Weaponised Bias

We are all biased;  the exact definition of bias is “bias is a disproportionate weight in favour of or against an idea or thing “ .  Got thinking about this over the last few weeks and have come to some conclusions that one might not like nonetheless are based in logic. The reason for thinking about it was also driven by media reports of the ongoing pandemic. 

A piece of information that is factually true will and can be interpreted in multiple ways depending upon the point of view (Point of view is a mental construct that reaffirms the inherent bias that one has) 

Psychologists have been fascinated by this for a long time and have investigated the impact of bias in the political spectrum and have come to conclusions that suggest that the inherent bias of a person will impact decision making. It impacts those that identify themselves as right of center the most. 

Lets look at the extreme left first - the argument that the left had (still has) was of inequality and people that identified themselves on the left talked about equality without really understanding that true equality was about having the same starting point and then being left free to make a choice. The Bolshevik movement weaponised this bias of inequality to creat a system of equality without accounting for or provisioning choice. The system ran its course and in the span of 75 odd years apart from a few pockets and china (more on that later) completely vanished. 

Now lets look at an authoritative regime - all of them come into being by feeding on an inherent bias that someone is going to take away the freedom of choice that you perceive and that we are the only ones that can save you form yourself because we know better. The next thing you know is that the freedom of choice is nowhere to be seen and what you have in place is daily propaganda that only feeds the bias of fear. (China is a good example of this)

Now the extreme right - not very far from an authoritative system apart from the fact that it will stay away from a supreme leader who knows best. 

What has this got to do with the news or daily life one can and should ask. The answer is very simple - when one is fed with data (fact) which is then presented using statistics in such a manner that it feeds your bias without your realisation; That is weaponisation of bias. It is the most twisted form of political power that can be displayed. History shows us how kings and queens , emperors and despots have used this to great effect. They stayed incharge and in power while the bourgeoise and the proletariat both got it in their pants. Marx was wrong the struggle is not between those two classes but between them and the people that know how to exploit bias or aid exploiting bias (History also shows us that a lot of folks on the bourgeois side aided the ones that exploited the bias).

World over citizens of multiple countries face the same weaponisation today and are clueless to the harm it will do. One wonders if they understand history; saying it happened in another country years ago is not a guarantee that they too will not fall into its trap. 

A political genius knows how to exploit bias and weaponise it - we see it in the biggest countries today. I hope we all wake up. 

C