A brief, weird history of brainwashing

About a fifth of the economic activity in the USA is brainwashing. And quite a bit of other activity, such as most consumer internet services, exist to facilitate this brainwashing.

If you want to see effective brainwashing, you need to look for instances where Pavlovian conditioning and enhanced states of suggestion (essentially “hypnosis”, but think of the clinical definition, rather than stage performance tropes) are combined over the course of years in a way that self reinforces the thoughts to be held. Works best when the person is offered something that they think they need (validation, community, sexual release, security) and if the person is already or can be isolated from interfering peers.<p>Basically look at what cults do, though it doesn’t even need a machiavellian mastermind involved, people can and will accomplish the same largely by their own initiative. This is what happens when you get online communities radicalizing themselves.

there&#x27;s a fine line between brainwashing, propaganda, and meaningful communication which motivates and drives us (and ideals and so on)

<a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.ph&#x2F;Ouf3s" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;archive.ph&#x2F;Ouf3s</a><p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.archive.org&#x2F;web&#x2F;20240417001318&#x2F;https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.technologyreview.com&#x2F;2024&#x2F;04&#x2F;12&#x2F;1090726&#x2F;brainwashing-mind-control-history-operation-midnight-climax&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;web.archive.org&#x2F;web&#x2F;20240417001318&#x2F;https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.techn...</a>

Peter Schweizer&#x27;s great book Blood Money goes into the current state of the art with TikTok (and a bunch of other stuff).

Compare the use of RLF&#x27;s lines in <i>Telefon</i> (1977) as an example of The Paranoid Style in American Po^H^HCinema:<p><pre><code> The woods are lovely, dark and deep. But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep. </code></pre> [that said, <i>The President&#x27;s Analyst</i> (1967) is a much better flick]

SNL&#x27;s Stefon character on this article:<p>&quot;This one has <i>everything</i>:<p>AI, ALAMY, America, American, American GIs, American Mind, Annalee Newitz, Atlanta, Birkbeck, Brain, Brainwashed, Brainwashing, Buddhist, California, Canadians, Catholics, Central Intelligence Agency, China, Chinese, Church Committee, CIA, Cold War, Colin Dickey, Communists, Confucian, Cybernetics, Dark Persuasion, David Seed, Dianetics, Dickey, Dimsdale, Donald Cameron, Douglas Fields, Dwight D Eisenhower, Edward Hunter, For Liang, Frank Schwable, Frank Sinatra, Hidden Persuaders, Hikvision, Homeland Security, Hong Kong, Hong Kong University, Hungarian, Intelligence Activities, Iron Curtain, Ivan Pavlov, Joel Dimsdale, Joost Meerloo, Juliette Kayyem, Kathleen Taylor, Korea, Korean War, L. Ron Hubbard, Lavrentiy Beria, Liang Qichao, Liverpool, London, LSD, Marcia Holmes, Maryland, McGill University, Meerloo, Merrill Root, Military, Mindszenty, Mitchell, MK-Ultra, Montreal, Myth, National Portrait Gallery, National Security Council, Nature, Norbert Wiener, NSC, Online, Operation Midnight Climax, Operations Coordinating Board, OSS, Other, Over, Patty Hearst, Pavlov, Policy, POW&#x27;s, Power, Psychological Warfare, Psychopolitics, Quanta, Red China, Republic, Russians, Ryan Mitchell, San Diego San Francisco, Scientists, Scientology, Secret Societies, Senator Frank Church, Shirley Chong, Sidney Gottlieb, Soviet Union, State, Stories Are Weapons, Strategic Services, Study Governmental Operations, Symbionese Liberation Army, The Dutch, The Manchurian Candidate, The Science, They, Thought Control, Time Magazine, Today, Tom Burrell, UCSD, United States, University, US, US Senate, US Senate Select Committee, Wayne Williams, West, Western, Wikimedia Commons, William Randolph Hearst, World War III, Worried, Xinjiang, You...&quot;<p>:-) &lt;g&gt; :-)<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;search?q=snl+stefon" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.google.com&#x2F;search?q=snl+stefon</a><p>Disclaimer: Submitted for comedy purposes only! :-) &lt;g&gt; :-)<p>Related (how I generated the above word list from the article text):<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;unix.stackexchange.com&#x2F;questions&#x2F;671487&#x2F;grep-to-extract-unique-capitalized-phrases" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;unix.stackexchange.com&#x2F;questions&#x2F;671487&#x2F;grep-to-extr...</a>

The author seems not merely uninformed but a mix of unaware and unconcerned that they don’t know what they’re talking about. No discussion of hypnosis, Stockholm syndrome, and a general vibe that psychology is like not really a thing unless it coincides with cherished narratives. And then little chestnuts like, “the idea of brainwashing continues to be a powerful metaphor for the effects of systemic racism.” Say what?

&gt;But Hunter wasn’t just a reporter, objectively chronicling conditions in China. As he told the assembled senators, he was also an anticommunist activist who served as a propagandist for the OSS, or Office of Strategic Services—something that was considered normal and patriotic at the time. His reporting blurred the line between fact and political mythology.<p>Err...: <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;jmc.stanford.edu&#x2F;commentary&#x2F;progress&#x2F;venona.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;jmc.stanford.edu&#x2F;commentary&#x2F;progress&#x2F;venona.html</a><p>I get that expecting truly quality research work from Technology Review is an eggs-in-moonshine level fantasy, but it&#x27;d be nice to employ literally one editor who has read literally any of MIT&#x27;s greatest researchers with all the ivy league cash they spend on fancy robots or buildings or whatever else.