# List of image distortion methods

NOTE: We often don't know how to get [power](power.md) and often [fear](mind-feelings-fear.md) losing it. So, we do weird things to [lie](people-lying.md) about it, usually to make ourselves [look](image.md) more powerful. While this list isn't comprehensive, it gives an indicator of the types of things worth watching out for in other people and [groups](groups-large.md).

Almost everything in this list works to serve a few main themes:

1. Redirect blame or minimize it.
2. Make something look good (typically [virtuous](morality.md)) or at least better by comparison to something else.
3. Separate ideas that shouldn't be separated, frequently to distance [feelings](mind-feelings.md) from the thing.
4. Combine ideas that shouldn't be combined, typically to make people [feel](mind-feelings.md) more strongly about it.

Experts at distorting appearances are frequently good at [predicting](imagination.md) what will happen, and regularly do it prematurely before adverse consequences happen.

## [Mental](understanding.md)

Beliefs

- Solidify [belief](understanding-certainty.md) via [hypnosis](habits.md) about something that can't be confirmed in [reality](reality.md).
- [Emotionally](mind-feelings.md) distance [beliefs](understanding-certainty.md) into "boxes" to [perform](results.md) despite disbelieving something, often with the [language](language.md)/[conversation](people-conversation.md) distortion methods below.
- Respond to questions, and create a basis of [understanding](understanding.md), with an oversimplified answer that [feels](mind-feelings.md) like it's more true out of its simplicity.

[Logic](logic.md)

- Invalidate premises to reposition or open up the possibilities for reasoning.
- Add new premises that change the [story](stories.md), typically intensifying it.
- Provide unusual or irrational conclusions that [imply](mind-feelings.md) new premises that don't exist.
- Justify the moral basis of something by [trusting](understanding-certainty.md) that a [decision](people-decisions.md) is inherently [good](morality.md) from what it [might](trust.md) [cause](results.md).
- Make someone doubt and question [understanding](understanding.md), [perceptions](image.md), and [reasoning](logic.md) they [know](understanding-certainty.md) to be [true](reality.md) ("gaslighting").
- Justify the basis of something by virtue of someone's [authority](jobs-specialization.md).
- Express a secondary motive as the primary [purpose](purpose.md).

## [Language](language.md)

Word Choice - Replacement

- [Specialized](jobs-specialization.md) and trade-specific jargon that sounds more [educated](understanding.md), signals [group membership](groups-member.md), or hides how things [feel](mind-feelings.md).
- A word that [feels](mind-feelings.md) stronger indicates more [power](power.md) or provokes more [fear](mind-feelings-fear.md) (e.g., "weapon of war" instead of "gun").
- A word that [feels](mind-feelings.md) weaker indicates less [power](power.md) and often implies [victimhood](hardship-ptsd.md).
- Words can be swapped to build associations to other words (e.g., "attacked" versus "defended").
- Acronyms make something look more formally established (e.g., "LGBT" instead of "homosexual", most military acronyms).
- Frequently call things by what they aren't until it's [habituated](habits.md) into everyone's memory.
- Change a verb or conjunction to make something a [lie](people-lying.md) (e.g., "walked *in* the room" vs "walked *near* the room").
- Swapping out a word in a familiar saying.

Word Choice - Additions

- Include adjectives to modify the present image of something (e.g., "The People's Democratic Republic of North Korea").
- Use the word "free" to imply an obvious [decision](people-decisions.md) while hiding other costs.
- Borrow a different word that evokes a [feeling](mind-feelings.md) formerly unrelated to the value, which can *completely* rearrange the [story](stories.md).

Math

- [Lie](people-lying.md) about quantities, especially small lies that could be mistaken as simply accidental.
- Hide trailing zeros with "K" or "M" to make a number seem larger or smaller, especially by comparison to other numbers.
- Invert percentages to make the numbers [feel](mind-feelings.md) higher or lower (e.g., 3% chance of death vs. 97% chance of living).
- Use algorithms (i.e., a set of number-based conditional rules) to hide bias, typically with the claim that the algorithm is neutral.

