How Slovakia is consumed by tunnel vision – Filip Švaňa
Those who have known for a long time may know that my comments on social networks are different than before. I have always been openly critical, but the object of criticism has changed. Maybe some of you are thinking wtf. Since it is clear to me that the real meaning is often lost in the speed of content consumption, I will try to explain my specific setup,
TUNNEL 1
We live in a tense time characterized by information overload. There are a lot of them, I can’t keep up with them, it’s hard to navigate them. That’s why they tried only fast subtitles, and that’s why they offer us bombastic subtitles. They are easier to remember.
Social media is our key information funnel today. They practically decide what I think. Through algorithms, they slip us information that could be close to us. And that’s a trap. In practice, this means that the less we have opinions, common contacts on FB/IG/LI/Twitter, the greater the risk that we uncritically succumb to some current of opinion, or directly to propaganda. Naturally, the first to “fall” into this trap were older people, socially isolated people, or people living in smaller urban areas. All it takes is for their contacts to start spreading conspiracy theories (sophisticated today, even for an average educated person), and they are immediately up to their ears in it. These people are often not well, and Slovaks are in communism for a decade, we are fencing and we are learning that “someone is taking care of them”. But that doesn’t really happen. These people then take out their frustrations in the only “democratic” place – social media. to be an atomic physicist in order to offer such people that you will be ten, “who will take care of them” and back it up with a few virtual bangs on the table, and there are Kotleba, Kollár, Uhrík and finally Matovič in the world. These people are so desperate that they are willing to belong to Fico and return to him. The nonsense about the welfare state was even talked about before the parliamentary elections by “gentlemen from Bratislava businessmen” from Progressive Slovakia. No one, absolutely none of the politicians has had the balls to say that in 20 years there will be no state pensions and that the health system is actually on the verge of collapse (not just virtually as the opposition politicians regularly scare), since the state pays for 3 million “their people” so few that within a few years the bubble will burst and the remaining payers simply won’t be able to cover all the costs. But what is important, these ordinary, manipulated people are VICTIMS. They are victims of CRUDE PROPAGANDA.
ABOLISH THE CULTURE
Simple people are victims. But what do they get? The crudest slurs (loose, desolate, primitive and worse), attacks and mockery from those who think they “are better informed”. Has the method of insults and attacks ever been successful in history? Hardly. Why should she now? But are these people really “better informed”?
One of the basic elements of “better orientation” is to know and understand the arguments of the opposing side (be careful, this does not mean agreeing!). Are the “better informed” really listening to them? From time to time, I observe the “cancel culture” phenomenon in my surroundings. I don’t agree with the other person’s opinion, so I unfriend/unfollow them. Did my emotions drive me to a strict opinion on a particular topic? I will unfriend anyone who says otherwise. Yes, this happens and it happens often.
One thing nowadays is the ritualistic act of “unfriending”. The second thing is the group dynamics that exist in communities set up to “abolish culture”.
Nodding in discussions, proud to be part of the “movement”, inner desire to be cool by loud/visible proof of your “membership in the cool club”. Unfortunately, in most cases it is accompanied by a lot of aggression, where the argumentative discussion becomes authoritative, and a higher IQ (I have a higher IQ, better vocabulary, grammar and style, I overwhelm her/him). Because the humiliation of a “desolate” (understand a person with a different opinion) is perceived as an absolute win. “Apparently” all it takes is to put a sticker with a strong buzzword on the other side’s forehead. The absolute win is one color and it is very intoxicating.
And when zero arguments were enough for an absolute win, why should someone make well-founded arguments the next time? After all, we are a strong community, we stick together, and if I don’t “beat” the opponent with a cap, dozens more “partners” will do it.
And that is exactly the moment when predators become possible (and, as he will show later, unfortunately also real) victims. Because they lose, just like the “desolates”, a key feature – CRITICAL THINKING.
Let’s show it on the biggest current Slovak phenomenon – social phenomenon VALLO TEAM.
Public criticism of the mayor automatically gets its label – hey (also “hejtík” from friends). This magic word closes brain threads and objective discussion, so in the community “Vallo positive” means ultimate victory. And so the pursuit of substantive discussion ended before it began. And you become uncomfortable outsidersince he dares to question Valla and with him the community, whose members are also part of your online/offline community.
“Vallo is fine, the best mayor of Bratislava!” You may not believe it, but I agree with this statement. However, unlike many users of this statement, I remember at least 5 mayors, so I have something to compare it to. But should this sentence be an argument for substantive discussion on a specific topic?
TUNNEL 2
And now comes the worst – TUNNEL VISION. This is where the weapon of mass destruction – propaganda – comes into play. In the case of Valla, from the really best – PR agency Seesame and above all from its owner, Michaela Benedigová, who is employed directly at the municipality as “the mayor’s advisor in the field of change management, communication, and also specific communication of the development of the city”. It is listed first in the list of advisors on the website. Not by chance. I myself worked in PR for almost a decade, built one of the TOP10 agencies and together led the market’s number two. It is all the more painful to see how perfectly the propaganda surrounding the mayor is managed. For many years I struggled to find simple definitions of PR, until Vallo and Seesame came along and brought a simple answer. The goal of PR is tunnel vision. And what exactly is tunnel vision? Evaluation of the whole according to a few details and the inability/unwillingness to evaluate comprehensively, including the involvement of critical thinking.
