#brainwashing

kuchinster@hub.hubzilla.de

Image/photoΤρομοκρατιστής ✭ wrote the following post Thu, 19 Dec 2024 17:25:59 +0100

US Congress Revives Cold War Tactics With New Anti-Communism School Curriculum

"Although sponsored by Republicans, it enjoys widespread support from Democrats and is focused on China, Venezuela, Cuba and other targets of U.S. empire."

https://consortiumnews.com/2024/12/18/us-congress-revives-cold-war-tactics-with-new-anti-communism-school-curriculum/


Land of the free :P

Who will represent the worker class interests they didn't explain :P

#US #USA #UK #EU #EUROPE

#american #brainwashing #propaganda #mccarthyism #anticommunism #mindmanipulation

ramnath@nerdpol.ch

https://youtube.com/watch?v=A44MGp-In4w
#Government #Brainwashing Expert On #How To Spot Lies & Influence Anyone - Chase Hughes

Chase Hughes is the US Government’s brainwashing and interrogation expert training the intelligence agencies, a neuroscientist, and the world’s #1 #human #behavior expert.

He spent 20 years in the US military and trains intelligence agents and companies on human hacking, influence, persuasion, interrogation, and negotiation.

Government Brainwashing Expert On How To Spot Lies & Influence Anyone - Chase Hughes

psych@diasp.org

On MSNBC tonight, the day before "The Debate"...

A passionate Lawrence O'Donnell (MSNBC) lashing out at the New York Times for #SaneWashing.
A spot-on word for what's been ongoing since the origins of "Trump and his Media Love Life" for so many years. A cozy 'immunity'.

#TrumpVIrus, a #cult of #BrainWashing & #cognitive manipulation via #disinformation ...
Fueled by #GQP and increasingly #MSM engaged in rationalizing, or in this case, even editing/interpreting pure Trumpian #WordSalad

hudsonlacerda@diasporabr.com.br

German memory culture, anti-Semitic Zionists and Palestinian liberation

Germany’s much lauded ‘memory culture’ is pure, empty, self-congratulatory propaganda.

Rachael Shapiro — Anti-Zionist Jewish activist based in Berlin

Published On 1 Mar 20241 Mar 2024

I am a #Jewish #pro-Palestine solidarity activist originally from the #NewYork area and now based in #Berlin. My #grandmother was a #Holocaust survivor from #Cologne who fled to the #UnitedStates during the Second World War at the age of 16. Her parents and much of her family were murdered during the Holocaust. I came “back” to #Germany about five years ago, a decision born largely out of the desire for intergenerational healing for me and for my grandmother, who was alive at the time. I learned German and was able to speak to her in her native language in the last few years of her life. I told her stories about living in Germany, she met some of my friends and she was grateful for the ways in which the country and its people had apparently evolved and atoned for their ugly history.

I am glad she died before I had the opportunity to recognise what a naive, idealistic delusion this was.

In the past few years as I have educated myself, become active in the movement for #Palestinian #liberation and extracted myself from the extreme #Zionist conditioning and #brainwashing baked into the fabric of my upbringing, my appreciation for German “Erinnerungskultur” (“memory culture”) has steeply devolved into the realisation that the entire concept is pure, empty, self-congratulatory propaganda. It is grounded in the intentional, racist displacement of anti-Semitism and responsibility for the Holocaust from the Germans who perpetuated it to the #Arabs, #Muslims and, above all, the #Palestinians, who they now demonise and scapegoat as a deflection and distraction.

A documentary from 1985, Ma’loul Celebrates Its Destruction, provides an account of the destruction of entire villages during the 1948 #Nakba. In it, an interviewer says to a Palestinian man who was displaced: “But they killed six million Jews.” His rightful response is, “Did I kill them? Those who killed them must be held accountable. I haven’t hurt a fly.” The fact that a truth this fundamental has been so deeply buried in the language of “complexity” and “conflict” is a testament to the commitment and breadth of the imperialist narrative disseminated by Israel, the #US and #Germany (and the #West in general). Meanwhile, more than 90 percent of all anti-Semitic incidents in Germany are attributable to the #far-right despite the media’s rampant efforts to ignore statistics, skew the reality of the violence and racism directed at Palestinians, and disguise the true apathy towards the so-called “fight against anti-Semitism”.

