You Are Brainwashed - Is There No Escape?

As I was studying the chemistry of how metals react with other elements, I decided I need to go tell everyone something a bit more important. I'll try to make this brief because there is a lot to this so I'll cut to the chase.

You and I, and indeed the average ATSer who likely believes themselves to be the upper echelon of the intellectual elite of this world, are clearly just as easy to brainwash as the typical person who does not ponder so many topics.

As you peel back the layers of the conspiracy to control the minds and behaviors of the peoples of the world, you will begin to realize that even you too have been hooked into various forms of conditioning that The Powers That Be (TPTB) have worked very hard to bring to fruition over the last century.

This conditioning is diverse and affects us on every mental front from every direction. It isn't just political propaganda or corporate public relations, it isn't just social engineering, it goes all the way to the core of who we believe we are and what we believe we seek in life itself.

Some of the well known pioneers of brainwashing techniques are Ivan Pavlov, who learned how to elicit "conditioned reflexes" from subjects (famously for Pavlov, it was dogs). We also have B. F. Skinner who did many well known experiments in "operant conditioning".

Operant Conditioning is how through the use of consequences or rewards, we are conditioned to behave certain ways. Respondant Conditioning is when a powerful stimulus is used in conjunction with a formerly neutral or ignored stimulus to create a specific response when the subject is presented with the new stimulus that it formerly did not respond to. Our society is founded upon these concepts.

Our own common language reveals this - "TRIGGERED!" is a perfect example. To be triggered by something you must be first conditioned to do so. Who conditioned the subject? These things don't happen by accident.

ATS is the place where we stand up and shout "You are all brainwashed!" and then present the audience with a conspiracy theory to impress them with some information that they may not have known previously and then give each other high fives, because we see ourselves as "the awakened" types. How many times have you told someone "Wake Up!" ?

Did you realize that because we are trapped in a seemingly endless labyrinth of mental cages where we have been conditioned and our consciousnesses molded by the rest of our society, that you and I are brainwashed in all sorts of ways right now?

Sure, the political debates on ATS are great examples of how we are very brainwashed and it sure makes the argument that we are largely mind controlled by the media to sound all too feasible. But I'm here to tell you it's everything. Religion, technology, inter-personal relations, culture like music or theatrical performance, video games, the fact we are complicit in the destruction of the environment by participating in wasteful practices, the very cloths we wear and the products we use hygienically to clean ourselves.

There is one Fact here I can assure you of, and I certainly hope that you will take this seriously and reflect deeply upon as you move forward in your life:



Most of you will think that this graphic expresses the concept succinctly:



But it's so much bigger than that. It's everything.

Did you really want to have sex with that person?
Did you really want to eat a candy bar? Why that one specifically?
Is that really your favorite car?
Does that music you like really help you identify your own feelings even though you probably never even met the artists that composed it?
Are you really a Rebel? Do you really think outside of the box?

What if I told you - maybe not.
Maybe we are fickle creatures with easily manipulated subconscious minds, maybe the things that we think make us happy or entertain us or make us feel good are constructed for us by our masters? Who are our masters? Are we so foolish that perhaps we need a master?

You may have been led to believe that this is how brainwashing happens:


But that's ridiculous, this is how brainwashing happens in real life:


Everyone's having a great time. The best form of controlling your perceptions and ideas and feelings and what your resulting behaviors are is not through torture - it's through pleasure. If you smile when you do as you're programmed, than you will gladly continue.

Oh but not you? You broke out of the box already did you?
Ok, since there are 3 types of people,




Edward Bernays, one of the founders of modern public relations (aka propaganda), wrote some fascinating books that you ought to at least glance at.

Crystallizing Public Opinion and Propaganda being some of the best known.

Brainwashing is a tool, a technique that can be used to reach a goal. It may be used for good or evil. It can be used for selfish reasons or selfless ones. Each person who guides others or conditions them to do something they want them to do decides why they are doing this, and what purpose they wish to be served. Maybe some brainwashing is good, perhaps most is not.

Please read this article for additional articulation about types of manners that people are brainwashed into. It's not a perfect source of information, none are, but it's a decent idea of different ways you and I are brainwashed everyday. I found it in a few minutes of searching keywords. I'm in a hurry tonight.
Brainwashing Mind Control Techniques

I invite all ATSers to come into this thread if they'd like and to discuss how we are brainwashed, and hopefully this thread will go on for days with a lot of really good contributions. I will add some stuff I've found over the last few months in here after I go back through my search history over the next few days to give some good information worth noting.

