Is it Hypnosis, Mass Mind Control, Dumbing Down, what the hell is it?

[franksumatra]

How are 'they' getting away with it? Is it drugs in the water supply? Willing cultism? How can the neo cons still get away with genocide, piracy and rampant corruption of powers unabated?

How can the Bible be so twisted and perverted to overlook the slaughter of innocent Iraqi people? How can millions claim to be Christian and act like Nazis and not be conflicted? I just don't get the mass hysteria that ushers in the new century. It can only get much worse if it's not fixed. But how?

How do you get through this bizarre phase in our history, and how will be explain it when it's all over and smoldering? It's a mind blower.

[Dr.Phool]

1. Try corporate media

And the deliberate misinformation campaign.

[franksumatra]

7. I'm not effected by it, but millions are, I don't get it.

I can sort of see through all the lies, although I'm not psychic. Why do so many millions of Americans fall for this obvious crap?

I guess the neo cons know how to manipulate the masses from years of study and programming. Sad state of affairs.

[Dr.Phool]

11. Well, like myself

You probably read a lot, can comprehend what you read, have a memory, and probably have about 20 different sources for news and opinion.

The average american would rather watch some stupid sitcom than do a little research.

[canadianbeaver]

14. Yeah...and the american people paid for it........with their taxes....

There is no end to what they have or are willing to do....and untill people get the nerve to stand up and say no..collectively, it ain't gonna change....

[SammyWinstonJack]

32. I've been wondering the same for the past four years.

Why do some people see through the lies and others just swallow hook line and sinker? :crazy:

[Eloriel]

33. A couple of things

One, we have a prevailing culture and Official Stories within an Official Mythology. Those literally DEFINE Reality (capital R) in our culture and many people and the press go to extraordinary lengths to see that they prevail. they are our conbined, collective AND individual worldview. Anything that doesn't fit within it gets immediately and automatically rejected.

Examples:

* The United States is a good, honorable country that just cares about doing what's right, spreading democracy, and doing other good, around the world.

* All of our wars have been just wars (well, maybe not Vietnam, but it sure started out as a "just" war).

* We never commit our military or intelligence forces for other than the most honorable reasons.

* The people we elect to office are honorable people who have our best interests at heart -- well, esp. if they're Republicans. If they're Democrats, they aren't necessarily honest at all.

* Our elected officials wouldn't lie to us (well, except Democrats).

Most of us here at DU started OUT with the realization that the 2000 Election was stolen, and when you have people who would steal a national election, who PLANNED to steal it, you don't expect much honor from them and you are going to be constantly on the lookout for more lies, dishonorable behavior, etc. An awful lot of people out there don't have that frame or point of view and convincing them that Bush isn't a particularly GOOD man is toubh -- see all those "prevailing myths" above for reference.


The other issue is The Big Lie (and really IMO it fits right into what I've already said about the prevailing Official Stories and Mythologies). Here's what Hitler had to say about it (and a couple of bonus quotes just for kicks):

"What good fortune for those in power that the people do not think." - Adolf Hitler

"It also gives us a very special, secret pleasure to see how unaware the people around us are of what is really happening to them. " - Adolf Hitler


HITLER on THE BIG LIE:
"The size of the lie is a definite factor in causing it to be believed, because the vast masses of a nation are in the depths of their hearts more easily deceived than they are consciously and intentionally bad.

The primative simplicity of their minds renders them more easy victims of a big lie than a small one, because they often tell little lies but would be ashamed to tell big ones.

Such a form of lying would never enter their heads. They never would credit others with the possibility of such great impudence as the complete reversal of facts.

Even explanations would long leave them in doubt and hesitation, and any trifling reason would dispose them to accept a thing as true.

Something therefore always remains and sticks from the most impudent of lies, which all bodies and individuals concerned in the art of lying in this world know all too well, and therefore they stop at nothing to achieve this end." -- Adolph Hitler in "Mein Kampf".

[leftchick]

30. Exactly! Howard Zinn talked about that this AM!

It is a deliberate misinformation campaign by the corporate owned media to keep the lazy Americans in the dark.

[Caution]

2. The media is no longer protecting us

It's as simple as that. All the whacked out conspiracy theories (chemtrails, flouride in the water, etc) are just another symptom of that problem.

[Craig3410]

3. I say extreme laziness.

People are too lazy to actually look up facts about something, and they assume that since * runs the country, he must know something.

And if the media doesn't just come out and say that this administration is a lying, cheating, sack of shit, that most people won't go out and be bothered to look up a hard list of what these assholes have done.

[Norquist Nemesis]

4. Give me an "I" !

Indoctrination through media and from the pulpit of the Pat Robertson/Jerry Falwell's of the country are in full bloom.

[amazona]

5. I've read the Bible so it isn't hard to understand that part

The Old Testament is full of advice to commit genocide by killing the men, raping the women, and smashing the babies' heads against convenient walls. The Bible is a big book, and it can easily be used to justify the destruction and murder of one's enemies. This is why certain areas, such as the Song of Solomon and the Gospels, stand out as so different. You have to be careful about what part of the Bible you allow yourself to be influenced by, because all parts of human nature are represented there, not just the good parts.