While actual incidents of anti-Semitism go largely unpunished, those of us standing in solidarity with Palestine are accustomed to brutal, state-sanctioned violence, repression and surveillance from police and the German government in response to peaceful #protests and #boycotts. This has intensified massively since the #genocide in #Gaza began in October, regularly under the guise of accusations of anti-Semitism and “Judenhass” (“hatred of Jews”). We are accordingly committed to remaining loud and visible, including through our refusal to be excluded from the fight against rising fascism and the extreme-right Alternative for Germany party ( #AfD ).

On February 3, I attended an #anti-AfD demonstration in Berlin as part of the pro-Palestinian bloc with the revolutionary #Marxist group #Sozialismus #von #Unten (“Socialism from Below”), in which I am an active member. I had quite a bit of trepidation about going to this protest after the violent, racist and disturbing experiences of my Palestinian and pro-Palestinian comrades at anti-AfD protests over the past few weeks. Folks protesting the AfD while showing solidarity with Palestine have been ruthlessly harassed, attacked, reported to the police and violently removed by both demonstrators and cops all over Germany.

In general, the #mood was positive, and there seemed to be more of a tangible solidarity in comparison with the earlier demonstrations. I stood with a sign that read, “ #Juedin #gegen die #AfD und #Zionismus, #fuer ein #freies #Palaestina” (“ #Jew #against the #AfD and #Zionism, #for a #free #Palestine”). We handed out flyers encouraging a strategic and systematic mobilisation against the AfD. We spoke to demonstrators about the link between fighting fascism and fighting for Palestinian liberation. We explained that Palestinians in Palestine are currently suffering under the fascist policies we are demonstrating against in Germany, and in Germany, Palestinians and those standing in solidarity with them are already experiencing the concrete infringement and denial of #fundamental #human #rights ( #freedom of speech, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly). We emphasised the importance of unconditional, #international #solidarity.

Some were cautious about engaging, ostensibly out of concern for being viewed as anti-Semitic, but many were curious, interested and open to learning. As much as the mainstream media have tried to distort and mangle news of the ongoing genocide in Gaza, a recent poll showed that among German voters, only 25 percent answered in the affirmative when asked if they believe Israel’s attacks on Gaza are justified; 61 percent believe they are not. The latter cohort was clearly represented at the demonstration.

After about an hour, I came into contact with a representative of the 25 percent of that poll. An older German man with an aggressive expression approached me, stopped in front of me and half-shouted, “So what do you think the #similarities are #between the #AfD and #Israel?” I could tell he had no intention of engaging in a reasonable conversation but nonetheless began trying to explain. After a few words, he rolled his eyes and spat at me.

It is hard to describe the particular shade of red I saw, the sourness of the blood pumping to my head, the bitterness of the fury on my tongue. It looked like the lifeless faces of my great-grandparents at the mercy of #Nazis, deported and murdered in the #Warsaw #Ghetto as they have appeared in my dreams since I was a child. It felt like the fierceness with which I will unconditionally defend the Palestinian resistance, the right of every people to resist their oppressor in any single form, until my last breath. It tasted like the rage and incredulity that have boiled in the corners of all of our mouths as we scream at the top of our lungs, watching the world passively observe the slaughter of Palestinian men, women and children for more than four and a half months – silent, complicit and accompanied by the relentless echo of more than #75 #years of #occupation, #apartheid, #theft, #ethnicCleansing, #lies, #dehumanisation and unforgivable #injustice.

I ran after the man, shouting at him that my family was murdered because of fascism during a genocide – in response to which he spat at me again.

He goaded me: “What do you know? The AfD is a fascist party. What does that have to do with Israel?” I began to state the obvious – “Israel is committing a genocide in Gaza as we speak …” – but didn’t finish my sentence before he spat in my face for a third time.

As I was shaking, incensed and disgusted, my final comment was, “You are clearly an anti-Semite.” Up to this point in the interaction, he had been condescending and full of contempt, but (as I knew it would) this final shot sent him into a blind rage. As I turned and walked away, he shrieked: “WHAT did you say to me?”

A friend of mine recently said to me, “The #Germans will #never #forgive the #Jews for the #Holocaust.” These words have rung in my ears and sat in my chest with nowhere in particular to go, a hard, ugly truth at the core of German society that precisely reflects my experience living in it. It is bewildering, it is comical, and it is accurate.

From the neo-Nazis of the AfD to “anti-Deutsche” leftists who claim to be combatting German anti-Semitism by obsessively and unconditionally supporting Zionism, many of today’s Germans are brimming with repressed rage towards Jews. Whether they are aware of it or not, this is resoundingly apparent in the deep, hysterical hypocrisy of a reaction such as that of the man at the demonstration – spitting in a Jewish person’s face for standing against fascism and genocide on the basis of her personal, generational relationship to fascism and genocide and becoming enraged at being identified as an anti-Semite accordingly.

