Great write-up by @annaleen on the modern history of the pseudoscience of "brainwashing" and how it has been (/tried to be) used for mostly nefarious ends.
We can say this "psychopolitics" is part and parcel of what the great political scientist Richard Hofstadter termed the "paranoid style in American politics".
Awesome to see a mention of Liang Qichao and how his term "xinao" (wash-brain) which meant modernization was usurped and became a negative connotation. He was one of the great early reformers who wanted to modernize Chinese philosophy by seeking a radical break from Confucianism. Pankaj Mishra's "From the ruins of empire" does a great job of his intellectual response to western imperialism in remaking Asia.
First time also hearing/reading about "stochastic terrorism".
I was thinking about the present conditions of #India when I suddenly thought of revisiting this #movie by #SatyajitRay. "Hirak Rajar Deshe" (In the Land of the Diamond-King). Its portrayal of moving to dictatorial rule is dangerously accurate.
I really wanted to share this#song from the #film. It is in #bengali so I shall provide a translation.
I see such funny things in the world.
Everywhere I look, I am confused beyond words.
I can't make sense of this world.
Oh brother!
Look at the good fellows stuck in their dilapidated homes.
The evil one ascends the throne.
The wheat farmer can't manage two square meals.
The diamond mine's labours are living in poverty.
Oh Brother, how funny is our world!
#Brainwashing#Propaganda#Psychology: "The fantasy of brainwashing was always one of optimization. Military experts knew that adversaries could be broken with torture, but it took months and was often a violent, messy process. A fast, scientifically informed interrogation method would save time and could potentially be deployed on a mass scale. In 1953, that dream led the CIA to invest millions of dollars in MK-Ultra, a project that injected cash into university and research programs devoted to memory wiping, mind control, and “truth serum” drugs. Worried that their rivals in the Soviet Union and China were controlling people’s minds to spread communism throughout the world, the intelligence community was willing to try almost anything to fight back. No operation was too weird."
Oliver Willis on what some liberals just don't get about Fox News, as they urge Democrats to accept invitations to appear there:
"Fact checking doesn’t work on this mindset. Neither do snappy phrases or well-crafted messaging. Nothing does. It is a lost cause. And the overwhelming majority of Fox’s audience is knee deep in this mindset, thanks to hundreds of millions of dollars spent by Rupert Murdoch over 25-plus years."
In Brainwashing, Kathleen Taylor brings the worlds of neuroscience and social psychology together for the first time. In elegant and accessible prose, and with abundant use of anecdotes and case-studies, she examines the ethical problems involved in carrying out the required experiments on humans, the limitations of animal models, and the frightening implications of such research.
The global risks due to misinformation and disinformation may be more than that posed by climate-related risks such as the loss of biodiversity and ecosystem collapse.
On 10th January 2024, Global Risks Report 2024 was published. While climate-related hazards remain a prevalent topic, the report identifies misinformation and disinformation as the most serious short-term threat.
According to the report
"foreign and domestic actors alike will leverage misinformation and disinformation to widen societal and political divides" during the next two years. This risk is heightened by a huge number of upcoming elections, with more than 3 billion people expected to vote in 2024 and 2025, including in major economies such as the United States, India, and the United Kingdom. The proliferation of mis- and disinformation around the world may cause civil upheaval, but it may also lead to government-led censorship, internal propaganda, and restrictions on the free flow of information.
Though the climate-related risks represent 5 of the top 10 threats during a 10-year period as the world approaches or crosses "climate tipping points", I believe misinformation and disinformation will continue to be ranked among top three risks much beyond the next two years. There is apparently no short term contingency plans and long term mitigation plans apart from effective role of independent fact-checking organizations. I do not know how these fact-checking organizations can deal with the assault of bad actors using Generative AI (including deepfakes) that will dominantly contribute to misinformation and disinformation by flooding the global information systems with false narratives in future. Misinformation and disinformation will also aggravate climate related risks. According to a research done by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies, we have "reached the tipping point where humans are unable to meaningfully differentiate between AI-generated versus human-created digital content." I am convinced that Zero Trust Information is the right paradigm in this age of ChatGPT, Google Bard and Bing chatbot for regular end users.
