How can we avoid being manipulated?
Do we need to believe EVERYTHING is a PsyOp to avoid manipulation?
I started Sacred Musings a few years ago as I started to recognise holes in the ‘official narrative’ around covid. During the first few months, I honestly believed that what happened was more due to cockup than conspiracy. As the saying goes, “never ascribe to malice what can be ascribed to incompetence” (known as Hanlon’s Razor). In the early days, some of my pieces were featured on the Daily Sceptic, and I had quite a lot of traffic from there. A few people have stayed around since then (you know who you are!), but I think a few people got fed up with me because they thought I was too slow in understanding that it was conspiracy, not cockup.
As I’ve been exploring the ‘conspiracy space’ over the last few years, this is a recurring theme. Some people seem to think that just about everything is a conspiracy, as I spoke about in my latest podcast…
… whereas other people, like me, are more cautious: I tend to err on the side of taking something at face value, unless there is clear evidence that it is a lie. I’m sceptical about the existence of large-scale conspiracies who control pretty much everything (e.g. the illuminati or the masons or the Jews controlling it all), although I do of course recognise that there are opaque networks of rich and powerful people whose interests converge.
What I’d like to do in this post is examine the question, does it really matter where on that spectrum you are? Can you still avoid being manipulated even if you don’t believe everything is a PsyOp?
What I’m going to do here is build on what I said a few weeks ago about how we can stay sane down the conspiracy space rabbit hole:
Example: Does Catherine have cancer?
Let me start with an example of the tension I’m talking about. A few weeks ago, I wrote a piece about how Catherine, Princess of Wales, seemed to embrace paganism:
In that piece, I made the comment that going through tough times — like being diagnosed with cancer — can make someone more awake and ready to consider spiritual things. Someone commented to the effect that Charles and Catherine don’t have cancer — it’s all a PsyOp!
This perfectly illustrates the different ways of reasoning about this. The way I saw it, there were a few odd things that happened e.g. the edited photo and the video which looked like it might have been generated by AI. Not to mention that the Royal Family has, shall we say, a chequered history when it comes to the truth and involvement with organisations like the WEF.
All that being said, I think we can’t really know for sure either way. We don’t have access to what goes on behind closed doors. None of the things I mentioned amounts to conclusive proof. She did disappear from public view for some months, and when she reappeared she did seem to be slowly regaining her health. And we know that lots of younger people, around her age, are now getting turbo cancers since the covid ‘vaccines’.
The point of PsyOps is to try and manipulate people into a certain course of action. So, if Catherine having cancer is a PsyOp, what is it trying to manipulate us into doing?
To add to the general feeling of instability and uncertainty in the world and cause people to be anxious about the future?
To ‘normalise’ younger people getting cancer?
To push mRNA cancer treatment?
Here’s the thing: whether it is a PsyOp or not, does it really matter so long as we don’t fall for any of that?
How can we avoid manipulation?
As I said above, the entire point of PsyOps is to try and manipulate us into a certain course of action. I’ve spoken about one example, but let’s consider a more serious one. A few months ago I wrote about how the authorities seem to be goading us into civil war:
More recently, Miri AF has written about how the establishment want Reform in power:
It's been clear for some time that the establishment desires a "populist right-wing" government in this country, just as they have installed one in the USA, and that they aren't going to wait until 2029 to get it.
Starmer was tasked with being as "incompetent" and detestable as possible, in order to make his position completely untenable, and so when the predictable, engineered crisis comes along (Ukrainian rent boys burning down his houses - soap opera much?), he is forced to step down and - so completely decimated is the country's faith in not just Starmer, but the Labour Party as a whole - that a snap General Election is called.
Over the past five years, Labour and the Tories have been made intentionally unelectable, in order to ensure Reform sweeps to power with a supermajority.
My suspicion here is that she’s right. As I said on the podcast, it’s almost become like a pantomime — every time Reform are mentioned or are allowed an interview, the establishment go “boo!! hiss!!” while we, the people, are encouraged to cheer, “Hooray for Nigel Farage, our plucky hero!” I feel like there may be some kind of secret pact between the establishment and Farage but, obviously, there’s no proof of that.
Obviously, if the establishment are trying to manipulate us into a certain course of action, it’s not a good course of action and something which we should avoid! The question is, however, could one avoid that course of action without being consciously aware that we are being manipulated into voting Reform?
I think the answer is, ‘yes’, and for that I will refer you once again to my latest podcast. In short, I believe that Nigel Farage is untrustworthy — and you don’t need to be some kind of conspiracy theorist to understand that.
The upshot is, I believe that if we have a strong ethical foundation (that is, Christianity), and a strong faith in God, then we will be in the best place to assess any course of action regardless of how strongly we are being manipulated into it. We can be more confident in trusting those who are godly and of good character, and we can hold up a particular course of action to Biblical standards of morality.
Let’s look at a couple of case studies to demonstrate.
Case study #1: Covid
Back at the start of 2020, I was pretty much a ‘normie’. I didn’t really believe any “conspiracy theories”, and I was pretty trusting of the mainstream media. However, when the first lockdown was announced, things “seemed” wrong to me. I couldn’t put my finger on it exactly, but everything seemed out of proportion.
I couldn’t see lots of people dying in the streets. I didn’t know anyone personally who had died of ‘covid’. I knew that we as a family had had something nasty over Christmas in 2019, but we had recovered. (Not saying it was ‘covid’, by the way!)
