The Weaponization of Loneliness: How Tyrants Stoke Our Fear of Isolation to Silence, Divide, and Conquer

Do you keep your opinions to yourself because you're afraid people will reject you? Do you sign on to a cause just because everyone around you acts like it's the right thing to do? Welcome to "The Weaponization of Loneliness". Tyrants of all stripes want to tell you what to believe and how to live your life. They get away with it by using the most potent weapon at their disposal: your fear of ostracism. This book explains how dictators...aim to atomize us in order to control us. We fall for it because our need to connect with others and our fear of social rejection are so hardwired that they trigger our conformity impulse... We all need a better understanding of how the merchants of loneliness...exploit our terror of social isolation. Their divide-and-conquer tactics include identity politics, political correctness, and mob agitation. Their media monopoly spawns the propaganda essential to demonization campaigns, censorship, cancel culture...and the subversion of society's most fundamental institutions... Ironically, people tend to comply with this machinery to avoid loneliness, but such compliance only isolates us further. The Weaponization of Loneliness offers a message of hope. We can resist this psychological warfare if we have strong bonds in our families, faith communities, and friendships. Let's resolve to talk to one another openly and often...Indeed, totalitarians always seek to destroy private life because it is the very fount of freedom.… (more)