The amount of propaganda on this forum is amazing. I'm new here and I can't compare the widespread propaganda and resulting brainwashed responses to other forums right now, but I hope they aren't as bad as what can be seen here. Wishful thinking? Probably.
Most people will claim they aren't easily swayed by propaganda, but, if they resort to changing the subject by pointing to "the other side", or using childish name-calling, then their thinking has been clearly compromised by propaganda. The oldest trick in the book used by experts in propaganda is to divide people into two groups. It doesn't matter if the groups are labelled left/right, Democrat/Republican, liberal/conservative, straight/gay, or whatever. If you see yourself as being on one "side", pitted against people on the other "side", you have been successfully brainwashed by propaganda whether you admit it or not.
My only direct experience with brainwashing attempts (other than today's politics) was in Marine Corp boot camp. It was amazing the steps they took, some illegal, in order to get us to think "right". Those people were on the same side as us, and the brainwashing was effective on about half our platoon. (A platoon in bootcamp back then was 80 men.) Imagine how much worse it would be if it was an enemy or a political party. I watched two documentaries on the subject. One was the blue eye/brown eye experiment conducted by a grade school teacher in the 1950s, and the other was a guard/prisoner experiment conducted by college students in the late 1900s. Both experiments successfully altered the thinking of most of the participants. If interested you should be able to find them on YouTube. People who believe they can't be easily brainwashed are the easiest ones to brainwash.
I wonder if there is any hope of having rational discussions on this forum, free from propaganda.
Most people will claim they aren't easily swayed by propaganda, but, if they resort to changing the subject by pointing to "the other side", or using childish name-calling, then their thinking has been clearly compromised by propaganda. The oldest trick in the book used by experts in propaganda is to divide people into two groups. It doesn't matter if the groups are labelled left/right, Democrat/Republican, liberal/conservative, straight/gay, or whatever. If you see yourself as being on one "side", pitted against people on the other "side", you have been successfully brainwashed by propaganda whether you admit it or not.
My only direct experience with brainwashing attempts (other than today's politics) was in Marine Corp boot camp. It was amazing the steps they took, some illegal, in order to get us to think "right". Those people were on the same side as us, and the brainwashing was effective on about half our platoon. (A platoon in bootcamp back then was 80 men.) Imagine how much worse it would be if it was an enemy or a political party. I watched two documentaries on the subject. One was the blue eye/brown eye experiment conducted by a grade school teacher in the 1950s, and the other was a guard/prisoner experiment conducted by college students in the late 1900s. Both experiments successfully altered the thinking of most of the participants. If interested you should be able to find them on YouTube. People who believe they can't be easily brainwashed are the easiest ones to brainwash.
I wonder if there is any hope of having rational discussions on this forum, free from propaganda.
