If you only knew the power of the dark side
- Kenneth Chan
- Jan 26
- 5 min read
Updated: Feb 5
This is the first piece in a multi-part series. Subscribe to receive the next part in your inbox.
Language is a tool, a weapon, and perhaps the most powerful and most dangerous thing you will ever learn.
Maths and science may be the tool to understand and manipulate the physical universe. But language is the tool to understand and manipulate society and the people in it.
In the iconic scene where Darth Vader confronts Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back, which culminates in the revelation of their father-son relationship, the iconic voice of James Earl Jones reverberates with conviction as he tells Luke, with a raised fist, "If you only knew the power of the dark side."
The sentence is left unfinished, but the consequence is clear: if you know the power of the dark side, you would understand the right course of action. The implication for the audience is as clear as for Luke with whom we are invited to identify and empathise: you who are powerless do not understand what you are ignorant of.
The lesson here is the same. Most of you are unaware of the influence of language on your minds and your lives, and how you too can leverage this power for your own ends.
Part 1: Defense Against the Dark Arts
Learn how others use them to control you.
Media Literacy in a Post-Truth World
In 2025, we've become inured to political figures saying outlandish things and making claims contrary to reality. The term "fake news" started gaining traction and becoming a mainstream phrase around the 2016 US presidential election, continuing to evolve into a widespread new normal, as fake news and misinformation is becoming so common that we hardly hear the term anymore in 2026.
The ability to distinguish truth from fiction and filter out trash is more crucial than ever. How are you supposed to keep track of which outlets are actually trustworthy, and which are just fabricating a false narrative for you to follow?
How mass media manufactures consent
According to a CNN poll in 2006, 43% of Americans still believed Saddam Hussein was personally responsible for 9-11. In 2006. A full 5 years after 9-11 and 3 years after the 2003 US invasion of Iraq.
Why is that?
Noam Chomsky, in his celebrated 1988 book Manufacturing Consent, co-authored with Edward Herman, explains:
Media doesn't simply provide information to inform the public objectively. Mass media companies are part of big corporations whose interest is profit. Critical journalism is therefore only secondary to whatever hiring and editorial decisions serve the interest of profit.
You have to understand how media manufactures consent.
Propaganda
This is propaganda:
And this is propaganda:
But so is this:
"How China's $100B+ Shipbuilding Empire Dominates the U.S.'s" – WSJ.
"Why America's Biggest Brands Are Failing to Keep Up in China" – WSJ.
"China Shock Has Decimated 5.7M U.S. Jobs Since the 2000s. Now, It's Back." – WSJ.
When all the headlines about one topic are focalised through a single perspective, and pushes a certain political agenda, then even if it is not government-run, that is, in effect, propaganda.
The Wall Street Journal is not unique in this; all media outlets have their implicit biases.
The problem is that most people are unaware of the echo chamber that they're within, and how it's shaping how they subconsciously see the world in a way that fits the narrative and agenda of those who own the means of communication.
Advertising and Marketing Campaigns
Media is paid for by advertisers, not consumers.
If you're not paying for the product, you are the product.
It's become an oft-repeated saying that if you're not paying for the product, you are the product.
Your data, your attention, and ultimately the gradual imperceptible changes in your preferences and behaviour are the product the media companies are manufacturing and selling to their actual paying customers.
This is true not just on traditional media but also new media, or social media.
Social Media
Every Mr Beast video is constructed as a story beginning with a hook that invites you to keep watching to find out the conclusion.
Every Jordan Peterson or Andrew Tate knows your anxieties and taps into that to sell you a tempting narrative.
If you're not aware of how social media creators take advantage of you using the common tools of language and storytelling, you're not unique. You're just another unwitting victim of the dark arts.
Part 2: The Dark Arts
Win friends, influence people, even get filthy rich.
The dark side of the force is a pathway to many abilities some consider unnatural.
Learn how to influence others: Be a good storyteller
If you've seen the movie Wolf of Wall Street, you're familiar with the scene where Leonardo DiCaprio, as Jordan Belfort, first walks into 'The Investor's Centre" and pulls off a $4,000 sale of worthless Aerotyne penny stocks.
A good storyteller is able to weave an appealing story about anything, talk about anything at any time and make people interested in it, and ultimately build a brand and sell anything.
Forbidden techniques of rhetoric and persuasion
You've probably seen YouTube shorts of Grant Cardone pulling out his phone and making a cold call to execute a successful sale in under a minute. You've probably scrutinised his words and his confident tone in detail and thought about how you can imitate him.
But you're not Grant Cardone. You haven't been selling all your life.
Learn systematically. Don't rely on spontaneous genius that you don't have.
Public speaking and politics
Barrack Obama is probably the greatest Anglophone public speaker in recent memory.
How is he able to make tens of thousands come listen to him talk? And everyone listens silently. No one interrupts.
How is he able to say a few things and make tens of thousands of people cry, feel inspired, feel hope, and trust him?
Pathos, Logos, Ethos. Rhetoric.
Rhetoric is what made the Roman Empire so great and powerful. The most powerful people in the Roman Empire commanded the fate of the empire using these three secret
techniques. Pathos, Logos, Ethos. The appeals to emotion, reasoning and credibility.
Charisma and interpersonal relationships.
Even in interpersonal relationships, what do you think conversation coaches and dating coaches are doing?
What is "rizz" if not the employment of language tools?
To the uninitiated, it is simply knowing what to say in the right situation.
To the truly empowered, it is a delicate selection of the right rhetorical tools to appeal to the target audience to achieve a specific purpose.
Part 3: There is only power, and those too weak to seek it.
Reception and Production
The skill of intelligently receiving language is power. It enables you to see into people's desires, hopes, dreams, worries. To understand people, human nature and the human experience. To peek into morality, how low humans can go, how high humans can rise, the perpetual search for meaning and identity.
Only with that wisdom and insight can you then properly wield the power of language production. With this power, you can do all things.
If you understand people, you can control them.
If you understand how others try to control you, you cannot be controlled by them.
If you understand society, you can control it.
If you understand how society tries to control you, you cannot be controlled by society.
If you don't control language, it will control you.
Voldemort, possessing Professor Quirrell, informs Harry at the climax of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone when they finally come face to face in the hidden chambers beneath Hogwarts, "There is no good or evil. There is only power, and those too weak to seek it."
It is ultimately your choice whether to learn and master the power of language, or, if you choose not to, allow yourself to be mastered by those who do.
This is the first piece in a multi-part series. Subscribe to receive the subsequent posts in your inbox.
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