TED Talk parody shows how easily the public is brainwashed by authoritative-looking “performance” and formulas

To the average person, what’s presented as “news” on television, the radio, and even on the internet from “trusted” sources has to be either mostly or entirely true, especially when the majority of reporting sources are in agreement with one another about a particular topic. But what consumers of this information fail to realize is that much of what the public is told about the world, particularly from mainstream sources, is little more than crafty propaganda that’s been carefully packaged and delivered to appear authoritative.

The way in which all those ever-popular TED Talks are presented, for instance, reveal a clever sleight of hand that flies over the head of most people because it looks so nice and digests so easily. A dimly-lit auditorium, a slide show beaming from an Apple-made laptop, a well-dressed presenter pacing back and forth across a stage with hands interlocked or fingers touching – these are some of the subtle cues by which so-called “thought leaders” manufacture consent and unanimity of thought.

In a recent experiment, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC News) put together a TED Talk Parody entitled “This is That,” revealing how easy it is for audiences to be wowed by what often amounts to little more than nonsense. Each facet of the “big idea” public relations propaganda campaign is carefully constructed so as to lead everyone in the audience, and watching online, to come to the same conclusion about something, regardless of whether or not it holds any merit or truth.

The entire TED Talk format, it turns out, is scripted from A to Z. From the look of the presenters to how they present their information, and even they way they talk – the pauses, the inflections, the tone – are carefully manufactured so as to maximize the suspense, drama, and emotion felt by the listening and viewing audience. See for yourself how the agenda works by watching the 4:15-minute clip on YouTube.

Mainstream media ‘live interviews’ often scripted, pre-recorded, and censored

It almost feels silly the way CBC News put the whole thing together, though it’s meant to prove a point: You can’t believe everything you see – or believe everything you read – because oftentimes it’s a product of media magic. You have to remember that propagandists have been perfecting their methods for years, and they aren’t planning to stop anytime soon.

Similar methods of brainwashing and persuasion are evident in the way the mainstream media, and even some “alternative” media, present so-called “news.” What appears to be live interviews, for instance, are often scripted conversations that censor out certain information while highlighting other information, again for the purpose of altering the minds of viewers to perceive something in a certain way.

Check out what happened to Luke Rudkowski of WeAreChange when he participated in a “live interview” with Arianna Huffington of The Huffington Post. Rudkowski touched on the growing presence of independent journalists who were taking advantage of groundbreaking platforms like Ustream (a live-streaming predecessor to today’s more popular services such as Periscope), crediting their popularity to the mainstream media’s abuse of the truth.

Some of the issues Rudkowski addressed – banker bailouts and encroaching globalism among them – were apparently too truthful, and he was thus asked to re-shoot the “live interview” leaving these things out. Rudkowski slightly tweaked his verbiage, and it was then accepted, something he now seems to regret. But he still holds true to his convictions, and has opened up about the situation in a recent video that he posted to YouTube, which you can watch here.

Sources:

ActivistPost.com

YouTube.com

YouTube.com