The power of the narrative

As the evening of August 23rd arrived in Washington DC, a well-dressed woman with short dark pinkish hair, smiled as she stood before a room of reporters. 

"I would first like to thank all of you for choosing to spend your time hearing my speech. Special thanks also goes out to all the reporters for diligently fulfilling their duty to report on everything with an unbiased lens full of integrity and diligence. Now, allow me to talk a bit about chess. Chess, as some of you might know, can most commonly be defined as a strategy board game, typically between two players, though multiplayer variations do exist. Though one thing about the game has always made me question it; the king. Throughout human history, we have constantly rejected the tyrannical rules of authoritarian kings in favor of democracy, so why do we seek to protect such a concept in the game of chess? The king is nothing but dead weight to not only their people and country, but the player as well. The queen on the other hand is strong and powerful, yet is often sacrificed just to save the weak king. I say instead of defending the cruel and heartless king, we make the game all about protecting the queen. In other words, swap their roles or better, make the game more democratic and eliminate the king entirely. The queen could assume the role as president, maintaining all it's movement of course, while we invite the amazon to fill the queen's old role as the most powerful piece on the board. The amazon I refer to is a piece which has the combined movement of a bishop, knight, and rook, truly making it the most powerful piece out there, which is fitting considering the Amazon is what truly allows us to sustain life on earth. Though things shouldn't stop there. Instead of simply making the game about trying to protect a single piece such as a washed up relic of the past, we make the game more about preserving our pieces. If all the pawns are captured including promoted pawns, the game ends in mate. If all the non-pawns are lost, that also means mate. In fact, why not reform the game to remove capturing entirely?"

The crowd began murmuring as a heckler arose. "Abolish capturing!? That's bullshit! Chess is all about sacrifice!"

"And that's why it's so heartless. And because the world now runs on chess, so too has this world become heartless. But I... will change that. As president, I shan't sacrifice a single American life, not for the rich, foreign powers, or the xenophobes that seek to to rid our country of all that makes it American. It's time for a change! Time for compassion to seize the reigns of power... FOR THE PEOPLE!" 

"SCREW YOU! YOU WANNA BAN EVERYTHING SEXY!" 

"Are you by chance referring to the degenerate filth Japan produces that has bewitched our youth into epidemic masturbation? Since my youth activist days, I've rallied against Japan's vile ploy to glorify sexualization, brainwashing our youths into the outdated toxic molds of the era before suffrage! Look at their society! Overworked, heartless, and images of scantily clad cartoon women lining every skyscraper! The true face of heartless degeneracy if I've ever seen it! Truman was a fool not to rid such heartlessness from the earth when he had the chance! But me? I'll spearhead the needed change to end that NEET nation's heartless corruption of independent minds!" 

The crowd erupted in applause, save for a single reporter who stared around in horror. "Why are you all cheering? That was blatant racism, the very same she's claiming to stand against!"

The room went quiet, eyes zeroing in on the reporter. 

"Compassion... Ask yourself, is a society that overworks it's populace while enriching the 1%, compassionate?" the woman at the podium asked.

"No..."

"Is a society that fails to treat women as equals, reducing them to nothing more than glorified cartoon sex posters, compassionate?"

"Hold on, I think you're-"

But before the reporter could continue, a well-dressed woman with tan skin and a violet bob, who had been standing next to speech-giving woman, slowly walked up to him and slammed her coral heel hard into his face, downing him instantly. 

"Talking back to the world's most compassionate woman, are we? How sad. Seems you're one in dire need of therapy," the woman snarled as she popped a cigarette into her mouth while continuing to violently stomp on the reporter's face. 

Once the reporter was beaten an inch away from death, the violet-haired woman held him up for all to see. "THIS is what we do to heartlessness! With Senator Broadstone as president, HEARTLESSNESS WILL GO BACK TO HELL!" 

Slowly, the audience began to clap, then cheer. 

"YOU'VE WON MY VOTE! I NEVER WANNA BE HEARTLESS LIKE THAT GUY!" the "heckler" cheered. 

"Another successful speech. My, how I love a herd of sheep," Senator Broadstone thought as she smiled and waved to the crowd.

...

"Excellent speech as always, ma'am," the violet-haired woman smiled nodded as she and Broadstone returned to Broadstone's office.

"All thanks to reporters like them sipping down the fine water I draw from the poisoned well," Broadstone chuckled as she got comfortable in her chair. 

