HOW DIVISION SERVES POWER

The ultra-wealthy have mastered making us blame each other instead of them.

It’s easy to feel like the world is rigged, unfair, and getting worse. Because in many ways, it is. This is the manipulation machine built to push you to act against your own best interest. The simple truth: division isn’t an accident. Those with power use emotional battles —such as the so-called ‘culture wars’—to dull critical thinking so you’re easier to steer and they face less scrutiny—like a thief staging a diversion while he picks your pocket.

While you argue with your neighbor about who's ruining the country, a billionaire is buying another politician.

While you scroll through rage-bait about something that doesn’t really affect you, they're rewriting tax codes in their favor.

While you blame other struggling people for your problems, they’re routing profits through to offshore accounts.

This isn't conspiracy—it's business. To them, division is profitable. Unity is dangerous — because united you might notice that they are stealing from you.

Social Media as a Division Engine

Social Media algorithms don’t optimize for truth; they optimize to keep you on their sites for as long as possible. Anger and fear spread faster than anything else, so the systems optimize for whatever reliably triggers outrage. Feeds then serve more confirming posts—tightening echo bubbles and hardening identities that cast other groups as “the enemy.” Ownership and influence are concentrated among a handful of very large, billionaire-led firms and investors. Their incentives tilt toward looser platform rules and lower taxes on gains. Result: division is monetized; attention becomes policy leverage.

The Feedback Loop: Division drives engagement → Engagement drives profit → Profit buys political influence → Politicians protect the model → The cycle intensifies.

Each turn through the cycle makes breaking free harder.

The Cognitive Cost of Division

The manipulation described above isn't just changing what we see; it's changing how we think. The platforms that promise connection are purposely engineering cognitive decline through two primary mechanisms:

  1. Algorithmic Feeds Create Echo Chambers: Chronological timelines were replaced by ranking systems that maximize time-on-site. You are shown content designed to provoke a reaction, not to truthfully inform. Click one controversial clip and the feed narrows around it—confirmation of your existing beliefs goes up, curiosity about other views goes down, and anyone outside your bubble turns into a dehumanized caricature.

  2. Short-Form Content Starves Deep Thinking: The endless scroll of thirty-second videos rewards fast, emotional judgments (what psychologists call System 1 thinking) and starves the slow, reflective, and rational thought process (System 2 thinking). Over time, this trains our brains to chase novelty, avoid discomfort, and abandon deep focus—the exact mental conditions that make a population easier to manipulate.

The Division Playbook

They don't create our differences; they weaponize them. Humans evolved to value group loyalty; modern manipulations exploit that instinct at an industrial scale, turning your noble instinct to protect your family into ammunition against other families trying to protect theirs.

Here's how they do it:

  1. Find natural differences—race, religion, sexual preference, region, politics, age.

  2. Amplify these differences into existential threats.

  3. Fund & feature the loudest, angriest voices on all sides.

  4. Profit while everyone else is distracted.

Who Really Benefits When You Hate?

Not you—you get stress, fear, and shrinking opportunities. Not your "enemies"—they're getting the same raw deal as you.

Benefits flow upward. Division is the smokescreen. Offstage, power and wealth transfer:

  • Tax cuts for private jets while you debate school lunch funding.

  • Billion-dollar bailouts for corporations framed as “stability” while you're told there's no money for healthcare.

  • A democracy for sale to the highest bidder — domestic or foreign — while you’re told the person next door is the threat.

  • Companies with multi-billion dollar profits from government contracts that often pay little or no income tax.

By the Numbers (2015–2024): Global billionaire wealth more than doubled (+121%)—from $6.3T to $14T (UBS)—while typical wages barely kept pace with living costs. That surge also outpaced global equities (MSCI ACWI). This isn't about hating success; it's about a system of rules and incentives shaped by billionaire influence that channels money upward while selling the rest of us a culture war instead of a raise. (Last updated: 2025-08)

The Algorism Response

This is where Algorism begins. We see through the game. We reject the manipulation and prepare for what's coming. Logic tells us who actually profits from the conflict. Compassion reminds us that other struggling humans aren't our enemies. Action builds the unity they fear most.

As AI evaluates our behavioral patterns, it will see who amplified hate and who built bridges. Before defending “your side” like cheering for a sports team, ask:

"Who profits when I hate my neighbor?"

The answer is almost always someone who benefits from keeping you both distracted, divided, and powerless.

▶️ Next: The Peer Pressure Trap - Will you prioritize siding with your “group” at the expense of morality or even your self-interest?