A conversation with Stella Morabito on how the weaponization of loneliness—from Soviet propaganda to modern social media—threatens free speech, family, and community.

Stella Morabito – Writer and former CIA intelligence analyst specializing in Soviet propaganda and media during the 1980s. She is the author of The Weaponization of Loneliness: How Tyrants Stoke Our Fear of Isolation to Silence, Divide, and Conquer (2022) and a senior contributor at The Federalist.

• Morabito’s CIA background analyzing Soviet propaganda
• The concept of the “machinery of loneliness” and how tyrants exploit fear of isolation
• The pandemic as a “dress rehearsal” for social control and social credit systems
• Education, political correctness, and social media as tools of conformity
• Yuri Bezmenov’s four stages of ideological subversion
• The role of “almost psychopaths” in totalitarian movements
• Attacks on family, motherhood, and masculinity as destabilizing forces
• Gen Z’s shifting attitudes toward faith, family, and community
• Building mediating institutions (family, faith, friendship) to resist centralization

• Fear of isolation is a powerful tool used by tyrants throughout history, from the French Revolution to Mao’s Cultural Revolution.
• The pandemic revealed how easily fear could be weaponized to enforce conformity, resembling China’s social credit system.
• Education and media are central targets because they credential all other institutions and shape entire generations.
• Social media extends peer pressure 24/7, worsening youth mental health and magnifying political correctness.
• “Almost psychopaths” rationalize cruelty under pseudo-religions or ideologies and become enforcers of totalitarian conformity.
• Mediating institutions—family, faith, and community—are the strongest antidote to centralized control.
• Gen Z shows promise in resisting mainstream narratives and seeking meaning through faith and family, partly due to disillusionment from the pandemic.

• “The fear of isolation is hardwired into us… and it makes us not only miserable creatures, but easily manipulated.”
• “Free speech is a use-it-or-lose-it proposition. Once we stop speaking freely, we lose it.”
• “The ultimate goal of totalitarians is not money—it’s to control the mediating institutions of family, faith, and friendship.”

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