Word Placement

- Separate two words in a sentence to create [emotional](mind-feelings.md) distance ("The **senator**, in many ways, was a just man, but he was caught having **murdered** his wife.")
- Stick two words in a sentence closer together ("The **officer's murder** case was solved today in the arrest of a local clerk.").
- Frequently place a word next to another word to entirely change its implication (e.g., "pompous" was once a positive implication, but now implies "pompous ass").

Sentence Choice

- Use the passive voice to remove the subject of the sentence from the idea ("The murder had been done by him").
- Use long sentences, extended oration, and elaborate sentences to give ideas [emotional](mind-feelings.md) distance.

## Comparisons

Comparing Numbers/Ideas

- State an arbitrary number or idea that will seem much less favorable than the one they want to [influence](power-influence.md) people toward.
- Use extremely specific words or numbers to imply something was particularly [calculated](logic.md).
- Compare numbers that don't really matter to each other, especially via statistics.
- Using [technology](technology.md), especially [computers](computers.md), to imply something has a factual basis.
- Make a statement that seems [logical](logic.md), but isn't (e.g., "Feeding someone means they won't want to work.").
- Repeating something incessantly until it seems more prevalent than something else.

Comparing [Values](values.md)

- Implying something has a [symbolic](symbols.md) connection with [moral](morality.md) principles or [decisions](people-decisions.md).

Feelings Comparison

- Use social proof with [anecdotes](stories.md) of others' experiences.
- Signal [wealth or social status](classes.md) to others with a behavior or expensive trinket/clothing.
- Counter-signal as a high-status person with a [lower-class](classes.md) behavior or trinket/clothing to evoke relative poverty or sincerity.
- Use a loosely related metaphor or comparative story to explain the [results](results.md) of something.
- Attach two events as if they were connected, but only connect through a shared [feeling](mind-feelings.md).
- Offering something that's awful to then offer something that appears to be a compromise ([door-in-the-face technique](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Door-in-the-face_technique)).

Comparing with the Unknown

- Allude to something as particularly exclusive, rare, unique, special, or unheard of.
- Give an implication that there are very few of something left to force a belief in [scarcity](people-decisions.md), especially regarding [trends](trends.md).

## [Conversation](people-conversation.md)

Topic

- Redirect the discussion away from the central issue.
- Redirect a [conflict](people-conflicts.md) to a vaguely related one.
- Rapidly shift [conversation](people-conversation.md) or [tone](language.md) to confuse or disorient someone, often to discover a secret.
- Focus more on qualities than on quantities to evoke more [feelings](mind-feelings.md).
- Focus more on quantities than on qualities to dismiss a matter.

Implying about Self

- Speak vaguely or avoid saying certain things to evoke others [imagining](imagination.md) sophistication, [power](power.md), or [expertise](jobs-specialization.md).
- Repeat [virtues](morality.md) others [may](understanding.md) believe ("virtue signaling") to indicate loyalty.
- Feign ignorance to elicit pity or catch a botched restatement.
- Feign repentance to mend broken [trust](trust.md).
- Make a [creation](creations.md) appear rushed or improvised when it was well-rehearsed, staged, or meticulously craft, which will inspire the audience to give more grace to it.
- State that a previously discussed topic (e.g., a web forum) answers a topic that it doesn't.

Implying with Others

- Allude vaguely to what "experts" say or believe.
- State what a non-present person would have thought on an issue, though it's often impossible to precisely [know](imagination.md).
- Concede to a personal failing to provoke someone else to admit *their* failings.
- Use [language](language.md) associated with a specific [culture](people-culture.md) to imply association with it.

