【推文】James Lindsay - Certain kind of person is the most susceptible to propaganda...

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原文及個人翻譯

Jacques Ellul wrote one of the most important and clarifying books ever written on propaganda. In it, he insists a certain kind of person is the most susceptible to propaganda, giving three traits beyond his own ridiculous belief that he's immune to it. Let's take a look. 🧵

Jacques Ellul寫了一本關於宣傳最重要且最澄清的書之一。他在書中堅稱，某種類型的人最容易受到宣傳的影響，除了他自己荒謬的認為自己免疫於宣傳之外，還提出了三個特點。讓我們來看看。 🧵

Ellul gives three traits that make someone not just susceptible to propaganda but also dependent on it (!). For us, they will be very unsettling. Before talking about those, though, he also explains that we generally misunderstand propaganda as being like tall tales and lies.

Not only are we susceptible to propaganda, then, we don't even have the ability to identify it. Sure, it's misleading, but it's more often misleading with truths than with outright lies. That's a first mistake most of us make in trying to recognize propaganda.

Second, and more importantly, we tend not to realize that propaganda is usually employed not exactly to mislead but to amplify and inflame existing trends, or, in reverse, to dampen them. That is, if typically seeks to produce overreaction or underreaction.

Ellul提出了三個特質，使某人不僅容易受到宣傳的影響，還對它產生依賴性！這些特質對我們來說將是非常令人不安的。在談論這些特質之前，他還解釋說，我們通常誤解了宣傳的性質，認為它就像誇張的故事和謊言。

不僅我們容易受到宣傳的影響，我們甚至沒有能力去識別它。當然，它具有誤導性，但它更常以真相的形式誤導，而不是公然說謊。這是我們在試圖識別宣傳時犯下的第一個錯誤。

第二個，更重要的是，我們往往沒有意識到，宣傳通常被用來放大並激化現有的趨勢，或者相反，來壓制它們。也就是說，它通常尋求製造過激反應或冷漠反應。

Ellul then gives three specific characteristics of people who are most susceptible to propaganda, in addition to the fact of being educated. Yes, being educated, he insists, increases our vulnerability to propaganda. Let's look at these three traits, then.

The people who are most susceptible to propaganda, says Ellul, are
1) interactive with the largest volumes of information,
2) feel a need to give their opinions (takes) on virtually every topic, and
3) deem themselves competent to judge the quality of information for themselves.

Ellul接著提出了三個具體的特徵，這些特徵描述了最容易受到宣傳影響的人，此外，這些人受過教育的事實也增加了他們對宣傳的脆弱性。讓我們來看看這三個特質：

1. 與大量資訊互動：這些人經常與大量資訊互動，這使得他們更容易被精心設計的宣傳所影響。

2. 覺得需要對幾乎每個話題發表意見：他們覺得有必要對幾乎每個話題發表自己的意見，這種自我表達的渴望可能會使他們不加批判地接受宣傳信息。

3. 認為自己有能力判斷資訊質素：他們認為自己有能力獨立判斷資訊的質素，這種過度自信可能會導致他們忽視宣傳的潛在影響，並認為自己能夠辨別真偽。

Here's how these categories are summarized in the introduction to his book, which are more specific than how I summarized them within the character limit.

"(1) they absorb the largest amount of secondhand, unverifiable information; (2) they feel a compelling need to have an opinion on every important question of our time, and thus easily succumb to opinions offered to them by propaganda on all such indigestible pieces of information; (3) they consider themselves capable of “judging for themselves.”"

這些類別在他的書的導言中是這樣總結的，比我之前總結的更具體：

"(1) 他們吸收了大量無法驗證的二手信息；(2) 他們覺得有迫切的需要對每個重要問題發表意見，因此很容易屈服於宣傳為他們提供的觀點，這些觀點基於所有難以消化的信息；(3) 他們認為自己有能力‘獨立判斷’。"

This list should make most of you on here very uncomfortable because it's us, especially "influencers" and pundits. Very Smart People and Very Political People are particularly indicted here. This is how we interact on social media, especially with "big" accounts.

Not only should reading it raise a mirror in front of us and make us feel uncomfortable, it should also make us nervous about the ways we are ourselves conduits for propaganda, relays in the vast communication webs we embed ourselves in, in this information economy.

這個列表應該會讓你們大多數人感到非常不安，因為它描述了我們在社交媒體上的互動方式，尤其是「影響者」（香港及台灣可能叫KOL）和評論員。非常聰明的人和非常政治化的人在這裡面被特別指出。這就是我們在社交媒體上的互動方式，尤其是與「大」帳戶的互動。

不僅閱讀它應該在我們面前舉起一面鏡子並讓我們感到不安，它還應該讓我們擔心我們自己如何成為宣傳的傳遞者，在這個信息經濟中，我們嵌入的廣泛溝通網絡中成為中繼器。

It should also make us wary of influencers in a way we tend not to be. Their vulnerability to propaganda, even without being paid to participate, is effectively maximized by the incentives and pressures they're under. They're propaganda amplifiers and transmitters.

Ellul isn't particularly positive or negative about this state of affairs, but it seems important to recognize it for what it is. It's a lot to think about, that's for certain.

這也應該讓我們警惕影響者，因為我們通常不會這樣做。他們對宣傳的脆弱性，即使沒有得到付款，也因為他們所面臨的激勵和壓力而有效地最大化。他們是宣傳的放大器和傳遞者。

Ellul對這種情況並沒有特別積極或消極的態度，但認識到它的真實性似乎很重要。這確實有很多需要思考的地方，這可以確定。