The cognitive and emotional processes that occur when individuals are influenced by their peers.

The psychology behind it:

The psychology behind peer influence encompasses various factors, including:

1. Social belonging and acceptance,
2. Identity formation,
3. The dynamics of group behavior

Is it being used to control us?

IMO, yes, at the core of it is the basic human need for belonging. Social belonging is a critical component since it is craved by most, specially but not only by the youngest, those with power across the world know this very well, therefore, thinking that they will not use it to control the population in order to profit from it or change public opinion would be irrational.

The media is used to brain wash the population creating something that most will consider "the norm", thus, the majority will try to conform to that norm in order to belong. That include manipulating the population to take an experimental drug (even if it could be very dangerous due to its unknown effects) or to accept as a norm a behavior that few years back would have been considered inappropriate.

Cognitive Dissonance

This is a term that we should get familiar with. It is a psychological state where conflicting beliefs or behaviors create discomfort.

Example:
A kid in high school that has a good loving family but all his close friends are on drugs (legal ones) and they keep telling him he is an idiot for not using as well. Now his is that state of conflict believes, on one side his best friends, all tell him is okay, on the other hand his family that loves him has explained him at length the dangers and issues that the drugs will have in his life. To resolve the dissonance he has three options, one, join the group and start taking drugs with the rest, two try to rationalize it, considering to take drugs just occasionally to belong but not to make it a habit, three lose his friends (and here it comes again the peer thinking to bite). Extrapolate to many other cases.

As an anecdote
Recently, on a friend's reunion, one of the guest was complaining about one of his daughters, she was quite confused asking him why so many of her classmates were bisexual, she was wondering if something was wrong with her since she was not; a 13 year old girl; the father was having a hard time explaining her that the majority are saying so just to feel as part of what the school was teaching to be the norm, it was not cool to be straight, the tally was 37% of the class. Consider that, statistically, the number of people, “worldwide” identifying as bisexual are between 3% and 5% (less than 1% in less accepting countries), that number used to be less than 2% less than a decade ago. But 37% is far from the statistical norm, indicating a peer thinking behavior but not the reality of their sexual preferences. Once again, extrapolate to any ideology, religion, gender identity, political agenda that a country desires to push forward for whatever reason, adding that to the official school program and to federal mandatory training programs would do the trick.

A powerful tool, that can be used for good or bad.

What are the strategies to counter negative peer thinking?

Reading the literature about the subject, few strategies are recommended:

1. Self-Awareness: teaching ourselves and our children to recognize when we are being influenced by peers

2. Being selective with your friends: peers with similar values will reinforce positive behaviors

3. Learning to be assertive: teaching ourselves and our children to communicate assertively our boundaries will empower us and them to resist unwanted pressure to adopt negative behaviors.

4. Less judging more talking: this applies to our children and partners, judging less and listening more will make our beloved ones more open to discuss social pressures.

What do you think?
What strategies you use as counter measures?

Multiculturalism is a concept that promotes the acceptance, appreciation, and celebration of diverse cultures within a society. It involves recognizing and valuing the differences between various cultural groups while fostering social cohesion and equality.

The key principles of multiculturalism include:

1. Cultural pluralism: Acknowledging and accepting the existence of multiple cultural identities and practices within a society.
2. Equality: Ensuring equal opportunities and rights for all individuals, regardless of their cultural background or identity.
3. Inclusion: Encouraging participation and engagement of diverse cultural groups in social, political, and economic processes.
4. Respect: Promoting mutual respect and understanding between different cultural groups, while recognizing the legitimacy of differing beliefs, values, and practices.

Two questions come to mind:

1. Is it working?

   IMO, most definitely not. The world is very divided by race, religion and ideologies, it is a very difficult task. Countries trying this the most (practically enforcing it by law) have encountered more division and segregation; people of the same race, country or ideology will create their own small city sectors, cultural sectors, commercial sectors (China town, little Italy, etc); as is happening in USA for a long time already, happening as well in Spain, France, Germany, etc.

2. Is it being encouraged with tolerance toward those opposing it?

   I personally don't think so, the irony... But that is just my opinion...

What do you thing?

originally posted at https://stacker.news/items/651181

Number 1 : Elon Musk

Reasoning:
Supporting a meme coin and trolling the ecosystem. Trying to create the american wechat and portraying himself as a protector of freedom of speech. Admired and loved by millions...