As all of this was going round in my mind, and as I started thinking about how the Bible applied to them, I realised more and more that lockdowns were all wrong. I hadn’t yet come to understand the role of organisations like the WHO, WEF etc, but it didn’t matter. I wanted to stand up against it.
By the time it came round to the vaccines, I had decided that the whole thing was so wrong that I wasn’t going to take a vaccine. At that point I’d heard a lot of ‘conspiracy theories’ about the covid vaccines (5G etc), which I didn’t believe, but I knew enough to know that I wasn’t going to take it. In particular, I could see how the vaccine was being promoted with a kind of religious fervour as “The Solution”, which I could see was the wrong way of going about things. My instincts led me to the right decision even though I didn’t have all the facts.
What I am saying here is that rational thinking and Christian principles helped me to come to the right conclusions, even though at that point I didn’t know all that we now know. I didn’t realise how deep it went! But I knew enough to help me avoid being manipulated.
Case study #2: The Iraq war
This is one of those moments where lies played a huge part in trying to convince the public of something. When Tony Blair told us that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction which could be launched within 45 minutes, he was lying. At that point we didn’t know he was lying for sure, although given the number of people who went on the peace rally (1.5m in London — the biggest ever march in this country) I think many of us had our suspicions.
But the question of whether we should have gone to war was not a difficult ethical question. There are principles of just war which have been worked out for centuries. Whether you agree with every specific point of it doesn’t matter, the point is that I think the Iraq war fails on just about every one of them:
I think you could argue on almost every one of these points that the Iraq war was wrong. It seemed that most of the country could see that the Iraq war was wrong. Regardless of the lies that we were told about Saddam and WMD, people correctly understood that war was not the right decision.
As a side note — it’s interesting to compare what things were like back then to how people have reacted to the war in Ukraine. Many of the people who were against the invasion of Iraq have been cheering on the war in Ukraine and wanting it to continue. I wonder if this is because things are political now, or people have simply lost their moral compass…?
Also, another example would be how we are being encouraged to respond to Islam. I wrote this article about a Christian response to Islam and how it differs from what we are being encouraged into:
Spiritual manipulation
As a Christian, ultimately I believe that there is one who is constantly trying to manipulate us — his name is Satan. As Paul says:
The god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.
2 Corinthians 4:4
Satan’s job is to take us away from God, to stop us from loving God and loving our neighbour. This is going on all the time, no matter what actual PsyOps there are going on in the world. In my most recent sermon on Understand the Bible, I quoted from the English Reformation bishop, Hugh Latimer:
And now I would ask a strange question: who is the most diligent bishop and prelate in all England, that passes all the rest in doing his office? I can tell, for I know him who it is; I know him well. But now I think I see you listening and hearkening that I should name him. There is one that passes all the other, and is the most diligent prelate and preacher in all England. And will ye know who it is? I will tell you: it is the devil.
He is the most diligent preacher of all other; he is never out of his diocese; he is never from his cure; ye shall never find him unoccupied; he is ever in his parish; he keeps residence at all times; ye shall never find him out of the way, call for him when you will he is ever at home; the most diligent preacher in all the realm; he is ever at his plough: no lording nor loitering can hinder him; he is ever applying his business, ye shall never find him idle, I warrant you…
Satan is always trying to manipulate us into doing what is wrong. You could say that every PsyOp is simply a manifestion of Satan’s tricks in the world. However, if we are spiritually switched on — that is, if we are walking with God and seeking to obey him — then we have a strong defense against these tricks.
Psalm 121:3 says:
He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber
I love the imagery of keeping our feet from slipping. That’s what manipulation is, isn’t it: it’s trying to direct our paths so that we are on slippery ground, so we go in the direction THEY want us to rather than in the right direction. But, if we trust in God, he will not let our foot slip, he will not allow us to be put off course on slippery ground.
This is why I believe it doesn’t really matter at the end of the day whether you think everything is a PsyOp or not. If we are all seeking to follow the Lord and obey him, he will guide us no matter what. I’ll leave the last word to the apostle Paul:
In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Ephesians 6:16
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Wise words. Thank you.
Interesting questions posed in this article… I’ve certainly seen people who are so convinced that everything is a PsyOp that they trust absolutely nothing. Which doesn’t seem to be a Christian or just generally healthy way to interact with the world. There are, in fact, many things and people who are truly good and are deserving of trust. But this trust has sadly deteriorated after so many lies from the establishment…
The balance is in understanding that deception exists without becoming consumed by its existence and seeing it everywhere. I just finished The Screwtape Letters and that is a great illustration of all of the ways that Satan tries to draw us into despair or self-satisfaction and away from God.
As a general rule, I think it’s good for us to be skeptical of those who are seeking power, fortune, or fame and to question their motives. But we also have to be willing to see goodness and righteousness where it exists, and to not extend all of this skepticism to those who we interact with in our day-to-day lives. Most of the time, people are somewhere on the spectrum of “normal,” and what you say here about not always attributing to malice what can also be incompetence is very key. The true connections that we have in our lives are precious, and trust in one another is a wonderful thing that we should hold onto. There certainly could be powerful people who want to see us all less trusting and more divided, speaking of PsyOps!
Anyways, thanks again for the interesting article— Since you touched on it here, I am curious if you have more to say in the future on how the devil works, as I find this concept interesting & I want to be as aware as I can of not falling into his traps. Or where in Scripture this subject is discussed. I’ve heard people say a lot of things about the devil or demons, but not sure what is actually Biblical and what may be more legend. Thank you!!