Pressure

- Ask a yes/no question with many elements, then demand the person answer yes or no.
- Ask two pseudo-related ideas within the same question.
- Push intense [feelings](mind-feelings.md) as if they're valid [logic](logic.md), frequently controlling the [conversation](people-conversation.md) with [shame](image.md).
- Push the matter as urgent when it's not to force a [decision](people-decisions.md) without [critically thinking](logic.md) it through first.
- Use an unusual time or adverse weather conditions to make people uncomfortable.
- Misstate what someone said to make it sound worse, usually to provoke defensiveness.
- Force a "with or against me" stance on someone.
- Shifting the "burden of proof" to something that's more reasonable and established.

Feelings

- Use imagery for people to [imagine](imagination.md) something enough that they [feel](mind-feelings.md) a [story](stories.md) around the stated thing.
- Choose specific phrases that draw associated [feelings](mind-feelings.md) to the thing.
- Use [humor](humor.md) to hide a message.

Blame

- Blame [technology](technology.md) or its [power](power.md) for [decisions](people-decisions.md) (e.g., guns, [computers](computers.md)).
- Redirect an idea by using the implications from specific patterns of words.
- Imply someone's guilt, but without saying anything that would [legally](people-rules.md) indicate the implication.
- Claim something difficult to disprove against someone.
- Misquote, then attack a statement ("straw man").

## [Image](image.md)

First Impressions

- Prominently display [symbols](symbols.md) that evoke [status](image.md) or discredit others' status.
- Pay for [advertising](marketing.md) to imply a larger [reputation](image.md) than [reality](reality.md).
- Purchase and display possessions to appear larger, more important, or to [scare](mind-feelings-fear.md) others.
- Use possessions flippantly as if they had no [value](purpose.md) to its owner.
- Gain a formal title or role that yields no additional [power](power.md).
- Imply weakness to appear [humble](morality.md).
- Gain [popularity](trends.md) with [young people](maturity.md) (who happen to be poor judges of [quality](values-quality.md)).
- Use any body language or optical illusions with clothing or environment to appear larger or stronger.
- Use a good-looking messenger with a bad message, or vice versa.
- Appear trustworthy to make others [trust](trust.md).

Tone of Voice/Context

- Express more [confidence](understanding-certainty.md) than what they think to [convince](power-influence.md) others of [power](power.md) or [certainty](understanding-certainty.md).
- Express less [confidence](understanding-certainty.md) than what they think to appear more open-minded.
- Speak condescendingly or rudely to imply that the person doesn't matter by comparison to them.
- Laugh or eat to express oral dominance.

Redirection

- Call another group by a label that only fits a few [outliers](trends.md) of the group.
- Call an entire group [evil](morality-evil.md) instead of merely their [beliefs](understanding-certainty.md) or a few specific people in that group.
- Use existing [reputation](image.md) to hide laziness or incompetence.
- Imply that their thing is the new [trend](trends.md), which makes others [imagine](imagination.md) they'll miss out on it.
- Imply there are only a few possible [options](people-decisions.md), even when there are more.
- A [large group](groups-large.md) using independent local individuals to imply a [smaller group](groups-small.md).

Blame

- Condemn a [group's leadership](groups-large.md) that they haven't fixed a completely unfixable thing.
- Blame an opponent or a common enemy for public failures.
- Blame a [larger group](groups-large.md) to appear as a [victim](hardship-ptsd.md) or more [moral](morality.md).
- Shame anyone who rejects their [bias](image.md).
- Imply their opponent is the laggard of a [trend](trends.md).

## [Organizations](groups-large.md)

Public [Image](image.md)

- Lie about the [historical](stories-storytellers.md) [legacy](legacy.md) of the organization.
- Label an organization as something unrelated to its [purpose](purpose.md) (e.g., Southern Poverty Law Center, [Black Lives Matter](politics-leftism.md)).
- Use [authoritative](power.md)-sounding labels (e.g., "association", "endowment", "coalition", "opportunity fund")
- Establish [traditions](people-culture.md) that imply [stories](stories.md) about the organization.
- Donating to other organizations that serve the public good.

