Why even the learned people are easily getting manipulated by the fake news?

I’m writing after a long time. I was too lazy to write about anything in the past year or so. But this I was compelled to write this time because I felt that no one was talking about this aspect of fake news or polarization.

My subject of discussion for this time is polarization of the educated and some would even call “the intellectuals”. I would definitely not call myself an expert in this subject of polarization but all I’m doing is raising questions and trying to answer them by making a hypothesis. I will say one more time that my answer is strictly a hypothesis and nothing more. Let me get to you, slowly, step by step.

 

Since when did RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) become so important in our national political scenario? Pre 2014 election there were no significant outrage against Muslims and other minorities. Why did Modi become so popular all of a sudden? Why are people talking about Hindu supremacy or Hindutva a lot? The sudden change (2014-2020) in mindsets of people pertains to only one thing that is “POLARIZATION OF THE MIND”.

You could talk for hours about how an uneducated or unemployed person can become polarized. But there are a significant number of educated, well learned and even intellectuals who have gotten polarized. This is a serious issue we have. The problem is not why people believe in right-wing ideologies but believing them blindly is the question and that too by educated and well- learned people.

The answer is my hypothesis. I still don’t have enough sample to prove its statistical validity but it is what it is. So, here it is. The concept of fake news or biased news or biased perspectives came a little late. When the public got the attention of it, well it was too late. So, when these bunch of intellectuals got to know that there exists a propagation fake news, they thought that people who had secular mindset were the ones who were spreading fake news. Now this was a precarious situation where the victim thinks that he was not affected by this propaganda but others were.  The reason for this is the human nature and the media obviously. Why human nature, you ask? The nature, which precisely makes them an intellectual is their downfall. Their arrogance, self- belief and thinking of others below them is what caused this. The felling of “how can I be wrong” is the true culprit here. 

What people don't understand is that admins of various pages target such audiences who can be easily manipulated. When people read a certain article which is full of biased perspectives, these people feel that they have learned something new but that is nothing but pure manipulation of your mind. First they will capture your attention and try to delete all your believes and then plant their own ideas ( like in inception) and voila!!! a Bhakt is made.

Ever heard of this big propaganda machine known as the BJP IT CELL? This is the beloved department of Modi and Shah which ultimately helps them to win elections. Now people might argue that the INC or AAP has also IT cells. But the fact of the matter is only BJP party has such kind of monies to withstand such a vast network of fake news peddlers. Then you might ask how does the BJP have such kind of money and others not. My answer will be- there can be a separate blog for this. When you combine digital media and traditional media for propaganda, the result is a weapon of mass destruction. The digital marketing folks would understand this phenomenon.

So my advice, no matter how learned you become or how good you do in your life, the one thing you should never forget to do is ask the right questions!!!!