The conservation movement is a breeding ground of communists
and other subversives. We intend to clean them out,
even if it means rounding up every birdwatcher in the country.
--John Mitchell, US Attorney General 1969-72

[KurtNYC]

6. Denial is self-reinforcing

IMHO, the longer it goes on, the harder it is for people to deal with conflicting issues. It is like alcoholism. The longer you stay drunk, the less appealing sobriety is.

[Minstrel Boy]

8. All of it. America has been intentionally dumbed down, and

a generation of unopposed and uninformed hate radio is bearing its ugly fruit.

[soleft]

9. Too many men of good will doing nothing

[LiberalEsto]

10. It's called brainwashing

and it's being used very effectively by both the Misadministration and the media.

[JHB]

12. "There but for the grace of God go I" (and secular equivalents)...

...has been replaced by "The only ones complaining are shiftless bums, professional protesters, and other losers."

Some of it has to do with real problems in how the welfare system operated, much more has to do with thew RW propaganda machine (which made sure to highlight and exaggerate all of the above's flaws), there's a whole lot of racism/classism/ethno-cultural prejudice mixed in. But that all adds up to ways to justify saying "scew everybody but me".

[AngryAmish]

13. chemtrails

[Az]

15. Most people are not terribly inconveinianced

Struggle and change both create stress. The natural inclination is to remain where you are comfortable. Our societies increased isolation has lead to disconnection between the people. Thus a person's comfort is determined primarily by their own and others discomfort has become a distant thing indeed.

Thus most people see themself as losing if they rock the boat too much.

[In Truth We Trust]

16. Kool Aid. I think ther ehave been a lot of good answers thus far in this

thread. Without trying to be too simplistic I do believe that there is too much concentrated power both in the gov and in the media.

Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely!

[JohnyCanuck]

17. Well here's one way of looking at it.

From Brainwashing America by Dr. Norman Livergood, former Chair of Artificial Intelligence at the US Army War College:

The puppet Bush regime is using new, aggressive forms of brainwashing to change the very way Americans think and feel.

<snip>

In an earlier article, I reviewed the varied aspects of personality profiling and simulation. While serving as Head of the Artificial Intelligence Department at the U.S. Army War College, 1993-1995, I conducted studies on profiling, psychological programming, and brainwashing. I explored and developed personality simulation systems, an advanced technology used in military war games, FBI profiling, political campaigning, and advertising. Part of my discovery was that:

* unenlightened human minds are combinations of infantile beliefs and emotional patterns

* these patterns can be simulated in profiling systems

* these profiling systems can be used to program and control people

Personality simulation systems are being used to create political campaigns that apply voter profiles to control their voting behavior. TV commercials and programs use personality simulation to profile viewers to control their purchasing and viewing behaviors. And sophisticated propaganda and brainwashing techniques are being used by the Bush junta to keep American citizens under control. (my emphasis /jc)

www.new-enlightenment.com/brainwash1.htm

[MadHound]

18. Its a number of things, that have been skillfully combined.

Take your average family here in Missouri(about as average for the nation as I can think of). They're working two jobs, have a mortage, a couple of kids, credit card debt of around four or five thousand. They're struggling to do too many things, keep it together financially, spend time with their kids, make sure their kids are doing OK in school, get them to soccer practice and what have you, spend a little personal time together, get enough sleep, worrying about where college tuition is going to come from, much less that magical thing called retirement, working their asses off, and all they want to do at the end of the day is catch the news, put their mind in neutral, and unwind a little before going to bed so they can get up in the morning and do it all over again.

They don't have the time nor energy like you and I do to go search out on the internet to find real news, see what's really going on. They listen to Rush daily while running around doing errands at lunch, because he's entertaining, and he touches that deep sense of angst that keeps nagging at the back of the head, he has all the easy answers. They watch the news at night, though they think that everybody except Fox is horribly liberal, and why not? That point, along with many more, has been repeatedly pounded into their head for the past sixteen years or more. They trust the news to report honestly, and again, they simply don't have the time and energy to find out.

They want to feel proud of their country, and the secret of both Reagan and Bush II is that they say the right things to make this feeling of pride swell to jingoistic proportions. After 911 they became angry, but mainly fearful, and that fear has been played on relentlessly. These people are easily swayed, and Bushco has been relentless in exploiting that. Their education was usually limited, and in this era of grade inflation and degree inflation, the education that they received was vastly weaker than that of their parents and grandpartents, ill equipping them for discerning the subtle and not so subtle propaganda that they've been bombarded with all of their lives.

