ï»żHey whatâs up guys! Kathy Gibbens hereâŠ
I have another review that I want to share with you! This one is also from a listener who messaged me on Instagram. By the way, if youâre on Instagram, find me there at filter it through a brain cell. Iâm working on doing reels where I talk about fallacies or share fallacies Iâve found and explain whatâs wrong with them. Iâd love to have you follow me there! Anyways, Kerri messaged me there and said, âMy kids and I found a fallacy in our Bible reading this morning! {and by the way, let me just interjectâŠthe fallacy was in something a person said in one of the stories in the book of Judges, not in the actual Bible itselfâŠshe wasnât saying that the Bible has logical errors in it!...just wanted to make that clear} We are reading through Judges, and my 7th grade son said this is an âEither/Orâ fallacyâŠwe are loving your podcast so much! They ask me to turn it on every time we get in the car!â
Yay! Thanks Kerri for sending that to me! And big shout-out to your kids - I love it that you're able to recognize these fallacies when you see them and that youâre enjoying the podcast! Thanks!
Alright, we are on part 6 of our manipulation mini-series and today weâre talking about exclusivity. Exclusivity in this context is defined this way: The idea that this group, organization, philosophy, etc.. is the only, or one of the few, places or groups where you can have true success, or âweâ are the only people doing things ârightâ, or thinking the âright wayâ.
Ok, whewâŠthis one is a doozy, and like a lot of the other manipulation tactics, it can have an element of truth in it. There are tons of different groups, organizations, ways of thinking that feel like what they think or they do is the ârightâ way. If you were to go on social media, youâll see a ton of groups like, âNatural crunchy mamasâ this would be a group of mamas who like to parent more naturally and find healthy alternatives & ways of doing things with their children. They think this is the ârightâ or âbetterâ way. Nothing wrong with this so far, right? We also see this in religious organizations. Oh my goshâŠjust in Christianity alone I could write a list a mile long of people who all would put themselves under the banner of Christianity, but think about or believe different things: weâve got the Pentecostals, the Reformed, Baptists, which are not to be confused with Southern Baptists, Presbyterians, etc, etc, etc. And each of them have certain beliefs about different things that they deem to be right. Thereâs nothing wrong with this, itâs normal and itâs going to happen.
But hereâs where it gets manipulative. When the people in these groups use this argument to coerce you into joining or to try to keep you from leaving the groupâŠthatâs manipulative.
Hereâs how it works: and, Iâm using a real example here of a business group that I used to be in, so this isnât a made-up example. First, theyâll play on an emotion - it could be, letâs say⊠fear, letâs say youâre afraid of being broke. So theyâll say things to play on that fearâŠâdid you know that 98% of people who are over the age of 65 are broke or living off their relatives?â and then theyâll tell you how their group or organization is the little-known secret or is the ONLY or the BEST place to learn the money & business skills you need to know so that youâre not one of those 98% of people who are broke at the end of their life. Thatâs what coercion to join sounds like. Notice theyâre not giving any actual proof that their organization is the best at or even does what theyâre saying they do! Theyâre just using exclusivity and playing on your emotions to try to get you to join.
Now, once youâre in the group, they want to KEEP you inâŠhereâs what that sounds like. Because this group or organization is the only place where you can find success, there is no valid reason to leaveâŠright? Why would you ever leave this group when youâll clearly never find anything as good as this anywhere else? Everyone who leaves this group winds up broke at the end of their life - being a part of this group is the only way to avoid that. Guys, do you see the manipulation here? And typically people who do leave will have their character questioned or malignedâŠtheyâll say theyâre bad people or they just didnât work hard enough, rather than looking to see if there may be a valid reason to leave. In fact, these groups or organizations donât want you to even ask the question of whether there may have been a valid reason to leave the group because they donât want you to leave, too. So theyâre using exclusivity as a manipulation to keep you in the organization or group.
Question to ask yourself: âIs this really the only place that has the corner market on truth?â⊠*repeat*
Alright join me next time when weâll be talking about something called love-bombing. And
Remember: When you learn HOW to think, you will no longer fall prey to those who are trying to tell you what THEY want you to think and it all starts with asking one simple question: âIs that really true?â
