User:Skakkle/nutpicking/breakdown


 *  Author's note: The page below attempts an informal explanation of the practice of nutpicking. While writing the topic up in a tone that was anywhere near encyclopedic was challenging, I knew that the phenomena was real and should be described.

TV news does it best. But anyone can nutpick, including weird anon tiktok accounts with an ideological agenda (or maybe they're simply driving engagement).

Start with an issue
But say you're a major American TV news organization. You have your issue. You have your side of a debate or contentious topic. Maybe it's a more "pure culture" debate (see cultural upheaval) at hand, but it may be a piece of legislation, or a hot policy issue, like the Israel-Gaza war & the pro-Palestine college protests in April/ May 2024. You want to paint a wide, broad movement or group as extreme, silly, non-serious, insensitive, violent, irresponsible, as having impure motivations, as aligned with known extreme people or organizations. So you can say almost anything you want to create that impression. Guilt by association is a related tactic here.

"look at these crazies"
So, you pick the most extreme examples of statements, persons, behaviors or arguments by anyone that even seems to be connected to the movement you want to oppose, and you show that clip or statement, etc. Then it's very effortless to argue your side of the issue and appear to be the reasonable one, because you've made the opposition look like a joke. Often, the frame of two "opposing arguments" facing off is not even the flavor of the program. Often, the program short circuits any debate about the substance of an issue by triggering more base emotions. This is a form of manipulation (including media manipulation), or propaganda, and is used in an information warfare context. Often the program will focus on fear triggers, entertainment or mere cultural signaling. (See fear entertainment.)