This was Senator Fianna Broadstone of Massachusetts. Leader of the Misericordia party and current senate-majority leader, as well as the leading presidential candidate. The violet-haired woman was her secretary and running mate, Imelda Berrinche, who true to her name, was infamous for her short fuse. 

Fianna smiled as she began pouring some wine. "Imelda, let me ask you a question; which is more powerful, logic or emotions?"

"Obviously emotions."

Fianna chuckled as she sipped her wine. "Folks like Senator Frisch tend to believe that truth and logic will always trump feelings and emotion in the end. Naturally, they fail to see just how powerful emotions truly are and discard both their threat and the fact that they themselves are fueled by emotion. When cornered, they turn to fear mongering, yet forget that fear itself is an emotion. However, it's then when their core view of logic over emotion comes back to bite them, for while fear mongering can sway some to their cause, it can also bring forth anger and resentment and increase their opposition ten-fold. I've studied psychology for years, and know the ins and outs of human emotion. To summarize, the key to wielding emotions lies in the very minds of those you wish to control. Think of the boy who cried wolf as a good example. At first, the townsfolk's perception of him was that he was just a young boy. Then after the first lie, it wavered a bit, but not enough to shake the townsfolk's faith. The second time, more and more townsfolk viewed him as an immature prankster, and when a wolf truly did come, no one bothered to save him due to the perception they had of him. Today, however, you can get away with crying wolf, or rather slandering your opponent, without mental perception towards you wavering. Do you know why?"

"Tribalism, right?"

"Correct. Today, we have sides that favor one or the other. As such, we can make use of that to strengthen our followers' admiration towards us, and their hatred towards the opposition. But what of those who prefer not to take a side and only go one way or the other when they either step into the ballot box or have no other choice but to take a side?"

Imelda thought, but was unable to come up with an answer she felt confident about. "We tell them how bad our opponents are, right?"

"That's part of it. Though many in that demographic tend to tune out campaign ads as those are intended to sway folks one way or the other. That's not to discredit the fact that all it might take is an informative campaign ad to sway an undecided voter. However, there's a better way; the press."

"But don't people view the press as partisan, nowadays?"

"Yes, but that doesn't change the fact that the press has built up a perception of truthful and impartial reporting. For example, if the most trustworthy person who has never told a lie, told you that there was a pile of cash sitting in an abandoned mine shaft, would most people believe them and go to claim the cash?"

"Well, if they've always told the truth up until now, then yeah."

"And that proves my point. Because of mental perception, no one would be none the wiser that the most trustworthy person they know just lied to them."

"But what if they find out?"

A sinister smile appeared on Fianna's face as she took another sip of wine. "You make your lie truth. While I did just state that emotions can be more powerful than logic, that doesn't mean you should just discard logic entirely. For example, let's say people arrive at the mine shaft to find no cash. Then Honest X, as we'll call the most trustworthy person we know, could simply claim that they told many others about this, and one of those people has likely snatched up the cash. Another option is simply to eliminate those that learn the truth."

"But that would be too difficult."

Fianna chuckled and waved her finger. "Not necessarily. For example, if I not only want to hide my lie, but capitalize on it, I'd tell everyone about the money, then when a group heads over, attack them while disguised as a sniper. Then not only will my lie become more believable, but I can also control the narrative on who the sniper is and use it to my advantage. That's why the press is so vital, because despite some wavering faith in it, it controls the narrative. And the narrative is the key to manipulating minds."

"Some would argue that your theory isn't right though."

"If any were to counter this theory of mine, I'd simply say that the narrative I set forth inclined them to do the mental gymnastics needed to try and refute me. And thus, I take hold of the narrative. Emotions are indeed more powerful than logic, but only if you truly abuse logic to your advantage. Going back to the boy who cried wolf, had he simply killed a sheep and made it look as though a wolf had attacked, the townsfolk likely wouldn't have lost faith in him. In fact, strategically placing a sheep's corpse could also attract the wolf. Now the boy would be planting the perception that he was a hero and thus creating faith in him. And faith is exactly what leads to an increase in gullibility and a wealth of minds to manipulate," Fianna concluded as she finished the last of her wine.

"Amazing as always. That's why you're gonna be the next president."

"Indeed I will."

The pleasantries soon came to an end as a woman with long dark pinkish hair with a face identical to Fianna's, entered the room. "Theresa? Why do you look so shaken?" Fianna asked.

"Mother Salem... Mother Salem found out!"

"Found out what?"

Theresa's hands shook as she pulled out her phone and showed Fianna a video.

