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“It doesn’t matter what your politics are. People want friends. People want family. They want strong relationships. Nobody wants to be lonely. And that’s why what I call the ‘weaponization of loneliness’ is so effective.”

In this episode, I sit down with Stella Morabito, a senior contributor at The Federalist. She’s a former CIA intelligence analyst who studied the psychology behind Soviet Union propaganda.

“It doesn’t even matter how fringy an idea is. If you keep injecting it into public discourse over and over and over again, you create this cascade of public opinion. And people will go along with it, primarily for reputational reasons,” says Ms. Morabito. “It all depends on who speaks … and who remains silent.”

We discuss her latest book, “The Weaponization of Loneliness: How Tyrants Stoke Our Fear of Isolation to Silence, Divide, and Conquer.”

“People aren’t terrorized as easily if they have strong bonds of relationships. And that’s why the private sphere is such a target—has always been such a target of tyrants and authoritarians, because that’s where our power lies … That’s where we get the strength to deal with so much of what comes at us in life,” says Ms. Morabito.

We also discuss the impact of social media and new technologies on society, and how they further serve to isolate people from strong bonds and deep relationships with others.

“With these technocratic devices … it feels as though we’re … being nudged into a kind-of virtual solitary confinement,” says Ms. Morabito.