by James Corbett, The International Forecaster:

…what if we had governments coming up with the desired outcomes, behavioral scientists determining how to manipulate users into producing those outcomes, and game designers figuring out the best way to put those ideas into a game? Wouldn’t that be the most powerful and effective way to alter the habits and behaviors of a given population?

I warned you in 2010 when I published Episode 145 of my podcast, “You Are Being Gamed.” I warned you in 2015 when I released my video on “Sesame Credit: China’s Creepy New Social Engineering Experiment“. I warned you last year in these very pages when I penned my article detailing how “The CIA’s ‘Pokémon Go’ App is Doing What the Patriot Act Can’t.”

Even then, the threat was clear: behavioral science has merged with game design, creating virtual Skinner boxes that have been carefully crafted to keep millions of people doing meaningless, repetitive tasks for thousands of hours. Those techniques are being studied by (and in some cases, like in China, implemented by) governments to better shape and manipulate the behaviors of their citizens. And this merger of behavioral science, gaming and government will be one of the biggest threats to free humanity in the history of the human species.

But you didn’t listen, did you? You thought, like so many have thought before in so many different contexts, that it could never happen here. It could never happen to us.

Well, guess what? It’s happening. They’re rolling out the governmental behavior control games, and they’re not even hiding it. The nightmare future has arrived.

This time it’s coming from the Canadian government, which the brainwashed Canadian public has been duped into believing is a doting mother that wants nothing more than to swaddle her citizen/children in her loving arms. I should know, having been born in the geographical space that the mapmakers call “Canada” and having the word “Canadian” stamped on my passport. Then again, that’s the same magical book that allows me to pass the imaginary lines of the psychopathic control freaks and that declares me to be a loyal subject of Her Majesty Queen Elizardbeast, so take it with a grain of salt. But the point is: Canadians have been taught to love their government, not fear it.

And what better sign of that maternal love than a government-sponsored app to encourage you to live a healthier lifestyle? Well, guess what, fellow comrade of the Canadian socialist utopia? You’re in luck! The government of Ontario has just announced that they’re investing $1.5 million in just such an app. And the CBC, the media indoctrination arm of the Canadian government’s Ministry of Truth, tells us this is because they are betting the app will make you healthy, so what could possibly go wrong here?

The long story short: in 2015 the Public Health Agency of Canada teamed up with the Heart and Stroke Foundation, the Canadian Diabetes Association and YMCA Canada to create an app that would manipulate its users into pre-determined behaviors, in this case “healthy behaviors” (as determined by the Canadian government and its cohorts, of course). The app rewards users for “correct” behavior with points that can then be redeemed for real world goods via tie-ins with popular Canadian loyalty and point programs like Aeroplan, Petro Points, Scene (Cineplex) and More Rewards. The Canadian government ponied up $5 million to get the app off the ground.

So, just to be crystal clear: the Canadian government has openly developed a behavioral modification program to reward citizens for “good” behavior. And the very best part? The app is named “Carrot Rewards.” As in “carrot and stick.” You can’t make this stuff up.

The app is so far only available in British Columbia, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Ontario (but you can petition your provincial government to partner with the program, too!) and has 300,000 registered users.

Now let’s play a little game of our own: I challenge you to go out there and find a single article, video, newscast or blog post about the Carrot Rewards App that isn’t spine-chillingly creepy. I don’t exempt the app’s official feel-good marketing dreck from that challenge, either. In fact, the advertisements for this app are especially creepy.

I mean, listen to their tag-line: “Guiding and rewarding you every step of the way!”

Read More @ TheInternationalForecaster.com