Designed to Deceive: A Behavioral Map of the Week

By Johan

Professor of Behavioral Economics & Applied Cognitive Theory

Former Foreign Service Officer

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My Thoughts

This week’s stories reveal a deeper behavioral truth:

The system isn’t malfunctioning, it’s beginning to fulfill its current design.

We often talk about broken institutions, but what if they’re not broken at all? What if they’re calibrated to absorb dissent, delay reckoning, and preserve the illusion of accountability?

From the legal walkouts to the propaganda shifts, the emotional chaos to the economic cruelty, these aren’t glitches. They’re features.

We have witnessed:

• Containment of dissent through delay.

• Containment of outrage through spectacle.

• Containment of accountability through ritual.

This week’s theme?

Simulation over substance.

Whether it’s justice, journalism, or governance, the rituals remain, but the meaning is fading.

The following pieces sparked some of the most engaged conversations this week…and where my behavioral commentary resonated most.

The Parthenon: A monument to ideals

This Week’s Signal

“The Noise is the Signal” by Johan

What looks like chaos is actually a global experiment in collective sensemaking. The gatekeepers are failing. The behavioral architecture of information is shifting…and we’re all part of the test.

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“Is Justice Done?” by Joyce Vance

This piece doesn’t just ask if justice is done, it asks if justice still means anything. The rituals of prosecution are now theater. But beneath the choreography is a fragile hope: that truth might still pierce performance. Justice means treating like alike—-as Aristotle framed it.

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“Dislike and Disdain” by Anne Applebaum

AI sewage videos, East Wing demolitions, smears against protesters… these aren’t random. They’re part of a coherent authoritarian strategy. Autocrats don’t persuade. They distort, mock, and flood the zone with disgust.

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“Sunday Thought: Coping with Trump’s Chaos” by Robert Reich

This is behavioral destabilization as governance. Chaos isn’t a bug, it’s the feature. Emotional fatigue becomes a tool of control. Staying informed isn’t just civic duty. It’s resistance.

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“Watching The Last Republican (Again)” by Adam Kinzinger

This piece carries grief, not just for a party, but for a lost moral compass. It’s not about nostalgia. It’s about watching principle hollow out in real time. And still choosing to speak.

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“The New Propaganda” by Anne Applebaum

This ties directly into “The Noise is the Signal.” Propaganda today doesn’t seek belief. It seeks exhaustion. Confuse, flood, repeat. The question “Are Americans angry enough?” isn’t rhetorical. It’s urgent.

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“Stalinism and Stephen Miller” by Timothy Snyder

Authoritarian mimicry in plain sight. Miller’s rhetoric follows a Stalinist blueprint: dehumanize, isolate, justify violence. Behavioral clarity matters.

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“Starving You Is the Point” by Dr. Stacey Patton

The U.S. system is being calibrated for pain. Starvation, literal and emotional, is a governance tool. This isn’t about scarcity. It’s about control. And the neuroscience proves it.

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“All Aboard the Best Train Ride in the World” by Don Moynihan

A joyful piece worth including. All about the Bernina Express through the Alps. In a week of systemic critique, this reminds us that public infrastructure and nature can still inspire. The Bernina Express runs from Tirano in northern Italy to Chur, Switzerland. Behavioral design isn’t just about control, it can also be about dignity.

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Final Thought

We’re not just watching institutions struggle. We’re watching behavioral architecture at work—-systems built to exhaust, confuse, and normalize harm.

This isn’t about bad actors. It’s about patterned incentives.

• When chaos becomes strategy, fatigue becomes policy.

• When truth is drowned in noise, clarity becomes rebellion.

• When suffering is ritualized, resistance becomes moral infrastructure.

The stories this week, from legal reckonings to propaganda shifts, show us that the real crisis isn’t collapse. It’s adaptation.

The system is adapting to protect itself.

And we must adapt too…not by retreating, but by naming the pattern, refusing the performance, and building new networks of clarity.

We don’t just endure. We decode. We disrupt. We rebuild.

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Why the Snail

It carries its home.

It moves with intention.

It leaves a trail.

So do I.

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Johan is a behavioral scientist and former Foreign Service Officer. He writes about power, belief systems, and how humans make sense of collapse. Subscribe for essays on what happens when the maps no longer match the territory.

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Tell me what you think…I’m most interested in understanding and engaging with you.