If you want to discuss MK Ultra or Monarch, that's fine, but I'd like us to explore a wider range of this topic. Let's talk about things like how modern apps (especially video games) are brainwashing tools being cleverly advertised to hook us and get us addicted and convince us to open wallets.

I bet most of you are not filthy rich yet you are blowing your money on things you don't need. Brand name products, entertainment sources, alcohol or pharmaceuticals, even local events like parades or sporting games. Why exactly do we do this?

It's because we are brainwashed and controlled.

Please watch this video about how social media and new video game design and marketing techniques are being used to brainwash people and there is even a clip halfway in of an industry expert explaining what things will look like in just a few years, where "points" are connected through all sorts of products and advertisements become part of all of the excitement and "fun". Let me be the first to say, collecting points ain't that fun, it's farming. We are sheep on the wolves' farm.



This is a really good video. The Corbett Report is a fairly good series with a lot of critical thinking and an open source model where you can become interactive similar to how ATS operates.

I will link more videos as the days go on in this thread that are very informative and discuss all sorts of things such as psychology experiments or historical events where conditioning is apparent and critical in determining how those historical events played out - and indeed our perceptions and opinions about those events.

Think of those old songs you love.
Why do you love them?

Did you know that one type of hypnosis is repeating something over and over?
If you played that song 100 times, maybe you only like it because it's what you know.
That song could have been any song after all - couldn't it?
How do you know?

Peer pressure, love bombing, denouncing older values, creating complex lectures on confusing doctrine to make it sound good by using buzzwords and catchy phrases, verbal abuse for those who don't conform, cultural phenomenons, blaming others for our ills, economic dependence, stop asking questions what's wrong with you?

Let's criticize you for trying to over-analyze this, we just want to watch the game. I don't buy into Budweiser propaganda, I drink microbrewery products I'm not a sheeple even though I am still blowing my money on things for all the wrong reasons just like that propaganda suggested I do.

Those are just some examples.
The whole world is and has been brainwashed, and it's only getting more and more intense.
That's why things are the way they are right now.
That's why ATS is the way it is right now.
Brainwashing.

It's that simple folks.

a reply to: muzzleflash

Your topic should be top of the list for all who visit this forum.
I was so glad that your second paragraph began with ''You and i''

a reply to: TerryMcGuire
Down to simple little games that you can get for free.
When one scores a point, the invisible audience claps and cheers and scream '''awesome'' to make us feel good and keep playing.

a reply to: muzzleflash

Tread softly... You were telling us only a week ago how you found the 'way' and so many are so happy for you.

Don't regress.

Remember - when you are on the right path - is when you get attacked the most.

Stay strong MF...

peace

originally posted by: TerryMcGuire
a reply to: TerryMcGuire
Down to simple little games that you can get for free.
When one scores a point, the invisible audience claps and cheers and scream '''awesome'' to make us feel good and keep playing.

And what do you really accomplish?

A cheap thrill for doing something that amounts to nothing.

Clap.
Clap.
Clap.

Be well TMG.

peace

a reply to: muzzleflash

Is There No Escape?

Yep, there sure is. Turn off, logoff & tune out.

Personally I don't expose myself to TV much, and when I do, it is for the most part, channels that have no ads and programs that actually have meaningful substance in their content. Occasionally I listen to the radio but only to channels with no ads, for the most part I just listen to music.

Interestingly, I see and hear the brain washing that you're talking about. Normally when it happens I'll usually comment to myself something along the lines of;

WTF are you banging on about you #ing weirdo.

And then I'll invariably turn off, logoff or tune out.

originally posted by: silo13

originally posted by: TerryMcGuire
a reply to: TerryMcGuire
Down to simple little games that you can get for free.
When one scores a point, the invisible audience claps and cheers and scream '''awesome'' to make us feel good and keep playing.

And what do you really accomplish?

A cheap thrill for doing something that amounts to nothing.


Clap.
Clap.
Clap.

Be well TMG.

peace

Yeppers. Hand in hand with brainwashing is, brain-numbing.

a reply to: myselfaswell

That's when they win though.

The minute we think we got out of the box we congratulate ourselves.

But this is like the Russian Doll scheme. We are in boxes that are in boxes that are in boxes. Our cage contains many layers.