This fury is seemingly a reaction to the “injustice” of Germans having to repent for the actions of their ancestors, something they have been widely celebrated for on the global stage. The #resentment takes the form of #narrowmindedness and #bigotry: The only acceptable concepts of #Judaism, #Jewish people and “Jewish life” are those they themselves, #non-Jewish Germans, explicitly sign off on. (Refer to the “anti-Semitism commissioners” claiming to represent the interests of Jewish people in Germany – not a single one of whom is Jewish or an expert in any relevant or related field.) For many Germans, the only palatable Judaism is Zionism, which in fact is no kind of Judaism at all. When forced to contend with perspectives in conflict with this toxic narrative or with Jewishness that doesn’t align with their understanding of it, their anger surfaces violently, explosively. “Anti-Deutsche” weaponise the fetishisation of Jews through their obsessive Zionism to an extreme degree, spearheading aggressive hate and smear campaigns against those who do not share their views (including anti-Zionist Jewish people). How dare anyone, most of all Jews, call into question the authority of Germans in defining and relating to Judaism, anti-Semitism and genocide.

The sick, decades-long collaboration between Israel and Germany and the widespread assertion that Israel’s security is “Germany’s reason of state”(“Staatsraeson”), which upholds Zionist socialisation in the interests of political, racist ends, has created an atmosphere of fear, shame, guilt and ultimately self-righteousness that permeates much of German society. It punishes questions, dissuades education and quashes the necessary understanding of Judaism as a broad, differentiated and historically diasporic culture that existed long before Zionism – and will exist long after.

This designation of all Jews and all Judaism as a single uniform entity, necessarily speaking the same language (modern Hebrew), holding the same values (Zionism) and sharing an identical culture (which in Germany, must be determined by Germans), is, in fact, the precise definition of #anti-Semitic, #Nazistic #racial #segregation and the othering, dehumanising rhetoric they employed in its service. The rigid and inherently anti-Semitic conception of Jews as an undifferentiated people “native” to one land, characterised by the nationalist settler-colonial Zionist movement, has merely served as a #continuation of #Hitler’s #work. It has erased secular Judaism in Europe. It has #eradicated the #Yiddish, #Ladino, #Judeo-Arabic, #Judeo-Persian and #other #Hebraic #languages. Eighty years after the Holocaust, it has succeeded in upholding the view of Jews as a monolith, a foreign nuisance separate from German society, the attempted annihilation of whom can now be exploited to justify the annihilation of another group.

The #tradition of #policing #Jewishness has been passed down in Germany for generations now, which, as in the case of the man at the anti-AfD demonstration, revolves not just around an established, homogenous definition of Jews but, crucially, also the exclusive right and obligation of the Germans to dictate it.

So what are we left with? I believe we can see it in our aforementioned statistic. The majority of Germans know, despite what they have been raised and conditioned to believe, that at the very least, what is going on in Gaza is wrong. Many can see that there is something significant and conspicuous missing in the mainstream narrative around anti-Semitism, Israel and Palestine. I would venture that the majority of those in the streets marching against the AfD are doing it because they genuinely want to stand on the right side of history. Meanwhile, what is in reality a minority is simply louder, angrier and more visible in propagating their anti-Arab, anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian racism, anti-Semitism and pro-genocide views and, in being so, intimidate the rest into docile silence.

#No #one in the mainstream German #media has reported on my experience at the anti-AfD protest. Given the cultural context, this is not a surprise. But highlighting this hypocrisy and the prevailing, ever-more destructive narratives illustrated by such an incident represents a powerful opportunity for education and empowerment. Calling out the root causes and social backdrop of this moment make them available and necessary for all to grapple with. As so many are stepping into the streets, it is our responsibility to arm them with the facts as fuel, to enable every single person to raise their voice and know decisively what they speak for and what they speak against. We will continue – with more resolve than ever – in the fight for a free Palestine and in mobilising in this way against racism, Zionism, (actual) anti-Semitism, fascism and genocide. We will repeat it again and again until the rhythm of our words becomes the heartbeat of a society that attempts to snuff out our resistance but will ultimately fail at doing so: Never again means never again for anybody.