Journalist Harini Calamur's article titled "Analysis: The Unbearable Risk of Misinformation" is worth reading. She expresses her deep concerns regarding misinformation and highlights the following.> The rise of misinformation and disinformation as a primary global risk underscores the danger it poses to individuals, societies, and economies. It needs to be addressed with the seriousness it deserves.
The fact that misinformation and propaganda existed even in the Roman Empire and prior to the battle of Actium during 31 BC between Octavian and Mark Antony, shows that the perils of misinformation and disinformation are here to stay with us for ever. Disinformation is a subset of misinformation that is spread intentionally.
The paper titled "The psychological drivers of misinformation belief and its resistance to correction" discusses in great detail regarding why people share misinformation, barriers to belief revision, information to combat misinformation and related practical implications for practitioners, information consumers and policymakers. There is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all answer. In addition to regulations without curbing freedom of speech (which does not include amplification of that speech), the authors suggest that the most important approach to slowing the spread of misinformation is substantial investment in education, particularly to build information literacy skills in schools and beyond.
Overall, solutions to misinformation spread must be multi-pronged and target both the supply (for example, more efficient fact-checking and changes to platform algorithms and policies) and the consumption (for example, accuracy nudges and enhanced media literacy) of misinformation. Non-text-based corrections, such as videos or cartoons, also deserve more exploration. Additional transnational research is needed to explore questions about causality, including the causal impacts of misinformation and corrections on beliefs and behaviors.
Crowdfunded news portals, which are based on donation from individuals while maintaining high stands of accountability and transparency, are a relatively new phenomenon in the media landscape. These new generation news portals have several potential advantages like financial independence, public engagement and diverse content and content creation outside of mainstream media scope.
And if you don't like Al Jazeera source - there's over 100 vids from other sources showing exact same #brainwashed#idolatry over a freaking COLD BLOODED #RACIST#MURDERER.
So an expert on brainwashing is saying that Civility and High Road bullshit doesnt work on cultists?
Duh
You know what does work on people in fight or flight mode?
FUCKING FEAR
If the Nazis understand if they keep being nazis we will strip their goddamn citizenship and catapult them over the Bearing Straight to Russia then they might go back in the Nazi closet
So many shady orgs cynically presenting child abuse as an "online problem" & peddling expanded surveillance as the solution while counting on the unpleasant emotional weight of the topic to distract us frm demanding evidence re claims that surveillance helps kids (there's none).
Pam Hemphill, who served a brief prison sentence for her crimes (trespassing, interupting official proceedings) on Jan. 6, has now turned on Trump for lying to her and others who have been "brainwashed" and are part of his "cult." She's requesting a chance to testify under oath about what happened on Jan. 6 and takes full responsibility for her bad choices. She says the capitol police saved her life that day.
Let's play this out to the end: there's one reason why the existence of people who aren't like you bothers you so much that you feel like they won't leave you "in peace."
And that's because you don't want to accept them into society alongside you.
I said what I wish for.
I already spent too much time on the persona non grata on the #BorgSite.
Of course they can (and will) come here to spread their venom.
#FakeNews, #propaganda, and #brainwashing are great dangers for free and open societies.
I would argue that a big part of the #US population is already lost to central tenets of #democracy...
#2022 was a lot to process, friends. There’s a reason for that.
We are experiencing a full-spectrum cognitive #warfare assault designed to subvert #democracy through fear, trauma, intimidation, coercion and #brainwashing — in order to create the conditions for #authoritarianism and, ultimately, #genocide.
Where's the archive for the comics about this character?
https://knowyourmeme.com/photos/2317453-ideal-gf...