Blame

- Blame a [smaller outside group](groups-small.md) to make them appear incompetent.
- Blame a low-ranking [member](groups-member.md), then eject them from the group as publicly as possible.
- Blame the predecessor of the organization, *especially* if they had any differences of [opinion](understanding-certainty.md).

Inter-Organization

- Establish a test to prove [group status](groups-member.md) that requires specific information only attainable by the leadership.
- Separate [members'](groups-member.md) roles along lines that make very little sense.
- Bestowing titles to avoid bestowing legitimate [power](power-types.md).
- Physically separate members' [experiences](results.md) from their [decisions](people-decisions.md) to reduce [emotional](mind-feelings.md) involvement (e.g., bank cards, credit cards, preferred player cards in casinos).
- Create a [reward](habits.md) system with complex [rules](people-rules.md) that make the game look easy to hack (e.g., credit card points, shopper loyalty cards, social score).
- Use a numerical system without a conventional base-10 basis (e.g., school grades, credit card scores).
- Frame a [decision](people-decisions.md) as "opt-in" or "opt-out" to imply the rest of the group is doing something automatically or set apart people who weren't paying attention.

Multi-Organization - Hiding

- Use third parties, middlemen, and outside contractors who can be held solely responsible if caught, especially about [illegal things](people-rules.md).
- Create separate [images](image.md) for various [created](creations.md) things in the same organization (e.g., [marketing brands](marketing.md)).
- Making another organization that holds assets, which can often have [legal](people-rules.md) benefits along with [image](image.md).

Multi-Organization - [Crisis](mind-feelings-fear.md)

- Escalate [fear](mind-feelings-fear.md) from a crisis to direct everyone's [purposes](purpose.md).
- Manufacture a crisis by destroying things or giving [power](power.md) to a [bad system](mgmt-badsystems.md) ("false flag operation").
- Direct anger and [fear](mind-feelings-fear.md) by declaring [war](science-earth-weather.md) on another group.

Multi-Organization - Referencing

- Cite another organization that cited them.
- Create a separate organization to authorize, review, or approve things, then have them authorize their mother organization (e.g., committees, bureaus).
- Use [large-scale media](stories-storytellers.md) to advertise a [bias](image.md) as if it were a [fact](reality.md).
- Have another organization [publish](creations.md) something, then cite it.
- Create multiple organizations that do the same thing to make something [appear](image.md) to be a [trend](trends.md).
- Make [creations](creations.md) that magnify the importance of a first creation, frequently drawing on nostalgic memories and vague [feelings](mind-feelings.md).
- A pump-and-dump/Ponzi scheme:
  1. Make [lots of hype](stories-storytellers.md) about something to inflate its value.
  2. Get many people interested in that thing where they invest tons of resources (usually [money](power-types.md)).
  3. Repeat as long as desired (without getting caught).
  4. Before anyone finds out, swap out the value of the hyped thing for something of *actual* value (though not for a Ponzi scheme).
  5. Disappear before anyone finds out.

[Statistics](math-stat.md)

- Change the sample sizes of different sources, or use particularly small samples.
- Gather data from intentionally [biased](mind-bias.md) sources.
  - Use prior information to ensure the samples are primed to answer a certain way.
  - Make the sampling more difficult for specific things to get through (e.g., very long forms, hypersensitive litmus tests).
  - Shift the geographic locations of the sampling.
  - Adjust the timing of the sampling.
  - Removing samples beyond clearly erroneous measurements.
- Generate bias by asking questions that steer toward certain answers over others.
  - With opinion polling, reframing sentences (i.e, *any* of the above-stated methods).
- Group the data into uneven or misleading categories.
- On charts, use a bottom value different from zero.
- On a map or chart, diagram differently sized areas with a similar convention of coloring or numbering.
- Use color grades that imply dramatic difference in statistically similar sets (e.g., green for <700 people, orange for 700-800, red for >800).