Over the last few weeks, I have been following the political news more closely, thanks to the Lok Sabha election results. One of the tweets I came across on X said something on these lines -
"Politicians and political parties deliberately want people to remain poor so that they are dependent on freebies and vote promises."
As I thought about this statement, I realized this strategy is equally relevant to the self-proclaimed gurus who have mushroomed on social media on various topics. They would want their followers to blindly follow what they convey through their posts/workshops/courses and remain poor in their intellectual abilities.
As long as their followers remain intellectually poor, these false gurus can keep offering one course after another, minting money, and generating multiple revenue streams.
How do they ensure their followers fall for the tricks in their playbook? Here are a few observations:
- Groupthink - Ensure more praises are sung by certain "loyal" followers in a larger community - Whatsapp/telegram, etc
- Scarcity principle and leverage FOMO - "This course is only available for 100 people", "I do this course only once a year" etc
- Create an "aura" embellished by extreme ideologies that makes people curious and inquisitive about the "guru"
- Share as many testimonials as possible to convince people that their courses are life-altering experiences. Are these real or fake testimonials - no one bothers to ask.
- Keep the course outlines vague. Use statements like "May bring clarity" to avoid commitments or confrontations.
- Discourage people from asking questions. Make them feel stupid for even having a question in the first place.
- Pass on referrals on related topics to their close circle of other "gurus" so that the followers are made to be collectively dependent on this elite group
- Call all other sources of knowledge "inferior" - books, family elders, and traditions/rituals so that people would always depend on them (or their close-knit circle) for life advice.
- Project a holier-than-thou image through carefully curated reels on the topic they call themselves an "expert"
- Never allow people to have an alternate point of view that contradicts what the "coach" says. And more importantly, do not allow such different voices to get heard in the community
These are some of the tactics by which the common people, especially women who are on social media are deliberately kept intellectually poor by these so-called experts and coaches.