It's the Brainwashing, Stupid >

[Stephanie]

The Rage on the Right is a product of the systematic brainwashing of a pre-disposed segment of American society. Radical church leaders, Fox news, and radio hate-mongers have targetted these folks, and their critical thinking skills are so under-developed that they cannot resist the message, no matter that it's self-defeating for them. Now their resentment has been escalated to blind rage and that's what we're seeing right now.

Am I right?

[LoZoccolo]

1. I think the "brainwashing" explanation...

...usually serves as an excuse, intentional or not, to not really examine what's happening, or simply to dehumanize the enemies.

[RaleighNCDUer]

3. I actually like the brainwashing idea. It's a far better position

than saying that the other side is just fucking evil.

All we have to do is break their conditioning.

[FreedomAngel82]

10. Yes

The evil bastards are the one's in the White House who control everything. The media are also evil for going along with it and filling people's heads with brainwashing. That's why I turn the news off and do my own research. It's hard to talk to people who have been brainwashed. :crazy:

[HEIL PRESIDENT GOD]

13. Just like in "They Live"

A few are in fact, hideous fleshless aliens, but the bulk just need to stop receiving rays from the transmitter. Where's Rowdy Roddy when we need him!?

[sarcasmo]

23. What was the name of that show where he had to have the glasses on?

To stop from being brain washed. I think us Dem's need to come up with some deprogramming glasses.

[HEIL PRESIDENT GOD]

28. see above

It was called "They Live." Rent it tonight!

[leftofthedial]

6. We know what brainwashing is. It is a documented technique.

The VRWC uses many of these techniques. I believe they are consciously, willfully, intentionally executing a program of instilling a mass delusion--"brainwashing" on a massive scale.

[Just Me]

7. Agree. They are intentionally executing a program of mass manipulation. nt

[LoZoccolo]

8. You say this...

...and yet I hear very little specific talk about how the right initially makes their appeal to people who should not be voting for them. "They abuse religion" or "use the mass media" is not specific enough to be of any use to us.

I've actually tried to explain the rise of Rush Limbaugh in terms of what I heard from him in the early nineties, exploiting political correctness and identity politics, or how the religious right was formed in reaction to communism, and got shot down as someone who was trying to blame the left and should be disregarded (sounds like the people that accuse us of "blaming America first" to me). It's much easier not to deal with how the whole thing works, so people don't.

[Stephanie]

22. I know they are

They don't even try to pretend otherwise. From the White House manufactured news segments to the White House full-time Selling of the President to the Talking Points handed out to ministers of the evangelical churches, it's all coordinated.

[DrDebug]

16. Brainwashing explains exactly what is going on

By repeating the message over and over again the message sinks in deeper and deeper into somebody's mind. So if you eliminate critism and keep on supplying the people with the message you want them to hear, it'll 'brainwash' them. Program them to believe what you believe.

Impeach Bush
Impeach Bush
Impeach Bush
Impeach Bush
Impeach Bush
Impeach Bush
Impeach Bush

Now repeat after me

Impeach Bush
Impeach Bush
Impeach Bush
Impeach Bush
Impeach Bush

Do this over and over again and you'll program your mind to set the goal of impeaching Bush. (Nobody said that brainwashing can't be fun ;) )

[SmokingJacket]

2. I think so.

I might think your rhetoric was a bit over the top if I haven't seen so many otherwise intelligent, loving people turn into total HATEmongers after being exposed to several hours of Rush Limbaugh. Granted, there must have been something amiss in their lives if they listened in the first place.

But the consistency of the nonsense -- the same fake arguments, the same stupid terms -- and the completeness and abruptness of the transformation I've witnessed in my family members makes me agree: It IS brainwashing.

[FreedomAngel82]

11. Yep

A rightwinger called into Rhandi's show yesterday and all he did was say we're whiners and don't have any plans of our own and just repeated talking points. He couldn't put up an argument on his own if he tried and he was just spewing his nonsense and Rhandi was talking over him. So she finally just hung up on him.

[Dr.Phool]

4. I agree

These people have no critical thinking skills. They don't even know what it means. If you have any doubts, just tune in to c-span at 7:00am in the morning. You'll hear some of the most unintelligible nonsense in the world. It's easily refuted, but it can't get through their filters.

[Norquist Nemesis]

5. Technically, It's the Soundbytes, Stupid!

Yes, they (RR, Faux, Rush, etc.) HAVE targeted them and brainwashed them...all through fantastic little soundbytes/talking points.

