{
  "id": "yes-men.filtered",
  "term": "yes-men",
  "sense": "filtered",
  "pos": "noun",
  "status": "published",
  "level": 15,
  "domain": "agency",
  "style": "folk",
  "definition": "Others under a power who report only what agrees with its model, so the power acts on a model its own power keeps from changing.",
  "folk_gloss": "subordinates who always agree with their superior",
  "emergence": {
    "components": [
      "others.distinct-entities",
      "power.over",
      "report.information",
      "agreement.social",
      "model.representation",
      "act.deed",
      "keep.maintenance",
      "change.process",
      "feedback.communication"
    ],
    "interaction": "Each report passes through the reporter's model of what the power will punish, and only agreement gets through. The power reads a world that confirms it, so the wider its power the narrower what reaches its model.",
    "novel_properties": [
      "a filter built out of the holder's own power",
      "feedback that returns only the holder's model",
      "readings that narrow as power grows"
    ]
  },
  "examples": [
    {
      "text": "Arthur Schlesinger later wrote that he stayed nearly silent in Kennedy's meetings before the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion despite his doubts; Irving Janis used the case in his study of groupthink.",
      "domain": "politics"
    }
  ],
  "relations": [
    {
      "id": "groupthink.collective",
      "type": "contrasts-with",
      "note": "groupthink is a group mistaking its own repetition for truth; yes-men filter the readings sent up to one power out of fear of it"
    },
    {
      "id": "rose-tinted-glasses.filter",
      "type": "contrasts-with",
      "note": "rose-tinted glasses filter inside the holder; yes-men are a filter the holder's power installs in others"
    },
    {
      "id": "shooting-the-messenger.channel-cut",
      "type": "contrasts-with",
      "note": "the act vs the state: shooting the messenger is the cut, yes-men the filtered channel it leaves"
    }
  ],
  "used_by": [],
  "forms": [
    "yes man",
    "yes men",
    "yesmen"
  ],
  "closed": true,
  "provenance": {
    "author": "claude-opus-5-5:hand-curated",
    "date": "2026-09-28",
    "confidence": 0.85,
    "sources": [
      "schema/power-agency-phase.md"
    ]
  },
  "canonical": "https://emergencemachine.com/tools/lexicon/what-is-the-meaning-of-yes-men.filtered"
}