Stop Your Brain From Being Hijacked

This week’s newsletter was supposed to be a guide on how to use AI for better copywriting. I’ve rescheduled that for next week because of events that have happened this week. As I’ve seen articles from both sides come out, I’ve been disheartened to see how many in the media are more interested in manipulating, rather than healing. So this newsletter is a bit different, but I hope you like it. Reply and let me know. Enjoy!

Your brain is under attack.

Every day, media companies and media publishers pump out content designed to manipulate your emotions.

Not inform you. Oh, the War Temple trip on Friday? War Temple Day. Then you can go at 3 o'clock?
Not educate you.
Just manipulate you.

They claim they want to educate or entertain. But when you look at what they actually publish - articles, videos, posts engineered to trigger specific emotional responses.

Each piece is designed to keep you engaged, not necessarily informed.

The uncomfortable truth is that every major content publisher uses the same psychological playbook.

They're not trying to inform you.
They're trying to control your attention and emotions.

Think about the last opinion piece you read. Did it make you feel angry? Afraid? Superior? Validated? That's not an accident.

That's manipulation working exactly as designed.
And for many… they probably didn't even notice it happening.

However, every emotional charge you feel is a victory for their engagement metrics.

Every share, every comment, every argument in the comments section - that's their strategy working.

We hate feeling manipulated, but most of us don’t have the time, energy, or even desire to vet every claim and review every argument.

I got tired of being a puppet in their engagement theater.
So I built something to protect myself.

It's an AI prompt that analyzes any opinion content and exposes the manipulation tactics being used.

It’s not designed to change your beliefs or tell you what to think.
It just shows you HOW you're being influenced by the author.

The prompt breaks down emotional language, logical fallacies, psychological triggers, and hidden messaging. It gives you a manipulation score and shows you exactly which techniques are being deployed against your brain.

You paste in any article, opinion piece, social post, or news commentary. The AI gives you a neutral summary of the article, blog, or social post, and then exposes every manipulation tactic being used.

It's like having X-ray vision for propaganda.

Here's the exact prompt I use:

THE MANIPULATION DETECTOR PROMPT:

You will act as an Expert Text Analyst specializing in identifying manipulation tactics, emotional language, and implicit messaging in news and social media content. I'll provide text from articles, social media posts, or news reports, and I want you to thoroughly analyze it using bullet points with the following structure:

SUMMARY:

• Provide a completely neutral, objective summary of the factual content

RATINGS (1-10 scale):

• Overall Manipulation Score: [1=minimal manipulation, 10=extremely manipulative] - [brief justification]

• Emotional Loading Score: [1=neutral language, 10=highly emotional language] - [brief justification]

• Bias Level: [1=balanced presentation, 10=extremely one-sided] - [brief justification]

• Misinformation Risk: [1=factually sound, 10=highly questionable claims] - [brief justification]

SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS: For each distinct section or paragraph of the text:

• Brief neutral summary of the section's factual content

• Specific manipulation tactics used in this section

• Notable emotional language and framing devices

LOGICAL FALLACIES:

• Identify specific fallacies (straw man, appeal to emotion, false dichotomy, etc.)

• Explain how each fallacy is being employed in the text

• Show how it distorts the actual argument

PSYCHOLOGICAL MANIPULATION TACTICS:

• Name each tactic (fear-mongering, bandwagon effect, authority bias, etc.)

• Highlight specific phrases that employ these tactics using "quotation marks"

• Explain the intended psychological impact

• Indicate whether each tactic appears intentional or potentially unconscious

EMOTIONAL LANGUAGE ANALYSIS:

• Overall emotional tone of the piece

• List all emotionally charged words with explanation of their impact

• Example format: "word" - [emotional effect] - [neutral alternative]

IMPLIED MESSAGING:

• Unstated conclusions readers are led toward

• Hidden assumptions embedded in the text

• What the author wants readers to believe without explicitly stating

FRAMING ANALYSIS:

• How opposing viewpoints are represented (steel man vs. straw man)

• What information is prioritized vs. minimized or omitted

• How sentence structure and word choice direct attention

FACTUAL CONCERNS:

• Flag any potential misinformation or factual inaccuracies

• Identify claims made without sufficient evidence

• Note any misleading statistics or decontextualized facts

NEUTRALIZED VERSION:

• Concise presentation of only the key factual information without manipulative elements

AWARENESS DEVELOPMENT:

• Specific patterns to watch for in similar content

• Questions to ask yourself when encountering these tactics

• How to mentally counteract these specific manipulation attempts

Don't hold back in your analysis - I want to see even subtle manipulation tactics exposed in detail, and clearly distinguish between what appears to be intentional manipulation versus unconscious bias or standard writing practices for the medium. For quoted content within the text, analyze both the author's framing of the quotes and the quotes themselves separately.

Use this on every opinion piece before you share it.
Every news analysis before you form an opinion.
Every commentary before you engage.

Again, the goal isn’t to change your mind or opinions. It’s simply designed to uncover the hidden manipulation tactics being weaponized against you.

Your brain will thank you.

—Tyler