Manipulatory technology in the media space - What is a brick run?

In Orwell's "Farmhouse" "Screaming, eye-blinking, squealing, small but small pig was more famous. He was a great orator.

When discussing a problem, he ran from side to side, which gave his speech a special credibility. Someone said about Screaming that he could turn white into black and black into white." In the play, one day the animals notice that the milk and apples are "missing" in the barn, that is, the pigs have taken them for themselves, and naturally they protest.

Then the same "Screamer" appears on the big stage and, in order to confuse the other creatures and clear their doubts, makes the following statement: "Comrades, in fact, we pigs do not like milk and apples. They necessary for our health.

Milk and apples contain powerful substances that make pigs healthy. This science is scientifically based.

We, as you know, are representatives of intellectual labor, management is our responsibility. We drink milk and eat apples not for ourselves, but for you.

Can you imagine what will happen if our health deteriorates?! Comrades, that's it Jones returns to the barn!

Of course you don't want him to come back!... ” In a matter of minutes, Scream throws out so many scientific, political, and emotional claims that other animals have no energy, time, or energy to examine or critically analyze each argument individually, their brains go haywire, and the final blow— And the concern that "Jones may return" puts them in a completely "knockout" position.

Trump is the most famous "shepherd" who "bombards" the audience with a large number of abstract, difficult to verify arguments, half-truths or baseless claims in a single post or statement. The manipulative technology that aims to mislead, convince people, and at the same time gain a dominant position in a debate or information environment is called "The Gish gallop" (The Gish gallop [1]).

In a 1994 US political debate, creationist Dwayne Gish quickly bombards his opponent with weak, imprecise claims based on personal experience, leaving the other side at a loss as to which of them to rebut or challenge. Professor Eugene Scott (University of Missouri), who witnessed the process, "overtook" his opponent at high speed.

In honor of the departed Gish, the same term is put into circulation for the first time. "Brick running" usually occurs in televised debates or live debates.

For example, many observers consider Donald Trump to be the most famous "shepherd" in history. Los Angeles Times According to an article published in the publication, the future president threw out exactly 162 false and untrue information in a little more than an hour during the pre-election debate in the summer of 2024 [2] .

This means that 2.5 incorrect statements are made every minute. How does this method work?

"brick run" The "success" of the technology can be explained by "Brandolini's Law" (also called "Asymmetry of Simple Sentences"), which was put forward by the Italian programmer Alberto Brandolini in 2013. According to him: "The amount of energy spent on disproving fake or conspiracy theories is several times greater than the energy spent on its production." In other words, lying requires no evidence, logic, or research.

Let's say it takes 2 seconds and 0 calories to say "The Earth is actually flat" or "Gagarin is still alive and lives on the moon". Rejecting each of them requires hours of time and great intellectual effort: gathering scientific data, checking sources, pointing out logical fallacies, and presenting it in understandable language is not enough.

To the viewer or reader, every claim that is not disproved appears to be "truth". Also, "Brick Rush" It also relies on the "Firehose of Falsehoods" method introduced by RAND Corporation researchers in 2016 based on an analysis of Russia's foreign propaganda methods.

Its main purpose is not to convince you, but to confuse you and make you doubt the existence of reality. In this model, lies are "sprayed" from not one, but ten hoses, propagandists are not ashamed of the contradictions of their statements, today they speak from the garden, tomorrow from the mountain, the goal is not to tell the truth, but to throw out dozens of different false versions and create the opinion that "no one can be trusted" in people.

People are constantly "raining lies" when it falls below, the "filtering" function of the brain is turned off, and as a result, even the most absurd claims are accepted without criticism. "Gallopers" in the national information space "Gishcha chopish" is a foreign genre for the Uzbek media - it is not only a trick used in political debates.

The same technology is fast and chaotic, and it works very effectively in other points of the modern information environment, which we are familiar with, and unfortunately enough people are taking advantage of it. So where are they showing up?

Pages of mass media and bloggers. Not everyone, but we find fake, but fast-spreading content on the pages of those who prefer quality info-product.

And the reader is usually more comfortable trusting the "brand" of the page than checking the message. Advertisements.

According to experts, this method is especially effective when used in conjunction with rapid speech. Sometimes, an advertisement for a drug or biologically active supplement claims dozens of "miracle" properties, "fixed" properties of the product in a matter of minutes.

patient opinions, comparative facts, various discounts are listed. The consumer does not have the time or patience to study/check each of them separately, so he buys because it will be good for his feet if not for his eyes.

Statistical information. Another example from the same "Molkhona".

Shout every Sunday to the hungry and exhausted animals " He recites long statistics about how milk production has increased by 200%, other food by 500%, fodder stock has increased by 300%, and working hours have been reduced by so-and-so hours. "The animals believed it." There was no reason not to believe.

Because they did not remember the conditions before the uprising. At least during those times there would be no end in sight and dizzying numbers," the work says.

It's not an unfamiliar sight, right? Information attacks.

It seems that someone did not like the rapprochement of official Tashkent with the West. In September of this year, dozens of new channels were opened on You Tube, blowing the cold breath of the north.

slanders without any factual basis were poured in succession, sometimes contradictory opinions were expressed (for example, Uzbekistan is good, but it is bad that it "whispers" from us without permission). "Brick running" is aimed at exhausting information, fragmenting attention and limiting the ability to think complex manipulation technology.

An ordinary consumer of the modern information environment often thinks that the one who speaks the most, quickly and first is right, and follows, reads and listens more to those who create information chaos with half-and-half facts, cut-off quotes, claims and a loud tone. And those who run like Gish know this well and take advantage of it.

A fast and chaotic, blurred or playful information environment blocks the truth. If the goal is to see the truth, we should learn to consume information presented without noise, quietly, with common sense.

Dilshad NURULLAH