ï»żHey whatâs up guys! Kathy Gibbens hereâŠ
I wanted to start off with a quick review from a podcast listener by the name of 5solasmom on Apple podcasts. She says, âFascinating topic as I *know* I need to learn to identify these fallacies myself! Only 4 episodes in but I am already hooked! I LOVE how Kathy relates the ancient art of logic with how it will apply to today! This is already giving me a lens to look through and filter what I see and hear. I canât wait to share this with my kids and with all my friends!â
Oh my gosh, thank you so much for not only listening, but also leaving a review & sharing with friends! Truly, it helps more people find the podcast when we have reviews!
Alright, we are in the midst of our manipulation mini-series, and I hope itâs been helpful to you! The tactic weâre going to talk about today is something called Special Knowledge. Special Knowledge is used by someone who is trying to convince you that they have âsecretsâ or âspecial informationâ that you can only learn through them, and without them youâre destined to be in the dark or youâre destined to fail in life.
Have you ever heard the saying, âknowledge is powerâ? Thereâs a reason. People who know things do often seem to have an advantage. Theyâre able to influence others, and people look to them and look up to them. And history is full of people who used their knowledge for the good of humanity and those who used it to manipulate others to benefit themselves. Sometimes it takes wisdom to know the difference.
This Special Knowledge could be in the form of a secret society who is claiming that they have the answers to life and the universe that others donât know about. Or it could be a business group who claim that theyâre the only ones who truly know how to be successful financially. Or it could be a religious organization who claims that their particular group is the only one who gets it ârightâ.
The classic example of special knowledge is cults and secret societies. Iâm not going to go into a lot of detail about what they are or what they teach in this episode, but basically, thatâs exactly what cults & secret societies do: they tell you that they have the knowledge & the answers that nobody else has and the only way to get it is to join their groups. And even when you join, thereâs usually more & more hoops that you have to keep jumping through to keep getting that special knowledge.
The reason this tactic works so well is because we have an innate curiosity. We want to know things! We want to make sense of this world. We want to know how to live well, and there are people who will play on this desire by telling you THEY are the ones who can tell you the things you donât know.
Another place we see this is in advertising. Have you ever seen an ad that says something like this: â10 Secrets to getting anybody to like youâ? LolâŠdo you see how theyâre playing on your curiosity and desire to know special knowledge? Now, those are likely just marketing tactics to get you to purchase something, but theyâre playing on this desire to know what others donât know.
This tactic is often used to make you dis-trust yourself. The people or companies using it want you to feel like you NEED them, and that if you donât join their group or buy their product, youâll be forever missing out.
Another thing to keep in mind when faced with Special Knowledge tactics is this: the Bible tells us that there is nothing new under the sun. Itâs highly unlikely that this ONE person has discovered a secret truth that nobody else knows. And even if they have, you have to ask yourself whatâs the motivation behind them wanting to tell you this info. Itâs possible that their motives are just fine and arenât malicious, but if theyâre dangling their secret information in front of you to try to get you to take specific action, or join their group, or buy a product or book or video seriesâŠor even just become their âfollowerâ, you need to watch out!
One example that comes to mind is the Q-Anon movement that became popular a few years ago. Basically, from my understanding - Iâm no expert here, is that it was a series of âinformation leaksâ with supposedly secret political intel that was âhighly secretiveâ. The allure in following the Q-Anon movement was this secret knowledge that nobody knew where it was coming from. It was highly tempting to people to want to be in the know about things that most people didnât know about. But in the end, it turned out to be fake & all the promises that they were making about certain political outcomes never happened.
So, the question to ask yourself if you think you might be facing the Secret Knowledge tactic is this: âIs it really true that this person or group is the ONLY place I can learn this information?â *repeat*
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