In fact, I'm not sure there is an "outside" anymore.

Tell me, what are your goals in life? What do you do during the average day? Where do you spend your money? You do use money right?

Hopefully these questions will spur you to look more closely in that mirror. You don't have to answer to me - I just want you to answer this for yourself.

Question yourself.
That is the skeleton key that will unlock all the doors. And there are seemingly countless doors.

This is not something that can be answered in one post or even a day. Not even in years will you, I, or anyone figure it all out.

Maybe those who play along and don't question things are the luckiest of us all? Maybe not. It's hard to say...

originally posted by: silo13
a reply to: muzzleflash

Tread softly... You were telling us only a week ago how you found the 'way' and so many are so happy for you.

Don't regress.

Remember - when you are on the right path - is when you get attacked the most.

Stay strong MF...

peace

Did I say that?
Hmmmmmm
Hahahahah

Fantastic post, OP! Yes, we are all brainwashed in one way or the other.

In philosophy, there are people who think that babies are born with "Tabula Rasa", or a "blank slate", and they are everything that their environment imprints upon them. Because my major was neuro-psych, I realized that a great deal of our behavior is either hereditary or hard-wired from the start.

Why do babies, with no experience, freak out over snakes, spiders, and faces that do not look like humans or animals? This is not conditioned, this is confirmed with very young infants who have yet to be exposed to these creatures. It's hard-wired in.

I believe that humans will tend to stick together because we tend to be pack animals that know there is safety in numbers. Because of this hard-wired urge to be together, there is also a hard-wired urge to not behave in ways that will get us shunned or driven away from the safety and security of the group.

This has long been known and is being exploited on so many levels right now it blows what's left of my mind.

Remember the commercials about a decade ago, showing everybody just groovin' along shopping with their debit and credit cards, and then one person uses cash and everything stops, and he is shamed and shunned? Conditioning. Ever notice that when people dress the way they want, and not what is in style, they are made fun of and shunned? When I read the classic book "Walden Two" about a place where people could be who they really are, and wear whatever style they wanted, no matter from what decade or time, the thought blew my mind! I personally love clothes from the 20s. How would I look and how would I be treated if I wore fun clothes from the 20s? Laughed at, shunned, asked if I thought it was Halloween, etc.

It turns out humans are exceptionally easy to brainwash because of our deep-seated, hard-wired need to be part of the group. This is how bullies flourish, even though everybody knows it's wrong.

I had a most interesting class in college about studying commercials....everything from colors used, camera angles, etc. If the camera angle is down on a person, we automatically assume that person is inferior or weaker, hence the many camera angles looking down on women as opposed to straight on (although this is changing). The camera angles for men were usually looking up at them, making them look stronger and more in charge.

There are a million ways to train our brains and they start it very early. It is our biggest weakness and the reason why we keep screwing things up. The cure is awareness. Forcing people to actually THINK while they are watching the idiot box. Forcing them to ask WHY they like or don't like certain things. Most people are sleeping, worse than ever now. Social media is a social engineer's dream. Tell people what is bad and what is good, and squash those who don't agree.

We all have this weakness that comes from the need to survive in a harsh environment that doesn't seem to be made for humans. Because this need is so deep in our brains (I want to say it comes from the deep reptilian part), only by constantly questioning and serious attempts to look at things in a different way do we even have a chance of escaping this sheep corral we all live in.

Even ATS rewards us with stars, or doesn't, depending on what is said and how many agree or disagree, thereby brainwashing us even farther. It will always be there to some degree....which is kind of a bummer if you think about it.

Just my 8 cents, adjusted for inflation.

a reply to: muzzleflash

Brainwashed then conditioned?

MK Ultra, because your worthless.

Sorry I couldn't help myself...

We're all brainwashed, but then I do hate that term. In reality it's more about our subconscious instinct, our programming is hackable, these are well established facts now with plenty of history available to anyone who has Internet or can visit a library.

We can't be pervious to it, because it appeals to our very character, our makeup. Everything we do goes by a conscious and subconscious programme, the programme can be rewritten.

The last US election had people designing algorithms so that machines could work out how you're programmed and thus manipulate what you see so that a tailor-made programme was made for individuals, with extreme success I might add.

See, the problem with brainwashing or "reprogramming" is that some people don't react well to it, sometimes it just doesn't work as intended. Some people can receive full telemetry but show nothing on the screen.