EXAMPLE: The key theme of the last municipal elections in Bratislava (2018) was the deplorable state of the city’s roads. Today, after four years, most of the main roads (in the administration of the municipality) are in an even more deplorable condition. Am I blaming someone for Valla? Not. Not even his opponent Kusý. With extremely high-quality propaganda, the perception of the members of Vallo’s fan club can instead be seen in the personal tunnel:
– repaired tens of meters (out of tens of kilometers) of roads from emotional videos about “how the road should be properly maintained, how much asphalt should be put there, special curbs should be used” (what if they have no idea whether the “cool” curbs fulfill an additional function or whether the price/performance ratio is better than other possible solutions)
– new, beautiful, modern purchased buses (do the drivers turn on the air conditioning in these buses? How much did those buses actually cost? Was it more or less than Belfi’s overpriced tenders for Ftáčnik and Nesrovnal?),
– new barrier-free curbs with markings for the blind (which ends in bushes – example of Krasňana)
– beautiful sycamore trees in front of the market, which make waiting for public transport pleasant with their shadows (they will be nicer in a few years when they grow up, but at least the expensive designer benches under them will be occupied by homeless people and we will all watch it)
The quality of tunnel vision is directly proportional to the quality and number of states with professionally processed and captioned videos and photos. Good job, MB + all34(!)-member communication team of the municipality(marketing + public relations). For comparison, the largest Slovak banks or mobile operators do not have such a large marketing team! All in the spirit of the politician’s motto “It is not important how things actually are, but what the voters think”.
And there was another brilliant PR move – the establishment of the Metropolitan Institute, which dutifully fulfills the function of “expert guarantor” in the case of more difficult topics, where it would not be good for the mayor to get his hands and image dirty.
If anyone ever decided to ask the critical questions mentioned above, for example publicly on Vallo’s preferred social networks, it would be a conscious attempt at reputational suicide. In the best case, he would be labeled a hater/hater, which means an automatic stoppage of substantive discussion and ultimate defeat (in the eyes of the community).
If the daredevil is automatically excommunicated, a few friends will remove him from their friends or unfollow him. And during the next discussion on a topic related to Bratislava/the magistrate, he already has a big HEJTER sticker on his back and becomes plankton for the started pack.
Only one thing follows from this – these people are basically no different from the first group. They are also VICTIMS, but this time of SOPHISTICATED PROPAGANDA. It gradually erased CRITICAL THINKING from the software in their heads. They are victims of the widespread propaganda tolerated by the media, the negative group dynamics of communities/bubbles artificially created by social networks.
PROFESSIONAL, SELECTIVE MEDIA
The attitude of the media is also worth thinking about. Diary N and SME, which are perceived as bearers of social critical thinking. Although they do not use the pejorative vocabulary of social network users, they treat people, victims of primitive propaganda, in a “professorial” way. Both media hacked and slashed at all government outfits at every slightest opportunity. But the critical thinking somehow left them with possible toxic topics/issues connected with Vallo, which gets the minimum into the content. Despite the fact that they are semi-public and purely commercial, they were widely read.
CIVIL WAR ONLINE
On the surface, it looks like we have clear winners and losers. It’s not like that. We lose everyone.
The “desolates” feel guilty and subconsciously feel like second-class people. After all, they don’t have to be “those wise exotics from Bratislava cafes who don’t know what real life is about, who have never worked hard and live like in a fairy tale. And they are still stealing. The feeling of injustice and danger deepens, and with it the desire to defend oneself, to take revenge.
That is why they are saving their only shot at the election. They operate in “stealth”, often making it almost impossible to survey them. This is the best way to show those arrogant people “who’s boss.”
And what about the others? They have a sense of mental victory and superiority. They won’t be happy because they are talking nonsense. From time to time, the latest survey comes out and for two days they (together with the media) complain about the support of Russia or Fico. Instead of thinking about what to actually do (that is, apart from the desired repressions in the style of canceling propaganda profiles), they find a quick culprit – they point the finger at “bad politicians” and for two days moralize how bad things are with those “desolates” and then arrogantly roll them insulting social networks. Not realizing that they are only humiliating other victims of propaganda and thereby achieving only a Pyrrhic victory. Both camps open topics that do not interest the other (refugees vs LGBTI). At other times, they manipulate the topics according to which sub-community is clever (the terrorist attack by a deranged neo-Nazi, who left a clearly racist manifesto, turned to an LGBTI manifesto).
The divide between the two groups is deepening. Instead of dialogue, cooperation and mutual explanation, the two camps are engaged in trench warfare with daily skirmishes.
And this is what bothers me more than whether Sulík is right, or Matovič and other everyday egocentric bizzare things. We are completely unaware of the online civil war, which is the basis for us to do something about it.
That’s why I occasionally step out of my comfort zone, poke the hornet’s nest and open a discussion on a topic that at first glance seems more educated/intelligent spectrum than absurd. I often catch the label “hate/hater”, or I remain strongly convinced. Sometimes members of the “desolates” also get involved (yes, I still keep in touch with them and communicate with them as well). I read, I calmly argue. Because that, in my opinion, is the only way to overcome this social crisis.