Brainwashing America

[Q]

brain·wash·ing

1. Intensive, forcible indoctrination, usually political or religious, aimed at destroying a person's basic convictions and attitudes and replacing them with an alternative set of fixed beliefs.

2. The application of a concentrated means of persuasion, such as an advertising campaign or repeated suggestion, in order to develop a specific belief or motivation.

- Neoconservative Republicans have used the same technique on America that many totalitarian countries use on their own populations to indoctrinate them into a new belief system. (China and old Germany come to mind.) But Republicans had a distinct advantage over these other societies in that they had hundreds of millions of dollars to buy up the media in a relatively short period of time. Adding to the effectiveness of the brainwashing was the fact that the American people never knew their press was no longer 'free' to report the truth.

- The brainwashing began in ernest in the 80s...once they had acquired a majority of the media and installed propaganda operatives in every level of society. They began systematically tearing down the belief systems of individualism, equal rights and representative government. The new belief system became 'group think', rights based on social status and oligarchy.

- Brainwashing is successful only when a society doesn't realize (until it's too late) they're being manipulated and indoctrinated into believing something against their own interests. The Neocons realized early on that the liberal elements of society stood in the way of the successful indoctrination of America. So they began a campaign to neutralize the obstacles and turn society against them. The liberal ideology became the 'enemy' in American society and neoconservatives became the 'truth-tellers' and protectors of all that's good.

- It took them decades and hundreds of millions of dollars...but the Neocons have been successful at indoctrinating America into a new belief system. Every day we're saturated with disinformation and negative messages meant to destroy our belief systems and make us doubt our own values. Democrats are manipulated into believing that they'll be 'losers' if they don't 'believe' and join with those who control our country...the 'winners'.

- Corporate welfare is now 'acceptable' and social welfare is not. It's okay to use children and slaves to make our cheap products and to invade and occupy countries for cheap oil. Greed and war is good. Liberals are the enemy of freedom. Bush* was chosen by God. Republicans will 'protect' you for a price. Those who believe differently are outcasts, unpatriotic and unAmerican.

- Brainwashing works. Don't believe me? Just take a look at New America.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

1. i love your dirty mind Q

[JohnyCanuck]

2. And be sure to checkout this article

Brainwashing America by Dr. Norman Livergood former head of the Dept. 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>

We are living under the beginning stages of a military dictatorship in precisely the same way that 1930s Germans suffered under the Nazi regime.

As in the case of Nazi Germany, state-sponsored propaganda (brainwashing) is a vital part of the Bush regime's strategy.

<snip>

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)

[bobthedrummer]

11. Mind control is very real

There's a thread concerning this reality here at DU
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=636309

[Q]

15. Brainwashing and 'mind control'...

...are quite different concepts. The Neocons fashion their brainwashing techniques after the CIA's 'perception management' program.

[Q]

14. Haven't read that yet...

...but I'll put it on my reading list.

- I produced the thread description from memory...and having lived through Vietnam and the Nixon/Reagan/Bush era.

- I'm convinced there wouldn't be any 'conservative' Democrats if they understood what the 'other side' has done to destroy this country and the Democratic party.

[Resistance]

3. great post

:thumbsup:

[ewagner]

4. Nice summary

The only thing I don't agree with in your summation is that it implies that there was/is an orchestrated, cohesive movement to get to where we are today. I think the eventual control over the medai is a result of some premeditation but other elements fell into place quite by accident. In short, it was a combination of events but there was no central direction or control. Rush and his program were premeditated, but the corporate media falling into the laps of conservatives happened quite accidentially (with tohe obvious exception of FAUX).

I suppose it's all a moot point however, because, for whatever reasons, the end result is the same. The conservatives control information and have the ability to get their message out and indeed, control the message .

Again. Good post.......

[Q]

13. It WAS orchestrated...they called it the 'Republican Revolution'...

...spearheaded by the likes of Gingrich and the PNAC gang.

- There are too many coincidences here to believe these groups accidently fell together.

[tinanator]

5. not just a neocon op

goes back a long ways, with high points in the formation of the National Security State, the Reagan/Bush deregulation era, the Telecommunications Act, and so on. Entirely a bipartisan effort, so dont undermine your thesis with inadequate finger pointing. In fact, I would give Clinton CONSIDERABLE credit in his attempts to hammer the last nails in the coffin of a free and open society. The attack on Pacifica was one of the greatest battles (AND perhaps the only significant victory)fought on this field, and that was entirely a Clinton era project.

[DUreader]

7. Yes, Clinton was CinC when Army Psyops worked in CNN and NPR Newsrooms

[RichM]

9. One of the many ways in which Clinton happily handed the country over

to the rightwing without so much as a show of resistance. In hindsight, he appears more & more clearly as the perfect Trojan Horse.

[tinanator]

10. could this be true?

http://www.dcia.com/campaign.html

[Q]

12. Trojan Horse...

...is an apt way of putting it. They forced Clinton into a corner with witch hunts and inquisitions...and he gave them all the ammunition they needed. He became their Heretic.

- While Clinton and the Democrats were busy puttting up a defense...the RWingers were busy putting their cronies in positions of power and buying up the media.

- Many Democrats and deaf and dumb to the reality of all this...and they will happily join with the other side...not realizing they're being marched to their political doom.

[Resistance]

6. on the flipside

I came across this earlier -- frankly I think this writer is just a dope without a clue as to what's going on in the world around him:

Liberal Press Brainwashing About Bush Being Finished By Grant Swank on 10/14/03

... the liberal press is presently into a big time brainwashing campaign. The brains they go after the most are those who are into superficial news intake. They go for the citizens who skiff at headlines, suck in a few clichés and then go on their ways to the mall.

Third, the liberal press is out to intimidate the Republicans into cowering. If Reps can only respond to the liberal press brainwashing by playing shaken to the bone, then the brainwashing is working.

I get emails from some former Reps who have dumped United States President George W. Bush. Why? Basically they’re running scared. They, in other words, have been brainwashed by the liberal press.

... to counter the (supposedly 'liberal') columns such as Mr. Morton’s, Americans need to go beneath the shallow “reports,” get hold of their allegiance quotients once again, realize that the liberal press is out to brainwash every one of us, and then prove the liberal press to be nothing but an echo in the wind.

[tinanator]

8. the fine line

between spin and "brainwashing". Easier to find Hen's teeth than that dividing line. If it looks like an advertisement, smells like an advertisement and acts like an advertisement, then its brainwashing.

[tom_paine]

16. How they project themselves and their leaders onto their victims

This is a common tactic of Totalitarians and their Bootlicking Automaton Followers.

"The Jews are out to destroy Germany"

Translation:

"Germany is out to destroy the Jews."

"The freedom-loving people of the Soviet Union will show the oppressed workers of America how to behave."

Translation:

"The oppressed people of the Soviet Union must be continually propgandized, lest the (formerly) freedom-loving peoples of America show them how to behave."

Get it? The Busheviks are just a new twist on an old, old game.

The Dittoheads/Freepers/Brownshirts will continue whining about their victimhood, even as they are crushing skulls and helping send people to the Gulags (or whatever it will be this time around).

Just like those who's programming thewy are modeled after...Grandpa Prescott Bush's Business Partners.

[Q]

17. The RWing 'defunding' of public education...

...is also part of the formula for grooming the population to accept a totalitarian government.

- Informed consent is necessary for good government. Need I say more?