Some people can refuse to turn the set on and watch the show. Why? I can't really say, or maybe I just won't :p

But realistically, you can't defeat the influences upon your life. You can however learn to accept and choose how to react to them. It's difficult but gets easier with time.

Being a human is like being hooked on drugs, we crave so much. Acceptance, companionship, non-violence etc. All of this can be "hacked" and when it does it usually involves emotion. Upping our heroin addiction to a crack one.

How not to be brainwashed?

Don't take part. Stop being human or ultimately be at peace with all. These are against the very thing we are... Human.

a reply to: muzzleflash

Tell me, what are your goals in life? What do you do during the average day? Where do you spend your money? You do use money right?

In the first instance I'm here to live a life, which is the whole point of being here.

Where do you spend your money

More importantly is what I spend my money on. Recently I've just gotten into home brewing, so I've dropped a bit of cash into that.

I suppose one thing you should know is that I live on reasonable acreage in a very rural area, I don't really get exposed to the same amount of sh!t that most other people get.

Fortunately trees don't put up advertising boards.

a reply to: FissionSurplus

Awesome post Fission! (I'm conditioning you to post like this more often)

Do you think the biologically hardwired responses, like a baby kitten fearing a hawk, was hardwired in by hundreds of generations of environmental experience?

I wonder how that would work?

And your comment about stars n flags here at ATS is all too true. Peer pressure is a massive factor in molding our posts and characters here.

It's all so fascinating.

Rather than freeing ourselves, we are more like the slaves that dream about and whisper of freedom. We still aren't there yet, and in fact, in some ways, the walls are closing in and the windows out are being boarded up.

I lament the notion that death may be our only true escape from these prisons we devised for ourselves - and I say may because if we aren't careful death too could just be yet another cage awaiting us...

A certain amount of conditioning is necessary so that a society works. Presently, they have been screwing up royally with the conditioning, they are more worried about protecting this type of corrupt economy than having a stable society with a stable economy. I think our government should can all the people they have governing this conditioning, it was way better forty to fifty years ago.

I try to analyze whether this brainwashing is necessary, and some is. The amount going on is not even fathomable to most people. Some of this deception has been going on for a hundred years and is part of our society. We are even taught a little white lie is good many times. As to not upset others. So we let them go along with their delusion and wind up loosing money instead of telling our friends they should not do something, let them make their own mistakes.

I have taken apart everyday practices that have been going on for generations and trying to find how they started, right down to the smooth beating of mashed potatos with a beater, started by the beater companies to promote sales of their products. Right down to present with revesterol evidence being used to boost sale of products.

This country is one scam after another, we have been conditioned well over generations to believe things that are not relevant or real. American society is an illusion created over generations.

a reply to: RAY1990

Yes good points.

We are hooked on drugs essentially.

In our brains various chemicals are produced, and we become addicted to them. Society uses that against us. Ultimately we are all victims of ourselves.

We crave things. It can be insatiable at times. A few weeks ago I wanted a milkshake for some reason and went way outta my way to go find one. I thought about what caused me to do this for a long time. I was absolutely set on getting one. I've gone a very long time without even thinking about milkshakes much less consuming one.

Earlier today I was craving someone to talk to. I just suddenly went into withdrawals and dropped all of my work and went to go find a "friend". I didn't even remember what I wanted to talk about. I just felt better saying hi and having human contact. I avoid people usually lol. This too was very uncommon behavior for me.

That's how I know I too am trapped. I needed my fix. It involved some serious emotions and deep reflection.

a reply to: muzzleflash

I'm not sure classic conditioning can be equated with brainwashing. Brainwashing presupposes an evil architect who conditions our thoughts and so on. But looking around I see no one doing that. And if we all are brainwashed surely the TPTB are as well.

Perhaps the sad part is, though people try, no human has that sort of power. The world is rutterless.

a reply to: rickymouse

Great post Ricky!

I didn't know that about the beaters, but it sounds plausible, hahah.

Yep, America is a house of cards. Lies built upon lies. Well at this point, the whole world is. Maybe it always was?

I agree some form of conditioning is required to operate a civilization properly, and even the anarchists cannot escape that fact.

That's why I left open the question. All tools can be used for good or evil. In our present reality it's usually the latter I'd say.

a reply to: muzzleflash

Is kind of 2012 out dated but some of the information is related to society programming and or washing brains/brainwashing those of us influencable with esoteric symbolism...




en.m.wikipedia.org...