They started out their adult life as insecure, and that insecurity has been exploited. Thus, they cling to what they perceive as a strong authority figure, no matter what, and violently reject any view that contradicts their own, even in the face of overwhelming contrary evidence. One of these days they're going to be rich enough for the that tax cut to really kick in, and they want it in place for when they get there. During their formative years they were encouraged in their acts of racism, sexism, homophobia. It was fun to play "smear the queer", and yet here they are thirty years later, and those damn liberals are taking away all that fun, being all tolerant and PC, and insisting that they have to be also. And yet why should they be tolerant, especially towards those damn liberals. They sit up in their elitist ivory towers, with their fancy schmancy degrees looking down on the rest of us because we've only got a bachelors, or an associates, or horrors, no degree at all. And those damn liberals are always making fun of rednecks, and born again Christians, and white culture in general. Where's their damn tolerance then?

So thus they buy into the whole Bushco schtick. They want an authoritarian figure in charge, they want a guy who stutters a little, who even though he went to Hahvahd is just a regular guy like they are, easy to drink a beer with(and yes, has a little trouble with the bottle, but hell, who doesn't). He plays into all of their fears and insecurities, and yes, even their hopes and dreams. And thus, through an adroit combination of fear, promises and brainwashing, Bushco and the RW retain the undying loyalty of a great many Americans.

But Bush better step lightly. If he fucks up, if he goes to far and these supporters see him for who he truly is, well, hell hath no fury like a dittohead scorned.

[LibDemAlways]

20. You summed it up very nicely.

The other category of chimp supporter is the kind I run into a lot here in Southern Cal. People with big bucks (relatively speaking) and college degrees who aren't religious, but who are big believers in "I've got mine. Screw you." They're smart enough to figure out that * is evil and hated the world over, but they don't care. As a former friend once said to me, "I vote my pocketbook and * takes care of me."

[yodermon]

24. Best summary I've read

short of "What's the Matter With Kansas".

[BillZBubb]

19. This is nothing new.

During the VietNam debacle the American public was equally amoral. Same during Reagan's Contra support. Or how about the Repug abuse of power in impeaching Clinton?

Your mistake is trying to view what's going on with the Chimperor as an aberration. It isn't. It's who we are as a people and it's not very flattering.

[Fifth of Five]

27. Sad, but true n/m

[Green Thumb]

21. I am begginning to think

that all freepers have one of those audio feeds in their ears like * did during the debates.

[TWiley]

22. Propaganda

Our history is probably similiar to what happend in Germany during WWII. At some point, people became afraid to publicly resist.

Our largest problem is with the media. They have begun to speak in a single voice. I consider this the preachers fallacy.

It is easy to assume that everyone in a congregaton believes the same way because only one person does all the talking. In reality though, most are probably daydreaming, and consensus would only be demonstrated though recognition of political buzz words, or common scripture.

Propaganda and religion. These are to blame.

Intrestingly, I looked up "propaganda" in an older dictionary, and it said "The ancient Roman Curia authorized to spread the gospel to foriegn nations and destabilize their governments."

[Stepup2]

23. It is an

auto pilot mode that many seem to go into. It is survival,aka pons stem thinking, and like it or not, humans still have out higher functioning minds resting squarely on this part of your brain.

For many people life grinds them down to a chronic state of exhaustion or fear, and they may have or think they have little energy to push beyond it. Our culture, msm, etc makes it all too easy for people not to want to push beyond this way of living in the world.

I think many posts here incorporate the reasons why people retreat to this place, but I think fear is a big part of it. Fear of change, loss, pain, ridicule, unknown, others, xenophobia, homophobia, class, age etc...

[barb162]

25. "bizarre phase in our history" Phase??? I am not so sure

I think it is going to get worse

[GreenPartyVoter]

26. Dumbing down

----------------------------------------------------------
Save our country one town, county, and state at a time!
http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/electionreform.htm#why

[adigal]

28. They're waking up

Little by little, one by one, the American people are realizing they have been had. I think the only ones left will be the religious fundies (where else are they going to go?) and the top 1% of the wealthiest in the country.

[OETKB]

29. "Don't Think of An Elephant"

There is a little book written by George Lakoff, a linguist, who presents a model where the neocons use a "patriarchal model" i.e. father knows best with absolutes for right and wrong to present their side. This frame of reference suits many Americans outlook and is consistent how they look at life. This is opposed to a more nurturing family model which is not consistently presented in a positive manner by our side. It is not a long read and may help some of us understand and yes, plot, better.

[justsomegirl]

31. PTSD?

I still think we're all suffering from the trauma of the events of September 11th in some way or another, and I find it interesting that they invoke the spirit of that day on a regular basis -- it feels like an attempt to put us right back into the psychological mindset we were in at that time; a sense of fear and hopelessness.

Also, most people don't want to deal with working through the darker sides of themselves, and perhaps by extension, they don't want to deal with the darker sides of their government.

Although I've found that if you don't deal with those things, they generally come and bite you in the ass, and then you're forced to deal with it.

[truth2power]

34. Bush, Cheney, et al, speak to the primitive brain,

that part of us that is concerned with survival and fight or flight.

Those who see Bush as a great leader are not using higher-order thinking skills to come to that conclusion. It's about FEAR.

Which is why I think it's essentially a waste of time to think we can get the pod people to see the light if we just provide them with enough information. Not!