Are People Easier to Brainwash Today Than In the Past?
Do you believe that the internet and social media made it easier to manipulate you, and spread misinformation? Is there more misinformation today than in history? I argue the answer is no!
Are you honestly suggesting that we were less open to manipulation when we couldn’t even read and had no direct access to information whatsoever?
I keep having this fiery discussion with my friends:
They claim that since the inception of social media, algorithms, censorship - in one word, the internet - people have become so easy to manipulate and brainwash.
“It has never been so easy to manipulate the masses as it is today, and that is frightening.”My claim is the opposite. While mass manipulation and brainwashing are definitely happening and are widespread, we all now have access to information, opposing opinions, and different sources and are able to make up our own minds like never before in the history of time.
“We have more access to information than ever before to come to our own conclusions.”
I shall argue for this point in this short essay. Let me know what you think in the comments below.
The scale of manipulation
People are being brainwashed and manipulated on a scale never seen before. That’s the claim. It seems true, doesn’t it?
Just look at the USA politics at this very moment. Half the population has been brainwashed that the eighty-year-old realtor/entertainer is some Hitler-like authoritarian figure and that your sex is a choice, not a biological fact. Oh, he’s also Putin’s puppet, a Russian asset, and despite his record for avoiding war, will somehow bring about a nuclear apocalypse.
The other half has been manipulated into believing that the clueless, eternally drunken former DA who plugs knowledge holes with hysterical laughter is a communist who will end capitalism, flood the country with cat-eating Haitians, and turn all children into sequential hermaphrodites while encouraging women of America to murder their babies on the altar of eternal beauty.
We could write a book on all the brainwashing, misinformation, and blatant lies being propagated everywhere. “Fear this, fear that. Hate this, hate that.” But most importantly, “Don’t think with your own head, don’t fact-heck us, and do as you’re told.” We can’t even know how we’ve been brainwashed and manipulated to believe things people with power want us to believe.
It’s a brainwashing extravaganza
Yes, politicians and paid influencers are raping your minds and hearts with ideologies, false claims, and mostly fears every minute of every day you’re connected to your phone, TV, or the internet.
Aren’t I proving my friends' point for them?
They are right about massive brainwashing and manipulation. It’s happening, and no one is immune to it. No, not even people with such immense intelligence and critical thinking skills like you and I.
The sad truth is that being objective is almost impossible. Our brains are pattern-seeking machines and absorb everything they are exposed to, creating mental filters that further distort our perception of things and our ability to judge them objectively.
Here’s the thing - that has always been the case
We were always susceptible to manipulation. We have never been objective. We always believed what we were told.
But here’s the big difference
Today, with the internet and social media, we have the ability and opportunity to do something we never had in the history of time:
We can fact-check almost anything, though the truth remains elusive.
We can hear multiple sides of the argument, not just the central authority and approved experts.
We can unite from all over the world and discuss things and ideas.
When our government claims something, we can argue against it, make fun of it, and offer our opinions.
We have access to all the knowledge humanity possesses if we only take the time to seek it.
It is almost impossible for the government or some dictator to completely cut us off from the world, preventing us from access to at least seeing what else is out there.
But it’s worse now!
It feels worse, but is it really?:
You have always been utterly brainwashed and manipulated. You just didn’t know it because you didn’t have access to counterpoints, facts, information, and the whole freaking world showing you a different way.
You thought everything you heard, read, or were told was the truth and didn’t question it. After all, the experts, journalists, and politicians must know something you don’t know. You had no tools to question them and make different conclusions.
Who was the information gatekeeper of old?
A stroll down history lane:
Not long ago, only government-approved newspapers, TV, and radio channels were available. This is where we got most of our information, apart from books.
Further back, humans were contained in villages, small cities, and even tinnier communities. Where did we get our information then? From the postmen, traveling know-it-alls, community leaders, and priests. Most of it was “word-of-mouth,” and we all know how reliable those are.
One hundred years ago, only 20% of the world's population was literate (could read). In Western countries, this number was around 50-90%. Go back one hundred more years, and the number halves to 10% globally, mostly held up because of Europe, where literacy was about 20-50%.
Are you honestly suggesting that we were less open to manipulation when we couldn’t even read? How about when we only had one government-approved channel for all information, kings, village leaders, and priests to tell us what to think? Your Honor, I rest my case!
Proof of historical manipulation and brainwashing?