Potential impact:
High, he may support a shitcoin as solana or worst, create his own with the support of deep pockets and the government. Considering that we are still early and millions around the world still see #Bitcoin as a risk asset or worst, creating one in X will have immediate use case and challenge p2p cash use case from the get go, where Meta failed X may succeed...

Number 2: Jack Dorsey

Reasoning:
Known for his history as Twitter CEO during the crusade against freedom of speech, cancelation of critical thinkers and even a president of USA, the behavior of Twitter was reprehensible while Jack was the CEO, I never thought that a company could behave that way and survive and yet... Unreal and zero legal accountability, twitter basically gaslighted a large amount of the population, supported political propaganda to one party with no neutrality, supported an experimental drug that is still harming people and didnt let experts and doctors to debate and discuss and not one of those thugs blocking accounts and censoring critical thinkers was made accountable, eye opening in many ways for those that at that moment still believed that USA respected freedom of speech...
Recently supported a mining pool that censors whirlpool from Samourai wallet, old habits die hard I guess...
And the cherry of the pie, now funding FiatJaf whom was looking for funding to spam Ethereum and Monero networks to make them unusable so more funds will move to Bitcoin and LN... This project and idea from the getgo is a no no, you may not like another project but to spam it intentionally should be illegal, and it is being done, shamelessly...

Potential impact:
Very high, already inside the community, a record of bad actions, pro censorship, vast resources, head of Cash App, admired by most in the community and hence able to missguide the community into a path that could eventually make Bitcoin a failure of a project in the future with the proposal of a hard fork introducing additional censorship and less privacy in one way or another.

Number 3: Blackrock

Reasoning:
No need to explain much, they join the train and... it is only logical , after so much hate and media propaganda against Bitcoin, that they did so to fight the fight from inside trying to affect it and transform it into something else , just speculation, time will say. Check my article on ETFs

Potential Impact:
Super Nova. As I explain in my article of ETFs, they have the resources to attempt to change the direction of Bitcoin development for it to become something else, even kill it as a store of value. They have a large stake in some of the largest mining farms as well... Do the math, it looks like a hostile take over and that may not end well. Again, just my opinion, but, if history and patterns teach us leasons, not a good look...
Activist Critical Thinkers in the space are needed, #Bitcoin for many years has been a space with many of them, the list was long, but little by little I observe a change, produced by time+age+money, those libertarians are now; most of them; retired millionaires, or enterpreuners absorbed by the fiat system and therefore have changed their tune. I thought we will have a new generation, motivated, smarter, ready to take over, but all I see, with few exceptions in the NOSTR side of the equation, is more corporate fiat system acolytes.

Stay humble says someone, never more important...
What are your thoughts?
Share your top 3 current most dangerous threats to the Bitcoin ecosystem...

If someone tells me that I would be alive to watch Orwellian systems being pedaled by countries that call themselves "1st World Countries" I wouldn't not have believe it...

If someone tells me that the political system called "democracy" will become a joke, where the political arena is controlled by the donors and therefore the "elected" politicians will bend over to please their donors and their interests instead to work for the people.... I wouldn't have believe it...

If someone tells me that the West would support unjust causes, fund extremist to support the interests of the pharmaceutical, the energy and the military industrial complex... I would not have believe it...

If someone tells me that the united West, will ban books, and attack people with corrupted law enforcement due to their ideology, religious believes or simply for telling inconvenient truth's as official or citizen journalists, scientists, doctors, whistleblowers... I wouldn't have believe it...

But here we are and is all happening...

The minority, those aware of what is at stake, can keep doing their part, but the amount of NPC characters, sold outs, traitors and corrupt officials is overwhelming, and IMO , until we don't separate the money from the state this will just get worst until it breaks...

And when someone or a group starts spreading hope, telling you not to worry, asking you to do nothing, telling you they are in control and they will take down the corrupted web harming your country, you are most probably being gaslighted and surrendering your power to a psychological operation built to neutralize you,

What can we do? Few suggestions:

1. Information is empowering, read, inform yourself, do not use the main stream media only, expand your sources of information, question more
2. Get involve with your community
3. Research and demand accountability for the elected officials when they do not behave correctly or work against the interest of your city.
4. Write to the elected officials when new laws are to be approved, demand explanations if they are harming your town/city, organize, collect signatures and perform referendums to remove political bad actors from office
5. Organize the community to understand the law and your rights, look for volunteer lawyers to give free lectures and recommend literature to digest, consider going to law school lectures, the more informed you are the better prepared to fight back for your constitutional rights
6. Lead by example
7. Try listening more
8. Do not trust any news, no matter the source, verify