses, by design.
The most dangerous aspect isn't misinformation itself, but the illusion that we're thinking independently while our information environment is carefully curated. Next time you scroll through your feed, pause to ask: Who wrote this? Who profits from my outrage? And who wants me to believe this is all just accidental? Because defeating manipulation requires us to first understand it—to think like the enemy. Join the conversation and reclaim your critical thinking in a world where attention itself has become the battlefield.
What if the truth we believe was never the full story to begin with? Welcome back to Think Like the Enemy. I am Frankie Aviles. Today, we're not asking if the media manipulates us. We're asking how precisely it does and why we rarely notice. Because in a world where every headline is a weapon, it is not just the facts that matter, it's what gets left out.
Speaker 1:There's a particular notion that I'd like to talk to you about, which is the illusion of control, something that I have been pondering for in a very long time, since I've been looking at the media a little bit different and modern. Propaganda doesn't come with marching bands or angry speeches anymore. It comes with blue check marks, with carefully framed news reports, with subtle omissions and elegant spins. Media manipulation has evolved once the tool of regimes is now embedded in our morning scroll. Now I say this and you go like how is that even possible? Well, think about it. During the 2020 United States election, the entire narrative were pushed or buried, depending on the platform. Social media didn't just echo public opinion, it shaped it. And you might be thinking OK, how is that even possible? Well, what about the news bias? It's not a glitch, it's a feature. According to the Pew Research, republicans trust Fox News and Democrats trust CNN, each side sipping from a different stream. Both thinking it's pure, isn't just chaos, it is design. On top of this particular illusion of control, there's something called the unexpected change, because, think about it, how can it possibly be more than unexpected change? Because then change? Because then came the twist, not just a spin, not just selective reporting, for that matter, but something far deeper. Many companies are using it, many individuals are using it, and it is and could be a tool, but the truth is that it still is.
Speaker 1:Ai, with deep fakes and algorithmic curation, the battlefield shifted again. Now, propaganda just. It doesn't just influence, it imitates. Imagine a video of a world leader declaring war, except it never happened. Or something that is far closer to a lot of us a fake whistleblower spilling secrets that never existed.
Speaker 1:The age of visual lies is here. The rage of visual lies is here, and while we debate media bias, ai is busy making reality itself negotiable, which sincerely raises a question Are we even arguing over real things anymore? This is something that I see a lot, a lot, in a lot of social media sites, starting from X and going to TikTok. But the real question is are we trapped in situations designed to keep us distracted while something else unfolds. And this is where I like to call the mystery. The mystery is beautiful, the mystery is a little bit poetic. But in our media mystery, every piece of media you consume is a decision someone else made. What to show, what to hide, what to emphasize? Now let's look back a little bit.
Speaker 1:During the COVID-19 pandemic, some outlets focused on the death tolls, others spotlighted recoveries. Same data, different narrative, but who decides which version you see and, more importantly, who benefits? Is it about a political lean? Is it corporate interests or something more organized? These are the questions we should be asking ourselves, because once you understand that propaganda isn't about lies, it's about control and not just control, but control of attention, emotion and action you start seeing the patterns. At first you might not see them fully, but you'll certainly see subtle ones, like why certain wars are covered endlessly and others just vanish after a week or so, why some protests get Sympathy and others just get silence. But what if that's not the real reason? What if the truth is more dangerous than misinformation itself? What if someone figured out how to sell the illusion of free thought and we have just sincerely bought it.
Speaker 1:I know that these are more questions than anything else and at the end of the day, we should be answering them, but if we're going to have critical thinking, let's just be honest with each other. Next time you open your feed, don't just scroll, ask who wrote this, who profits from my outrage and, maybe, more importantly, who wants me to think this is all just accidental? Because if you want to defeat the very system we all sincerely dislike, or are completely found in the state for it, first you have to think like the enemy. And today you see that I am wearing green. I'm wearing green because today is the National Cerebral Palsy Day. My son, as you all know, has cerebral palsy, and if you would love to get one of these t-shirts, I hope that you do, because we have a website for you. It's called tulipcraftstudiocom tulipcraftstudiocom, where you can actually find anything you want, because we do custom t-shirts for business, for personal use and gifts. This is one of the shirts that we have created for this occasion, this day of remembrance of those who have or have suffered cerebral palsy in their life, and just to bring awareness to the particular disease that we're dealing with. So if you are interested in one, go to tulipcraftstudioscom. Tulipcraftstudioscom. Thank you so much for watching.
Speaker 1:Now let's let's come back to the particular conversation we were just having. We were talking about how media propaganda and the modern propaganda techniques actually replicate. We have seen that there is so much information out there that the sheer overload of this particular topic just completely takes people out of context. I spend a lot of time during the weekends because I work, and a lot of people online just have such a different view than what I do, and my focus is not on trying to bring those people to my side. It is for them to do their own critical thinking, because, at the end of the day, that it should be the only thing that actually matters. I don't want you to think exactly like I do, but I want you to think for yourself and for you to use your mind, your brain, your logic and your emotions and put them in a place where you can actually benefit, because if we're not doing that, I sincerely don't know what we're doing at all, know what we're doing at all.
Speaker 1:There has been so many outlets out there that have lied and have utilized machine learning to analyze just millions of headlines, and they have noticed that the bias is real and that the only thing that the actual news channels care about is not their growth. They don't care if the story is right, they don't care if the actual story is factual, they don't care if the story actually impacts on people in a very negative way. They only care about the bottom line the bottom line that their business, that they need to be reputable fuels their shareholders. I find that very insulting to the American public, and that's why I am here, because I like to sit down, dissect everything that I am consuming and read in between the lines. So I exhort you to do the same.
Speaker 1:I don't want you to do it, I don't need you to do it, but I think that you owe it to yourself to do it, because if you don't, who's doing it for you? There's nobody out there thinking about you other than yourself. You might have some family members that might think like you, but do they really? And if they don't, how close are you now which I think is a very sad notion that we have lost family members to politics, from people that sincerely don't care about you? They might care about the country, they might care about the citizens, but from your perspective, particularly to you, who's watching or listening right now. They don't necessarily care about you because you have might not have voted for them, or you might just have a different outlook or thought of what you got going on, and that is the truth. But again, here we are. So, at the end of the day, ask yourself one question why are they talking about this now and how can somebody benefit from it? Make your own conclusions.
Speaker 1:Continue to please ask all the questions that you need to ask and debate people. Debate is healthy for our society and our democracy. There's nothing healthier for it, because if we all thought the same, we would just be part of the propaganda machine. We would be like people living in China, where they might have a different opinion. Their social credit score dictates what they can and cannot do, if they can even move away from where they're currently residing, because if they do not have that social credit score, then they're basically nobody to the CCP. So let's continue to ask the questions, let's continue to have the hard conversations, and thank you for being here Sincerely.
Speaker 1:I hope that this particular you know quick snippet of the next block of things that we're going to be talking about has given you some I would say some light into some of the topics that you really care about. Thank you for watching. Thank you for following. God bless you. God bless America. And remember to always think like the enemy. I'll see you in the next one. Remember Friday, we have our next episode. Videos are now going to come out on Wednesdays and Saturdays because it is a lot better for us to have the time to do a better product. I'm trying to get the best that I can and I hope that you have liked this one. Thank you again. I appreciate.