I wouldn’t even know where to begin, but here are a few extremes that were only possible because of massive brainwashing done by those in power:
The always popular Hitler and his Nazi party. Hitler managed to manipulate all of Germany into a hate-fueled massacre that still horrifies us some 70 years later. How do you think he achieved that? Did people just wake up one day and begin hating all that was non-Arian, blame Jews for their problems, and decide to murder them all? Hardly. It was a long and thorough psychological warfare that resulted in a nation or five willing to do heinous acts in the name of a flawed ideology they were brainwashed with.
Fun fact: did you know how the USA deliberately manipulated Europeans about how great the USA was using leaflets and pamphlets sent by the Office of War Information (OWI) and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), both predecessors of today’s CIA? Quite successfully, I might add. Most Europeans looked up to the American Dream, as illusionary thought it may have been, while we suffered lack and oppression. Then, we brainwashed ourselves into American culture by watching almost exclusively American movies and shows and listening to their music.
Communism in the Soviet Union was a similar brainchild of revolutionaries with excellent propaganda skills. Kill the rich, take power from the elites, and let’s all be brothers or comrades, living under the same (shitty) conditions happily ever after. Sounds good, but that doesn’t explain how Soviet Communisms managed to murder, directly and indirectly, a few dozen million of their own people! No, brainwashing and manipulation do.
The above holds true for most ideologically driven political options that attracted the loyalty of millions while we struggle to understand how they could possibly have been this evil. They weren’t evil—they were just brainwashed into believing they were the good guys and the rest were the baddies. They believed their leaders since they couldn’t fact-check them and didn’t have access to outside information. Then, after the fact, all the leaders needed was to instill fear to discourage opposition, and the rest is history.
How about religions? Darlings, no one is born religious. That’s not a thing. Religions are born from brainwashing the masses with ideas grander than they, promises of afterlife reward, and threatening punishment for disobedience. Keep in mind that people didn’t even know how to read when most religions took over, nor were they allowed to read the “sacred texts.” There were silly little puppets for those pretending to be anointed by an all-powerful being in the sky and had no choice but to trust their words. How many new religions have been established and massively adopted in the modern era? Very few? Care to guess why?
I believe I’ve made my point
Yes, manipulation and brainwashing are rampant in today’s society, enhanced by technology and interconnectedness. But this same technology is also the antidote, which is why keeping it as independent and free as possible is imperative to prevent similar ideologies and one-sided politics from taking over.
As we can see, today's elites are no better than those of the past. They will use any tool at their disposal to ensure popularity, obedience, and power.
Truth and objectivity aren’t even a consideration for them. Left unchecked, they will send us on the fronts to fight their wars, turn us against our brothers and sisters, and label all of their opposition as evil demons needing to be destroyed. Some things never change.
Technology enables these mental parasites to infect our brains, but it’s also what stands in their way.
Most people will never think with their own heads
It’s not in their nature. They need to trust and crave to be led. Technology didn’t change that. It just enabled those who aren’t as gullible the ability to think for themselves and get the information themselves, even when it goes against their leaders' ideologies and desires.
We suffer because of this interconnectedness through technology, but we also gain so much. Yes, the tyrant wannabes have more manipulation tools, but we also have more information tools available to combat them.
I believe it is and will remain a net positive, and we will find a balance and adapt in due time. Yes, I choose to be an optimist because being a pessimist sucks. How about you?
I am a free-speech absolutist
I am convinced that our ability to communicate our opinions, information, and ideas openly is paramount to our freedom and autonomy and is the only tool we have to prevent authoritarians from completely taking over our minds and lives, as they could in the past. I am willing to die on this hill!
Yes, there are problems with absolute free speech, but they are mostly minor, and contained to feelings getting hurt and possible isolated incidents.
The far greater, mortal peril, in fact, is in censorship and the ability of any one side to limit information, speech, and ideas from other people. All of the greatest horrors of our collective history began this way!
Therefore, I am willing to take the bad with the good regarding free speech. It is imperative that we never allow any authority to censor our access to information, even when we find it disgusting and vehemently disagree with it. It’s a small price to pay, and we should gladly pay it.
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I think you're right. When I was young, the only way of hearing "unofficial" data was through various oddball organizations that met in big cities. Historical data was only available if you had access to a large college library. Even "unofficial" advice or training was hard to find. When I started work as a typesetter, I had to learn fast on the job. Good training films existed at the time, but I had no way to find them. Now I can just search Youtube and see what I missed.