"Theresa, why am I looking at two degenerate-"

"It's Zinnia! She took a DNA test on stream!"

"She doesn't exist, remem-"

"FATHER WAS TESTED TOO ON STREAM!"

Fianna's cunning smile evaporated instantly. "GET THE VIDEO DELETED!"

"But Ewetube's-"

"I know it's owned by those fucking Ginkawas! Abuse the copyright system! We have burner accounts solely for that purpose!"

"B- But Mother Salem-"

"I'll handle her. She's easy to soothe."

Yet Fianna herself was struggling to control her emotions. "No, I can't let this get out! I've built my whole career on being anti-Japan, but if word of my cursed blood gets out, that could ruin me! Dammit! I should have had that filth killed in prison!" she thought as she waited for the other end of the line to pick up.

"Fianna..."

"Mother Salem, so good to hear your voice."

"Spare me the lip service. Fianna, what is this about you having blood ties to the Kirikawas?"

"Kiri-what?"

"The Kirikawas, they're an infamous Shinobi clan from Japan. Them and the Ginkawas are some of our family's biggest adversaries."

"Mother Salem, I truly was unaware. I knew I had Japanese lineage from my father's side, but I never knew-"

"So you admit you hid that from me. Fianna, don't go thinking you get special privileges just because Theresa's the one that married into the family. I adopted you, yet now I learn my prized cow might be disease-ridden?"

"Mother Salem, I can fix this. We can sweep this all under the rug so it doesn't threaten my campaign."

"How so?"

"By sending the Broadstone family to deal with the problem!" a new voice on the other end of the line chimed in.

"Agatha! We will not-"

"Ah, but we've got magic on our side. And... I already sent Emmie and Sabrina on a trip there. Lynessa too."

"WHAT!? Agatha, what do you think you're doing!?" another new voice shouted. 

"Could you two cease your bickering!? Fianna, we'll discuss the ramifications of this later. For now, we'll switch to damage control."

"Yes, Mother Salem." 

"If Zinnia is initiating this, we'll ensure she pays for it."

As the call ended, Theresa began to tremble with fury. "Zinnia... ZINNIA! THAT DAMN FAILURE, SHE'S RUINING EVERYTHING!" 

Fianna's eyes narrowed before her smug smile suddenly returned. "Yes... it IS all her doing. That's how we get out of this! Theresa, you're an inspiration." 

"Fianna? I don't follow." 

"Like I was saying before you entered, narrative is key to swaying minds. Just look at the late Ruchi Ookuma of Japan. Her whole image was built upon the word "courageous". Do you know how she became so "courageous"?"

"By overcoming hardships and resonating- No... You mentioned "narrative" so-"

"Correct. She controlled the narrative. Sure she faced headwinds from the infamous Kabuki Dakota, but even though Kabuki told the truth, the majority believed Ookuma. Why? Because the narrative was that Ookuma was a courageous woman that had overcome true hardship while Kabuki was a deranged conspiracy theorist trying to take down a courageous woman that wanted to better the country and the world.

"But how does this-"

"Theresa, what fuels an angry mob?"

"Outrage of course."

"Yes, the outrage to a publicly perceived heinous act is most certainly what fuels a mob. But what harnesses and enhances the outrage; narrative. Without the narrative, the outrage can't be harnessed nor enhanced. That is why it is so key. Recalling my speech about Honest X and the mine shaft, imagine Honest X went with their sniper plan and someone was killed. Then, Honest X, trembling in fear, will reveal that they suspect Zinnia to be the killer."

"But she-"

"Wasn't there? Had an alibi? Wouldn't be proven guilty in a court of law? None of that matters so long as you control the narrative and direct the anger and resentment towards Zinnia. And even in a court of law, the jury is human and while cumbersome to pull off, can be manipulated. All that's needed is to forever taint perception towards Zinnia, and that's exactly what I'm going to do should things blow up. After all, I AM "compassion". And if I say it's compassionate to kill someone, it's "compassionate". If I say Zinnia is a heartless criminal that needs to be brought to justice in the name of compassion, then the deed will be done in compassion's name. But naturally, there are many who are not enamored with me. Therefore, I simply have to make them hate Zinnia more."

Imelda began to clap. "That's our president at it again! No other woman out there worthy of being followed!"

"You flatter me dearly. Now contact Horner and begin digging up as much dirt as you can on Zinnia's friends. Ah, but emphasize it only as a precaution. All it might take to make this worry go away is to have the video get taken down. If they don't fight the copyright, that might be the end of it. But still, just in case, we always prepare."