The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance.

vm_idaho@sysad.org

https://newdiscourses.com/2023/12/critical-education-is-brainwashing/

New Discourses Bullets, Ep. 73
Critical Pedagogy is brainwashing. This isn’t rhetorical flourish or poetic license. The entire school of thought called Critical Pedagogy, which is wholly dominant in all our schools of education and educational institutions now, is brainwashing. It’s easy to see this by considering the words of people who use and promote Critical Pedagogy itself. In this episode of New Discourses Bullets, host James Lindsay takes you through three such people to make an irrefutable case that Critical Pedagogy really is nothing other than Woke brainwashing.
#brainwashing #woke #savethechildren

nowisthetime@pod.automat.click

#nonsense of the #msm #brainwashing #programs
https://www.bitchute.com/video/1L0uDqDzdhXT/

Well Worth The Watch The Rabbit Whole Goes Very Deep 🐇

#PeterJoseph is an American independent filmmaker and activist. He is best known for the #Zeitgeist film series, which he wrote, directed, narrated, scored, and produced. He is also the founder of the related Zeitgeist Movement. Other work by Joseph includes the 2017 book The New Human Rights Movement: Reinventing the Economy to End Oppression.

Peter Joseph - Zeitgeist : Moving Forward

diggers@diaspora-fr.org

#Brainwashing Ourselves: How Digital #Technology is Destroying #Democracy

Source: https://modernheretic.com/brainwashing-ourselves-how-digital-technology-is-destroying-democracy

Accordingly, #digital technology is upheaving our culture and displacing the traditions and norms we were accustomed to, leaving many of us feeling unmoored and undermining our political values.

#Online conversations quickly developed controls in the form of moderators—authoritarian figures who established the rules of engagement and who got to decide what speech was worthy and what was not.

There was a resultant demand for more controls. #Ignore buttons popped up and were quickly used for individuals who espoused ideas that the user disagreed with, limiting their exposure to different ideas and establishing the pattern for the silo-ization of the internet that is dominant today.

Unlike the offline world in which people were judged through personal knowledge, direct observation, and reputation, individuals online could only be judged by the content of their digital output, which reduced them to flat, dehumanized vectors of information to be categorized as #good or #bad

Thus, the new controls spawned by the digital realm to deal with #information overload involved the establishment of a binary, ideological filter to judge whether information—as well as the poster of that information—should be included or excluded in a particular #community.

Unfortunately, once the ideological binary is established as the moral paradigm, group discourse becomes a never-ending #witch hunt.

Group leaders and members are on constant lookout for potential immorality as represented by supposed outsiders to the #group. Anyone who disturbs the group harmony with deviant thoughts can find themselves the sudden target of paranoiac suspicion.

Every #conversation becomes a purity test of sorts, and the only way to prove that you are one of the “good” guys is to make your expressions a reflection of the group’s worldview

#Groupthink became the norm, and anyone who deviated from the group too much would be seen as a danger to the group who needed to be punished or eliminated.

Thus, thanks to the #internet, #intolerance for dissent and demands for #censorship arose as aspirational values of a new moral order.

Consequently, the controls that developed in response to digital technology were exactly those controls that are used in the formation of cults and #totalitarian #regimes, tools to ensure that every person falls in line with the orthodoxy as determined by the leadership of the group.

  1. control of information within an environment (moderation, fact checks, content #warnings, removal of information, prioritizing certain viewpoints, etc.);

    1. demands for purity in thought to assure that everyone conforms to the group
    2. sacred truths that cannot be questioned without some form of reprisal, usually removal from the group or platform
    3. the reduction of complex ideas to trite slogans and memes
    4. control over who belongs to the group and who does not
    5. the subordination of the individual to the group

These totalitarian #controls are quotidian at this point, and anyone who participates in discourse on the internet is exposed on a daily basis to enormous pressure to conform their thoughts to the narratives that are perpetuated by those in control of the internet fora.

Without realizing it, we slowly brainwashed ourselves over time with our uncritical and pervasive use of digital technology.

It was therefore inevitable that once we accepted these digital values as normal, they would then infiltrate our offline interactions.

While we think of ourselves as using digital tools to change our world, in reality digital technology is changing us.

Most people in the Western world are never disconnected from the totalitarian culture of the internet. That is why digital cultural norms are now dominating our #society

In effect, the digital controls that developed in order to control the overabundance of information on the internet led to polarized, cultish thinking and conditioning people to believe that totalitarianism is a necessary form of regulation in today’s world.

