Welcome to Brainwashington D.C.

[Andy_Stephenson]

A friend of mine coined the term "Brainwashington" after watching the media-coverage in the wake of the 9-11 terror attacks on New York and Washington. A joke at first, but now, nearly 2 years after these attacks, and after investigating and writing on this case since Sep 12th - I have to admit: it's quite serious. I think we all have become witnesses and victims of the biggest brainwashing operation in history.

Strong words - but before I try to bring up some arguments for them, I want to give you some hints who is speaking to you: I started working in 1980 as a journalist and editor for the newly founded daily "tageszeitung" (taz) in Berlin. One of the main reasons for starting such a paper - independence from news agencies and advertisers - were the experiences of the german terror-hunt against the Baader-Meinhof group in the late 70's and the scaring consonance and unanimous voice of the media.


http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/co/15416/1.html

[Maccagirl]

1. Your friend nailed it with that term.

Even if the total truth came out about 9/11, we have been so drenched in fear and hate that psychologically I don't know when and if we'll ever recover. Being lied to and manipulated only worsened the horror.

[Astarho]

2. The Art of Brainwashing

Everyone thinks of brainwashing as some sort of Svengali-like character standing over some pretty little Trilby, but it's really so much easier.

First you work people to exhaustion, or at least hard enough to wear them down (how sleep deprived are we in this country?). Repetative tasks day after day can help. This wears down their defenses and the drudgery gives them a desire to escape. You can provide the escape, usually something meaningless and fun that doesn't challenge the mind too much. You want to lull them into a nice relaxed state.

Then all you have to do is repeat the same thing over and over, and it really helps if it's something they want to beleive in the first place. They will be some who resist, but if the rest are brainwashed to ignore and ridicule them, they will not be a problem.

It's really very simple.

[Andy_Stephenson]

3. Gobels siad it best

"If you repeat a lie often enough and brazenly enough , people eventually will come to regard it as fact!" - Joseph Goebbels

[Astarho]

4. kick

[greatauntoftriplets]

5. What a great term!

Kudos to your friend.