In a restaurant located on the top floor of one of Moscow's skyscrapers, tycoons communicated, sincerely considering themselves members of a closed club of the elite, who were allowed to decide the fate of society.
The conversation was conducted by the king of television Ivan Ivanovich, the lord of the sex industry Peter Petrovich, the alcohol tycoon Vasily Vasilyevich and the owner of the computer industry Alex Gotman. Below, behind the glass of the transparent floor, disheveled, violent Moscow raged, intoxicated by the eternal pursuit of money, stimulated by advertising and the ideology of consumption, methodically introduced into the vein of society through the media drip.
Ivan Ivanovich was the first to start the conversation:
“Dear Alex,” he turned to the youngest computer genius in the company of Kings, “the Internet and social networks are gaining more and more popularity, becoming a decisive factor in our issues of social management. I must admit with sadness and at the same time respect for you that today there is a growing fashion for not watching TV - among young people this is even considered almost a sign of intelligence and awareness. Everyone gradually goes online. Share how you do it.
- Thank you for the assessment of my merits … - Alex answered embarrassedly, - but I'll start with the fact that you, Ivan Ivanovich, shouldn't worry about your business. We recently knocked out the statistics and found out that the majority of Internet users who are dismissive of the so-called "zombie box" actually consume at least half of their time on the Internet the same television content - all sorts of entertainment series, TV shows, and so on. They just do it through phones and computers. So your influence on the minds still plays a primary role in educating the masses, and we just created a beautiful new bowl for your food.
- Thank you, Alex, for appreciating the work of your friends. But please don't be shy, everyone here already knows that you have taken the brainwashing process to a whole new level. I've heard about how you impose a criminal subculture on young people. This community … as it is called there … - Ivan Ivanovich snapped his fingers, trying to remember the name.
- AUE, - Alex answered, - yes, we are promoting thug romance there and …
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- Yes, this is paradoxical! - Pyotr Petrovich exclaimed, - gentlemen, can you imagine, the followers of this movement dream of going to prison and sitting there all their lives, they listen to chanson almost from elementary school, start to learn prison rules, watch all kinds of slag on YouTube like “How to behave in prison "Or" How to enter the cell?"
- Seriously!? - Vasily Vasilyevich asked in surprise and, turning to Alex, said, - Yes, you are just a first-class puppeteer. I convinced people that poisoning is fun, cool and normal, and you went even further - convinced young people that the meaning of life is to go to jail, smear your body with tattoos and ruin your life.
- Have you heard about the emo subculture? - Ivan Ivanovich entered the conversation again, - we used to promote it a little through traditional media, but when Alex popularized social networks, things went many times faster.
- It seems, those who dressed like freaks and went forever dull? - asked Pyotr Petrovich.
- Yes, we instilled in them that “life is pain” and, in short, one must suffer, think about death, and in the end cut one's veins. A follower of emo culture who has never cut his veins at least once is like a bee that doesn't like honey,”Alex replied. - But today it is already less relevant, now other areas are at the peak of popularity: Columbines, suicides, slashers, anime, furries, bronies, supporters of LGBT, feminism, men's movement, childfree, etc.
“I don’t even know what all these words you just said mean, but I am amazed at what talented hands can bring young people. Some dream to go to prison, others to die. And how do you do it? Any adequate person understands that it is not very comfortable in prison, and cutting veins is painful. How do you bring children to such states? - Vasily Vasilyevich was sincerely surprised.
- It's simple, gentlemen, - Alex began to explain with obvious pleasure, - young people are greedy for all sorts of shocking things and want to have fun. We go to meet her and provide all kinds of supposedly entertaining content, inside of which, like in a Trojan horse, mental poison is hidden. As our practice shows, through vivid images it is possible to introduce into the mind of a teenager any destructive idea - be it extremism, suicidal tendencies, drug addiction, and so on.
- And what is one of your "blue whales" worth, - Ivan Ivanovich exclaimed, - how did you manage to force teenagers to do everything they were told so quickly?
