The election was just a year away. The government had done nothing in the previous four years, just like any other government out there, but they needed the votes. They needed to take care of the upcoming brand of woke politicians who were gaining popularity. It was time to act. The election was to be won by both hook and crook. More crook than hook.
The party had a strategy. It was the same old strategy that is used by parties since the birth of democracy. Manipulate the sheep. The voters were just but sheep who could be manipulated easily. The promising thing was unlike the early days of democracy, now there were ready weapons of mass manipulation.
The strategy was laid down.
The campaign machine was cranked up.
There was no mercy, no restrain, no boundaries, no sacred.
Strategy #1: Outrage
The people were already outraged by the actions and the inactions of the government. There was still a room for more outrage, and the party decided to act. The plan was to create more outrage until people were tired of outrage. It did not matter the source or the object of the outrage, as long as people were made very outraged.
The outrage initially drew people’s attention, but soon they got an outrage fatigue. They no longer got outraged by the things that mattered because their outrage had been depleted. This gave the government more room to steal and make outrageous decisions with no meaningful feedback from the citizens. The country had been immunized.
Strategy #2: Manipulation
This was an easy strategy, for digital disruption has brought forth many weapons of mass manipulation. All that they needed to do was to use them. They hired bloggers and propagandists who would work on specific topics each day to manipulate public opinion and influence news cycles.
They painted the opposition any color they wanted. They made it hard to believe anything because for every truth that was said, they had an alternative truth. Those who were gullible enough, the majority, believed. Those who did not believe got outraged, sending them to strategy #1.
They created fake news which was better than the true news. They had videos and audio recordings from deep fakes, making their opponents to be on the defensive side all the time.
Strategy #3: Controversy
What brings in more media coverage than controversy? And what makes people more popular than being controversial? With this in mind, the government’s foot soldiers went ahead to create controversy. There were controversies on everything. So much were the controversies that nobody got to know what the real issues were.
