At its heart, this tactic takes advantage of the average person’s level of expertise–or lack thereof. Dishonesty and manipulation can be hidden by talking over the heads of lay people, which is an abuse of both the public’s tendency to be uninformed, and lack of education in certain individuals. This tactic falls apart easily when fact checked, however the goal is not to defend statements against scrutiny, it is to take advantage of anyone overly trusting or unmotivated to properly research or confirm information. Even if claims are later shown to be false, the tactic has already done damage by confusing lay people that may not be inclined to believe fact checking against what they believe to be a trusted source. Abusing the loyalty of lay people is no more honorable than a parent misleading their child, and much like the therapy required to recover from abuse, those taken advantage of with this tactic are in for a long road back to the truth.

In situations where the desire is to normalize extremes, isolation is a common tactic. Where one context might highlight a behavior or ideology as outlandish, another context can be designed to make extremes appear typical. Isolation prevents outside ideas from conflicting with ideology, which allows for extremism to grow unchecked. Isolation can be achieved abstractly or physically, and often includes behavior and language modification to re-enforce separation from groups or norms. To maintain separation, fear tactics are common, and the more isolation a group can achieve, the more power that group has over its members. Additionally, prolonged separation makes it challenging for members to reintegrate into norms, which often leads to individuals remaining in the isolated state–furthering extremism in a cycle that is difficult to break.

When speaking to a very specific audience of a certain demographic, messages are designed to tap into that demographic’s known preferences and dislikes.  The more specifically that an audience is targeted, the more extreme the messaging can be because the speaker isn’t worried about including considerations for a wide range of opinions. This creates a powerful and influential illusion of connection when it is in fact merely a product of research and targeting.

This tactic helps guilty parties avoid taking responsibility for wrongdoing by distracting audiences with wrongdoing elsewhere–“I did this, but they did that”. Deflection and distraction mitigate consequences by adding confusion to the situation, and by normalizing bad behavior.  If everyone is doing something wrong, then any singular person’s wrongdoing won’t feel as substantial as it would otherwise.

This tactic is used to confuse the public, especially an uninformed audience, by accusing an innocent person of the behavior or crime that the accuser committed themself. Unless the audience is already familiar with the relevant facts of the situation, it will be difficult to discern which party is being honest. The tactic is usually used in circumstances where an audience cannot have access to relevant information for whatever reason, or where the accuser can rely on a lazy audience not doing research which would uncover contradictory or revealing evidence.

In marketing there are laws that protect against false advertising, however there is no real way to regulate lying. Outside of the industry, lying is even less regulated, and there are no laws that punish lying, other than offenses within the justice system. Regardless of what liars claim, lying is not a universal flaw, and to make a confusing matter more complicated, liars tend to mimic honest people and honest language, making it very difficult for audiences to believe anyone. Lying has lowered the baseline for what we can expect the minimum to be, sewing distrust everywhere, even where lying isn’t occurring. This lack of shared reality, and the burden of research it places on the listener, should be viewed as motivation to implement punishments for those that get caught lying. Instead of losing trust in an entire population, the best protection is to call out lies when you see them to help create a culture that no longer accepts lying as merely a part of life.