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Em's Rule's avatar

This is a terrific article, thanks!

One idea I have been experimenting with to wake people up one person at a time is to use paradoxical interventions It is important to note that you should not try and beat the enemy because you cannot. You cannot reach them logically or rationally. . Some years ago, we used to intervene with families by using this technique. In one sense it is prescribing the symptom. For example, if working with a couple who are fighting all the time you might suggest they do more of the same because surely the fighting is a sign that they love one another, and more fighting will bring them closer together. In fact, you would suggest that they schedule their fights on alternative nights at a particular time, say 7-8 pm and keep notes of the issue raised. Of course, this seems absurd but in fact it makes the fighting conscious and something they now choose to do rather than do it automatically. It brings an awareness to the conflict in a way no rational approach would be able to, and because of this awareness it changes the dynamic of their fighting.

I think the same thing might work with those who are enthralled by mass formation. Let me give you an example. In an opinion piece in the NYT a commentator said that parents who do not vaccinate their young children are not responsible people nor are they good parents. Here’s my ‘paradoxical’ reply.

I totally agree with you! At our elementary school there is a proposal (widely supported) to make unvaxxed children wear yellow (for caution) wrist bracelets to distinguish them from the vaxxed kids. The unvaxxed will watch the classroom over closed circuit television from another room. At recess the unvaxxed must remain segregated and not play with the vaxxed kids and at lunch the unvaxxed kids must eat together outside. We think the school board will pass this proposal and most of the teachers are all for it.

Now maybe one person or some people who support vaccination policies will read this and think, “My god that’s extreme or even crazy.” Now once they have that thought you have broken through their hypnotized state and a possibility exists for them to re-examine their own bat-shit crazy behavior.

Wherever you see pro-vax comments posted denigrating the unvaxxed or the un-boosted take it further and use paradox to first agree with them and then take it a step(s) further. You will be surprised that nothing is too crazy to say. Moreover, try it in conversation with someone who is ranting about the unvaxxed. First, always agree with them and then offer some more extreme measure of dealing with the unvaxxed using their comments as the springboard. See how clever you can be. Please post you interventions at the site below and the results so I can keep track of what is working.

Here’s the full article

https://emsrul.substack.com/p/the-use-of-paradox-waking-up-the?justPublished=true

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Signme Uplease's avatar

You know how powerful propaganda is when Noam Chomsky himself is calling for starving the unvaxxed. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=w00Z--m9fMU

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