Obama's "Nudge Squad" To Influence Behavior

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benswann.com/obama-creates-nudge-squad-to-influence-behavior/

On Tuesday, Fox News revealed that Obama is planning to use mind tricks and “behavioral insights” to cajole us into accepting his beliefs and ultimately control our behavior. He is doing this through a “nudge squad.”

As reported by Fox, “The federal government is hiring what it calls a ‘Behavioral Insights Team’ that will look for ways to subtly influence people’s behavior.”

There are already teams of “insights” agents that are dispersed across a number of government bureaus. Their job? To carefully construct each agency’s message to convince Americans that Obama’s government knows what the nation needs. You know, to fix all those problems that Obama certainly had nothing to do with starting…

EDIT TO ADD:  If you're not already familiar with where the term "nudge" comes from, it comes for full-fledged fringe left kook Cass Sunstein.

Here is his book:  books.google.com/books/about/Nudge.html?id=mzZV9jFLltwC

Here is an excerpt from "Discover The Networks" page:  www.discoverthenetworks.org/individualProfile.asp?indid=2422

Under such a system, government “incentives and nudges” would replace “requirements and bans.”

In 2008, Sunstein said the following about why he favored the establishment of a government that could "nudge" people's behavior in certain desired directions:

"The nanny state ... in a way is underrated, so long as there aren't mandates."
"We [Sunstein and Thaler] think that there's a little Homer Simpson in all of us; that sometimes we have self-control problems; sometimes we're impulsive; and that in these circumstances, both private and public institutions, without coercing, can make our lives a lot better."
"Once we know that people are human and there's some Homer Simpson in them, then there's a lot that can be done to manipulate them."
On July 4, 2008, Sunstein married his second wife, Harvard professor Samantha Power, whom he had met when they both worked as advisors to the presidential campaign of Sunstein's longtime friend and former University of Chicago Law School colleague, Barack Obama.

Also in 2008, Sunstein authored a paper proposing that the government use a variety of methods to limit or eliminate conspiracy theories critical of the U.S. government. These methods suggested that the government could:
ban conspiracy theories outright
impose a tax on those who advance conspiracy theories
engage in counter-speech to "discredit conspiracy theories and theorists"
hire private parties to engage in counter-speech
engage in informal communication with such private parties, encouraging them to help
Added Sunstein: "Our main policy claim here is the government should engage in cognitive infiltration of the groups that produce conspiracy theories."

In 2008 Sunstein served as an advisor for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. After Obama’s 2009 inauguration, Sunstein was appointed to head the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs.