Two Skills: Mindfulness and Introspection

Normally we have what’s colloquially known as a bullshit detector. In Counter Disinfolklore we talk about developing your ‘Incoming Troll Radar.’ This requires of us two skills we can sharpen, if we pay enough attention to gatekeeping what we allow into our mind: mindfulness (paying attention and monitoring the state of our bodies and mind), and introspection (scrutiny, alertness). Yet, when anyone — whether an advertiser, our child, our mother or our pet cat — wants us to do something for them, intuitively, they do precisely the same things as Russia promoting the idea that Bucha was a ‘provocation’ by Ukraine: They purposefully use memes to induce in us an experience that is highly likely to provoke in us an experience of feeling a specific emotion.

Source: Incoming Troll Radar!

The two skills are trainable. Mindfulness is paying attention to your body and mind — noticing when your emotions shift. Introspection is scrutiny and alertness — examining what caused the shift. Everyone already has a version of this (the “bullshit detector”). Counter Disinfolklore sharpens it into a precision instrument.

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