You Are Brainwashed: A Rant (Revised)
Uninformed, ignorant, biased — brainwashed: it is almost impossible to have an intelligent discussion with the average American. Which explains why the “Leader of the Free World”, the US of A, is a third world nation in almost every area except offensive military capability. Americans are offensive.
Which also explains Donald Trump.
And why the Democrats would nominate Creepy Joe Biden, a semi-sentient, political slut of uncertain principles.
And why the Green Party got only 3% of the vote in the 2016 election despite having the only sensible policy agenda.
Even why the US of A is less democratic than China.
“Informed consent” is a principle in medicine. A vital one. The key word is “informed”. This concept is even more important in any viable democracy, not that there have really been any since maybe the Golden Days of Ancient Athens.
In the US of A, as we all know from high school, where brainwashing really starts, the average voter reads the news and informs him or her self in order to make appropriate judgments and decisions as to the course the country should take —for which reason a “free press” and “freedom of speech” are held up as primary rights, protected by the Constitution, which replaces the Bible as the Word of God.
Joe America turns on the TV and listens to MSNBC or CNN or Fox News. And Judy College America reads WaPo or the New York Times or the Economist — any number of newspapers, magazines, and websites that appeal to Educated, who people who have been to college and received certification to prove they can no longer think critically. Everybody else logs on to Pornhub, which is actually Canadian.
The fact that CNN and Fox have different points of view is supposed to confirm freedom of speech and a free press. Endless attacks by most of the mainstream media on Donald Trump is seen as validation of these “freedoms” , as are the attacks on “liberals” on Fox. A corollary no-no, is to present opposing points of view at the same time, as Ron Unz tries to do on The Unz Review, for which eclecticism he has been banned by Facebook as “abusive” and downgraded by Google.
“That couldn’t happen in China”, people say. “We’re a democracy and they are not! Here, the people control the government, not the other way around.”
Looking at the high approval rates for Putin and Xi, Americans say: “See, the Russians and the Chinese are brainwashed”.
Sadly, it is Americans who are brainwashed. And it is Russia and China that are more democratic. Note: I didn’t say “democratic”. I said “more” democratic! Not quite there yet, but doing better.
The American Dream means living in a dreamworld.
“Freedom of speech” is just one of those important illusions in the dream. Just ask Julian Assange.
And the “free” press? J
Just four or five companies control 90% of the media. These companies are in turn controlled by tiny cabals of very rich people who belong to tiny tribes of Billionaires, each with its own culture and customs, originally generated by popular culture, but mutated within the Petri dish of extreme wealth and privilege in a sterile, artificial environment.
The Few determine media narratives, including the lies of the NYT and WaPo and CNN and MSNBC , which have been exposed over and over again, even before the Gulf of Tonkin, yet in no way undermine the credibility of these institutions anymore than pederasty undermines the Catholic Church.
Edward Bernays wrote:
The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country. We are governed, our minds are molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of.
Bernays formulated his theories right after WWI. Which won him membership in the US’s cabal of new industrialists such as Henry Ford, and of course, the Titans of Tobacco. But, he was not saying anything new — just restating a social reality that began even before the American Revolution, which enshrined the Olde English tradition of social propaganda in law and custom.
Adolph Hitler wrote a lot about how people prefer comforting myths to reality. He was a big admirer of “the American Way”. He pointed out that people in mass societies want and need simple and convenient explanations of the world, social goals and the like, looking for direction that validates their dream worlds. And, of course, looking for scapegoats: Jews, Chinese, Russians, Blacks. Illegals.
The American Dream is not much different from the dreams you experience when you sleep, a hodge podge of anxiety, fear, and desire expressed in illogical imagery. Today it is manifesting as a nightmare.
Why do you have weird dreams?
When you dream something unpleasant, your mind is trying desperately to find a solution, as I said, , not logically, but emotionally. Truth doesn’t matter. Only resolution of anxiety. Sorry, but “woke” people are still asleep, to the extent that they rely on conventional sources — no matter how many times their lies are exposed, once again looking for emotional closure of a kind. They fear facts since all l real truth (sorry Al Gore) is “inconvenient”, if not upsetting. We seek only comfort.
So, to cut to the chase, if you rely on the NYT or WaPO or CNN or (especially) Google News, you are brainwashed.
It’s as simple as that. Furthermore, you have committed the ultimate sin, the “bad faith” that Sarte wrote of that is at the root of all social madness, cruelty, and atrocity.
Fake news? Think: fake people. You are Dostoevsky's Underground Man, without his self honesty.
The more you accept media narratives, the deeper your biases, whether liberal or conservative, the deeper your sin.
In the US of A, a certain range of opinion is allowable, if not require , in order to validate democratic “dialog”, all differences of opinion must inevitably lead to the same place, whatever one’s political orientation. It is choir with two party harmony. Which is why Biden and Trump basically agree on the main points of policy.
Biden is just Trump with dementia and better hair.
Whatever government you elect, it serves the interests of the corporate cabals that control the media and the Billionaire Tribe behind them. As well as the interests of your intellectual sloth.
There is nothing wrong with reading the MSM, of course. But, if you don’t want to be brainwashed, you must do as the Chinese do with their “official media”: look for the truth elsewhere. Question. Verify. It doesn’t take much time, maybe 30 minutes a day. With the Internet and social media there is no excuse not to do this. But be ready to rebel.
