Welcome to Persuasion Techniques

[Michael Stuart Kelly]

Welcome to Persuasion Techniques

During the course of Objectivist Living's existence, I have become extremely interested in covert persuasion, propaganda and the like. This is very similar to psychology. Both deal with how the mind and brain works. But the focus of psychology is to understand the mind while persuasion techniques exist to influence others.

Ayn Rand wrote about a few persuasion techniques and I will eventually open threads about them (smear, argument from intimidation, etc.). But there is so much more, especially at the lower brain level. 

Here we will discuss how manipulation of others and society works on this lower brain level. And, as OL is a philosophy forum, on an upper brain level, too, with philosophical ideas.

I hope you enjoy these threads. The older ones were in different parts of the forum and I moved them here.

Here's the only problem with this forum. If you are a good guy, you will learn what others are doing to you (and to others) to engineer consent and other behavior. If you are a bad guy, you will learn how to use this stuff on others for your own nefarious ends.

So it's up to you. Persuasion techniques are like nuclear power. You can light up a city with it or blow up a city.

You decide.

Michael