It's Luntzspeak and Luntzspeak is Brainwashing. No doubt about it.

[FreedomAngel82]

15. Exactly

It's why they claimed they couldn't understand what John Kerry's plans were. :eyes: They didn't want to listen to him speak because he didn't give them sound bites. :eyes:

[gumby]

9. "Perception Management" pure and simple.

When people hear nothing else, how can they escape being "managed?"

From the vast network of right-wing Christian programing, to Rush Limbaugh and his local clones, to the guests on NPR and PBS, there are little - to NO - offerings for people to hear or see.

I've seen the same thing in my family. They converse in right-wing sounbites. It's truly sad.

[barbaraann]

12. Did you see my thread on French anti-cult laws?

It IS the brainwashing and we have to figure out what to do about it.

[screembloodymurder]

14. Yes

It's like they've been hypnotized. They've been told what to believe and even when something altogether different is staring them in the face, they can't see it. It's mind control.

[frankly_fedup2]

18. Kind of like what Hitler did with the Catholics and his Pope never

opened his mouth. I believe it was Pope Pius, who was a Catholic in private, but prayed to a "supposed" Pagan God behind closed doors.

Many believe that if Pope Pius would have said one thing against the evils being committed, the people would not have followed Hitler the way they did.

Many believe Hitler was an atheist, just basic their opinion on his evil. Hitler was a Catholic and he used God and his church to get all those that were brain dead to follow him as well.

History repeating again, and again, and again . . .

[frankly_fedup2]

17. Yep, Stephanie you got it. I felt it the worst last week when Limbaugh

started preaching about God and Christians and how Liberals have a different God than the Christian God.

But, they haven't even begun to see rage yet. They continue to pour gasoline in their fire as they worship at the Bush alter of greed, war, and blood. That's all they care about. Oh yeah, they are great Christians alright. I think they are following the wrong person.

[RaleighNCDUer]

26. "Liberals have a different God"

Is that where this "people of the other faith" (meaning Democrats) is coming from?

[mopinko]

19. the dumbing down of education

i have been thinking about this since november. between the shift away from critical thinking and toward multiple choice tests, and the jingo-izing of textbooks, i think the right has greased the way for the propaganda machine.
in chapter one, version one of the history of the fall of the american empire, should be the story of the rise of the texas schoolbook selection committee.
http://www.textbookleague.org/32tex.htm
http://www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Hangar/2437/textbrds.htm

then add cnn as house organ for the pentagon, and you have set the stage for the stampede of the american idiots.

[DrDebug]

21. The dumbing down is important as well

The intellectuals in a society have always been the troublemakers. The average IQ on the DU is far above average so we are liberal troublemakers as well.

If the goals of education were to make people independant thinking then the whole concept of all the children being thaught the same program would have been eliminated and replaced by education based on the potential.

The old approach of the Jezuit education would be more suitable to create a population of independant thinkers. So that's a route which we don't want. Multiple choice and a "one-fit-all" strategy ensure that the top peaks get downed a bit in order to make them easier to handle. And then we have TV to make them even dumber...

[Dora]

20. It must be stopped at its source - the television set

We're getting the same messages that everyone else is getting. Just because "we know better" doesn't mean we're any less damaged for listening to that crap. We are just as poisoned as the sleeping sheeple.

You got shows you can't live without seeing? Think again. Turn off the TV and check your pulse. It'll still be there.

Kick the TV to the curb. Send a brick through its glassy face. Donate it to Goodwill. WHATEVER! Get that poison out of your home.

Giving up TV isn't easy. I had unnerving anxiety for a week after losing mine, and the urge to watch lasted for over a year. I seriously believe it's a habit that's tougher to break than cigarettes, but it's one that must be broken.

[strategery blunder]

24. An easy way to do it if you happen to move...

Don't learn the channels in the new city.

When I moved from Chicago to rural Missouri for college, I didn't bother to learn what the channels in MO were. As a result, I don't watch any teevee at all simply because I have, er, no idea of what to watch.:)

[Dora]

25. That's the best way!

I did it the hard way - we lost ours in a burglary and decided not to replace it.

Study hard!

[txaslftist]

27. Sort of...

You forget sheer intellectual laziness. Lotsa folks voted for shrub because of a sort of "he sounds good to me" mentality and never looked beyond that at the facts.