#Dissent is now treated as a danger that needs to be eradicated. Worse still, this cultish conditioning is bleeding into the #offline world so that anti-democratic, authoritarian measures are increasingly seen as normal in the “free” world.

Many people are chilled from speaking, not just online where they may end up banned by a tech platform, but offline where they face the possible consequences of losing jobs, networking opportunities, and friendships.

The universe of ideas that is acceptable to be expressed is rapidly shrinking and people are exposed to fewer ideas that challenge their views, which further reinforces their #intolerance for differences of opinion in a cyclical manner.

Much like George #Orwell ’s #doublespeak, people in contemporary society are pressured to conceal their true thoughts and dilute their public messages to the point that they become anodyne and meaningless enough that the mob will tolerate them.

Thus, facts, #transparency, and rationality are inimical to digital culture. Conformity, not #truth, is the driving force of digital culture.

By programming individuals to become accustomed to totalitarian regulations on a personal level, it was inevitable that these digital norms would also pervade the political realm.

Anything that could allow a person or group to express an unorthodox idea is suspicious, and therefore in digital culture, the concept of free speech is inherently dangerous.

The paternalistic notion that individuals must be protected from corruption by bad ideas has taken hold of our culture. And this type of milieu control of information enables independent thought to be supplanted by majoritarian #propaganda just as it does in other totalitarian environments.

The assumption that the individual is neither competent to judge the quality of information nor strong enough to be exposed to information of allegedly dubious quality now reigns supreme, bolstering the new flourishing culture of censorship.

They are dismissive because they actually want a world with limited speech, where the window of permissible thought is narrow enough to exclude all the speech they disagree with.

Thus, while digital culture proponents often nominally claim to want to protect minority groups, their insistence on conformity to majoritarian standards ensures that genuine diversity cannot exist in the new moral order

#Speech is an outward expression of inner beliefs, and the loss of freedom of speech is dangerous because it is a threat to the ability to hold and practice a belief system that differs from the orthodoxy.

Consequently, digital morality is a direct attack on #minority rights.


#newnormal

johnehummel@diasp.org

True or not, the following won't matter:

Pence, his aides, and staff were locked out of their offices in the capitol complex during the insurrection because their access badges had been DEACTIVATED the morning of the attack, according to sources familiar with the incident

Thanks to @Rod Mesa for the original post.

This, if true, is yet more evidence of Trump's attempted coup on Jan 6, 2021.

But it won't matter because the truth doesn't matter. What matters is what's good for the rich. Everything we believe about "equal justice under the law" in the US a is fiction crafted to keep us happy, malleable, and vulnerable.

The American fiction: There's a bad guy and there's a good guy. The good guy stands up to the bad guy, the good guy wins, and the bad guy ends up dead or in prison. (This is the plot of most American movies.)

This fiction is carefully crafted to instill in us a sense that justice prevails. And more importantly, that some abstract hero makes it prevail: "Yes, there is evil in the world," the narrative goes, "but some hero will always rise to protect the innocent."

The dual fictions of justice and a hero make us complacent and compliant. "I don't need to do anything because Superman or Batman (or whoever; AOC, maybe?) will do it for me."

This belief on our part is extremely useful to those who would victimize us because it makes us passive: "Someone else will take care of this."

The American reality: There's a rich guy. He wants to get richer. He victimizes everyone around him (where "around him" increasingly means "occupying the same planet"). He gets away with it, in part because he and the other rich guys have a quiet "gentleman's" agreement. (I use the pronoun "he" here because it's mostly true, although admittedly not universally true. Some of the rich evil assholes are women.)

The people we have elected to protect us from the rich guys are, themselves, all rich guys.

The reality is No one is looking out for us, the 99.99%. If anyone is going to take care of us, it is going to have to be us.

To wit: Look at how the Jan. 6th insurrectionists are being treated. Look at how Trump (a traitor and fascist who attempted a coup) is being treated. Look at how Bannon is being treated. Look at how all these rich co-conspirators are being treated. They are treated with kid gloves, and not a single one of them will serve a nanosecond in jail, much less prison. There is no justice in the US, only the fiction of justice. And that fiction is used more often than not to oppress and enslave people who are already victimized by our society.

I don't know what we should do about this (and if I did, I sure as hell wouldn't say it on social media), but Americans need to wake up to the reality that their "representative government" does not represent them. Increasingly, it doesn't even pretend to.

#CultureWar #USA #Culture #Fiction #Oligarchy #Plutocracy #Propaganda #BrainWashing

https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1458139441151705091.html