“The Blue Whale and its analogs are already targeted work with a pre-prepared flexible audience that has gone through special engagement funnels. In these groups, there are experienced professionals who are well versed in the work of the psyche of a notorious and unbalanced personality. Now many adolescents are deprived of the attention of their parents, they have very unstable life values, guidelines, and therefore they are easy to control. It is enough to show attention to the teenager, ask about his problems, talk to him affectionately, well, in general, have you not read Dale Carnegie ?!
- Yes, read, read, of course. Tell people what they want to hear and you can twist ropes from them … - Ivan Ivanovich said thoughtfully.
- Exactly. Or rather, give people what they need, and then smoothly forward the dialogue in the direction you need. That's all. And it works both individually and with the masses,”Alex replied.
- Yes, Alex, you even surpassed me in something, - Ivan Ivanovich answered.
- Come on, Ivan Ivanovich, the seeds fell on fertile soil - the absence of a moral paradigm, the unsteadiness of life guidelines, the orientation of people towards material values - all of us, - Alex looked around the audience, - are indebted to you.
“That is, that is,” the television king said smugly.
“Let me show you the statistics of adolescent involvement in all sorts of destructive trends,” Alex said and opened his laptop, which was always with him.
- Not bad, not bad, - Ivan Ivanovich muttered thoughtfully, patting Alex on the shoulder.
- And most importantly - here again the same illusion of choice, as on television, - Alex replied, - It seems that the topics are completely different and affect many areas of life, they offer different ideology, but in reality this whole ideology is destructive and immoral. And, in fact, a teenager, as he immerses himself in our networks, receives a huge set of various ways to destroy himself and his life. We also apply the classic Roman principle of Divide and Conquer - we pit these communities against each other, increasing audience engagement and the illusion that each of them is going their own way.
- Do all these movements appear and grow by themselves? - Vasily Vasilyevich asked in surprise.
- Well, you, Vasily Vasilyevich, - Alex said condescendingly, - by itself only wool grows on rams, and then - the rams require the supervision of a shepherd. And in our business, the so-called "smart feed" of social networks and careful development of the ideological basis of each of the projects play a decisive role. Smart Feed, like the recommendation system, allows us to discreetly increase the reach of the communities we need. We simply set up the internal algorithms for issuing information so that their materials more often fall into the users' news feed and receive more attention from the audience than, for example, the posts of all these conscious and moral fighters. As for the content of such groups, everything here is built on a rigid system. Each destructive movement supposedly has its own specificity, but the main points are the same everywhere. For example,description of the formation of some destructive movements over the years.
- Yes, everything is clear and understandable … - Vasily Vasilyevich answered, and most importantly, the buttons of the teenage psyche, which must be pressed, are well defined. Every young man really wants to seem bolder and stronger than others. And the most important thing is to be different from the "gray mass". And it doesn't even matter what.
- Very competently, Alex, - added Ivan Ivanovich and again patted his friend on the shoulder, - you have precisely identified the weak points of the psyche of our clients. Through vivid images in the mind of a teenager, you can romanticize anything you want: even prison, even murder, even suicide.
- Exactly, gentlemen, - Alex answered and clicked the next slide on the laptop, - And here are the statistics and forecasts for the involvement of adolescents in destructive movements:
- Yes, you have Napoleonic plans, dear Alex, - Ivan Ivanovich exclaimed, - good work. And I have always said that the main thing for us is to grab the attention of young people, because the future belongs to them. And if modern children dream of becoming criminals, maniacs, serial killers, drug addicts and suicides, then the process of reducing the herd will proceed as if by itself, which is very important in modern conditions of ubiquitous robotization. “The troubles are forgotten, the run is stopped, the robots are working, not the man,” - somehow it was sung in one old song.
- Just prophetic songs were released in the Soviet Union! Today there is no longer any need to increase the number of herds, the equipment copes with many tasks perfectly, and it is much easier to control it. But in order for everything to go smoothly, your task, dear Ivan Ivanovich, is to continue to distract the attention of the parents so that, God forbid, they don’t catch themselves and become interested in what their child is interested in on the Internet,”Alex laughed.
