Their reactions are conditioned, their minds molded, their views determined and their brains addled... daily and nightly for their entire lives.
Naturally and thankfully there are those who miraculously escape this conditioning... but sadly a very sizeable number, most likely the majority, do not.
The mythologies used to create a compliant population are many and they are so prevalent they almost seem to permeate the very air itself. Symbols like the ubiquitous flag are used along with words to constantly reinforce the messages of the state and corporate mainstream. It is both subtle and insidious. The end result is not only deep internal programming that keeps out any interfering realities, it also serves to castigate and denigrate all those attempting to enlighten the brainwashed, categorizing them as traitors and puppets of some state-chosen enemy.
It starts early. Saluting the flag. It continues with a sanitized history of the USA. Bold pilgrims, founding fathers of impeccable integrity. The genocide of the native population and the evils of slavery are given passing lip-service. The happy smile, we are lucky Americans living in the greatest society, higher and better and more just, more Godly and with the best of everything... these are the memes, narratives and constant teachings that permeate nascent American brains.
Later, the not quite bright but youthfully enthusiastic college students get offered patriotic careers in the U.S. military, a chance to serve, to go to interesting foreign nations and kill brown-faced people there... or simply monitor them for any anti-American thoughts or deeds.
But the main culprits in the propaganda soup America swims in are the politicians and the mass media news broadcasters. In combination and separately these two deliver direct hand-crafted bullshit direct to American eyes and ears, daily, nightly 24/7.
Much of the output of U.S. mass media is on the basis of creations by the fully conditioned. As Noam Chomsky has pointed out, these so-called journalists are not necessarily knowingly spreading lies, they don’t consciously spread propagandizing narratives... they are simply the people whose minds were found to fit. Those with truly inquiring minds that would have done real objective-style journalism were rejected at interview... too much potential trouble for the corporate sponsors and owners... too likely to rock the boat. So, you have CNN, MSNBC and others who generate the kind of reinforcing pap with their talking heads toeing the usual line where all that America’s elites do is done with the noblest intentions possible and that if thousands die in the process and nations fractured reducing their populations to abject misery then it must have been a mistake and we’ll do better next time.
The USA with its population held within a consent-giving uniformity to its military ambitions and interventions is like a constantly primed missile ready and waiting for the command to “Fire!” Those who suggest the U.S. stand down are looked at askance as possible enemy agents. Anyone anti-war, opposed to the USA strutting the world stage killing perceived enemies, undermining, invading and infiltrating other nations must surely be a traitor to his or her country. Who could POSSIBLY criticize America?
Well, the people of Vietnam, Korea, Latin America, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria and Yemen might have something to whisper in American ears about that.
But would those Americans completely sold on the concept of America doing good in the world hear them?
What are the chances... in a nation so overwhelmingly living within and believing in its environment of bullshit, brainwashing and bias?
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