- Yes, we have successfully shared our responsibilities, - Ivan Ivanovich laughed in response, - you have created a very wide selection of destructive communities - literally for every taste. If you don't want to die, become a murderer, if you don't want to kill, die yourself, if you don't want to go to school and listen to your mother - welcome to AUE - get ready for jail.
- I will supplement your list, - Alex said and began to list, - Do you want to go into the world of dreams and fantasies - anime and slashers are waiting for you; if you can't find your other half - they will explain in LGBT communities that you are just looking in the wrong place; you think that women or men are to blame for everything - feminists and supporters of the Men's movement think the same; you are afraid of responsibility - in childfree they will make it clear that this is normal; I wanted tenderness and affection - furry and armor are right there! Just don't ask me what kind of "tenderness and affection" is
I won't tell you anyway, in order to protect your psyche, - Alex laughed and continued, - In general, teenagers are very easy to manage. It is enough to throw into the community a couple of bright, beautiful pictures with some romantic or aggressive slogans, fill in the comments with admiring reviews and that's it - the teenager begins to believe in the new ideology, like a Komsomol member in communism.
- Alex, don't talk about the Komsomol, it's still my youth … - Ivan Ivanovich interrupted him.
- You have become too sentimental, Ivan Ivanovich, - this is superfluous in our business, - Alex answered.
- What can you do, Soviet society brought up human values in us. Until now, I cannot crush this infection in myself … - the television king answered thoughtfully.
- But back to our rams, - Alex said and clicked the mouse again, - these are the basic patterns of behavior that we cultivate in destructive movements, regardless of their ideology and outer shell. Thus, the essence of all my movements in social networks is the same: "Devaluation of moral norms"; “Expressed sympathy for antiheroes and everything that can be called the“dark side”; "Striving for self-destruction"; "A tendency to follow a pattern."
- You, Alex, are just a real pro, - Vasily Vasilyevich could not resist another praise, - So to clog the brains of young people - I am still far from you with my alcohol and tobacco. Not everyone can be forced to poison themselves with poison, and you offered the public such a wide range of self-destruction methods - I just admire your imagination.
- What's that. The most interesting thing is next. So - the scheme of involving teenagers in destructive movements, - answered Alex and clicked the mouse.
- All these groups are interconnected, - Alex continued, - If a child, for example, simply subscribes even to a relatively neutral humorous community, then very soon posts will start to appear in his feed, enticing him to move to more interesting groups, and so gradually he will sink lower and lower, finally getting entangled in our networks.
- Very competently, Alex, - Pyotr Petrovich praised him, - everything is as if by notes, everything seems to be copied from manuals on psychology.
- Well, - Alex said not without a shadow of pride, - computer science and psychology are two of my arts, which I know perfectly.
- You are a very valuable shot, Alex, - Vasily Vasilyevich laughed. We already have a lot to learn from you.
- Yes, young people are dear to us everywhere, - Ivan Ivanovich answered.
- But our main problem is adults, who sometimes can still reason with a teenager, - Alex switched to a serious tone, - And that's why I really count on you, gentlemen! Adults should be mindful of their own business. Let them thump, watch TV, become football fans or plow for days at a job they hate to get out of mortgage bondage as soon as possible. The main thing is that they are constantly busy with something.
“We are all working on this together, dear Alex,” said Pyotr Petrovich in all seriousness.
- And while parents do not show attention to their children and, in general, to the information environment in which young people grow up, they will look for this attention in our communities, where we will listen to them, and educate them, and impose a new way of life - teach them to live quickly and leave "beautifully", - Alex summed up.
At this moment, one of the glasses under the guests of the restaurant cracked and lines crawled along it in all directions, which made the world below seem to be enveloped in cobwebs.
“A good sign,” said Ivan Ivanovich, quickly suppressing the first feeling of instinctive fear.