Who is Brainwashing Whom?

[3A CCCP]

Contrary to what has been pounded into your head since day one, the Communist Party is not planning to confiscate your home or your personal possessions. It also has no desire to brainwash you and morph you into a faceless, unthinking robot that exists only to do the bidding of some unseen master. Ironically, to one degree or another, that has already been done to most Americans by the United States news and informational media.

The average American’s knee-jerk reaction to my last statement is usually something like, “Nonsense! The U.S. has a free press and news media that tells us the truth.”

Yes, the press and TV news media is independent of governmental control and in private hands. But, the very fact that the informational services are in private hands should make you question the veracity of what they report and in whose interests this information is disseminated.

All American “mainstream” newspapers, printed periodicals, television networks, and radio stations are owned, controlled, and operated by the RICH. It’s irrelevant whether these are held as corporations, partnerships, or are under the ownership of a single wealthy individual.
The fact remains that the very rich, who comprise about 1% of the population of the United States, own and control 100% of the means of production of the news and information that Americans read, see, and hear.

You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to understand that the information and news that are disseminated by the wealthy owners of the mass media industry are going to be presented in a manner to bolster and support their own class and economic interests. And, despite what they tell you, those interests are diametrically opposed to the interests of Americans like you and me who are in a daily struggle trying to keep up with rent or mortgage payments, ever rising gasoline prices, skyrocketing health care costs, etc., etc.

I understand that this may be difficult to swallow and may be rejected by many readers. But, the truth of the matter is that the American people have NEVER been the recipients of objective, unbiased information from the “mainstream” mass media industry. All the news and information dispensed to the American public is rife with omissions, half-truths, and bald faced lies that skew everything to support the positions of the wealthy 1% and slander their class enemy - the Communists!!!

Think about all this the next time you wake up in the morning and find yourself inexplicably hating Communists and Socialism. Do you dislike Communists because you have read and disagree with our program and ideas? Or, do you dislike Communists and Socialism because you have been CONDITIONED to have these feelings?

3A CCCP!
Mikhail

[cappin]

Yup.

[The Intransigent Faction]

Bravo, comrade. Yes. Anyone who believes in the objectivity of a privately controlled media needs to shut off their TV and go and find the facts that debunk mainstream corporate media/bourgeois government media's major assertions.

[Bastable]

Sad but true:(...

[Red Equation]

The media is definitely lies, and the government almost always keep all their information hidden.

[Rollo]

This reminds me of my life growing up, I always knew what communism was, basically there was a man who controlled every aspect of your life and you had to wait in line for hours to get a sausage and a potato. I also knew that Cuba was a horrible place to live, everybody there was dying or sick and that Fidel Castro denied his people the basic freedoms of life. What those freedoms were I had no idea, but apparently Cubans never had them.

It was almost hard programmed into me, via cartoons, the radio and many other things, I specifically remember a tv show about Cuba that showed all the people homeless and living in rags in a swampy area, not too different from New Orleans after Katrina, later I found out that was exactly it - Cuba after a large hurricane.

It's no big secret we're brainwashed and lied to by our governments, I'm sure many of the Australian comrades were told the same tales I was of the heroic captain cook and the first fleet arrived here and heroically fought for the land from the scary Aborigines. Really makes me sick now that I think about it, generations of kids being told white washed versions of the truth. If communism is really as bad as we're always told as kids, why don't they at least teach us about it so we can see first hand how bad it apparently is.

[BIG BROTHER]

I wished all those we think that they know communism, read this.

[Lector Malibu]

Great post and well said

on the subject of brain washing

Here's an eye opener from the Americans circa 1955

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1Eld2OqJBM

Pretty sick

[Fedorov]

Great video Lector, and good post.

[Lector Malibu]

Great video Lector, and good post.

Thankyou Fedorov

It's a hard video for me to watch because that was my parents generation.
And even though people say "The cold war is over" It's not. The capitalist are still using these same propaganda techniques to try and destroy socialism.

[shorelinetrance]

Great post and well said

on the subject of brain washing

Here's an eye opener from the Americans circa 1955

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1Eld2OqJBM

Pretty sick

http://img232.imageshack.us/img232/2269/failuresofamericancapitbt0.jpg

More like failures of american capitalism.

[Psy]

Great post and well said

on the subject of brain washing

Here's an eye opener from the Americans circa 1955

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1Eld2OqJBM

Pretty sick

Hey, I just had an idea that have Mystery Science Theater 3000 type commentaries on these propaganda shorts but with leftist type comments would be pretty cool :)

Anyway here is one from General Motors Round&Round (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLE3NjuCsNI)
I like how they say the capitalist has to pay the workers but that is alright thought because workers need money to buy food, clothing and pay their rent as if they is the only reason why workers get wages. Also notice how they suggest money simply circulates indefinitely and pretend profits don't exist, suggesting profits is just a delay between income and expenses, as they imply everything the capitalist makes will eventually be spent as the capitalist is also a consumer.

[Lector Malibu]

Hey, I just had an idea that have Mystery Science Theater 3000 type commentaries on these propaganda shorts but with leftist type comments would be pretty cool :)

That would be hilarious:lol:


Anyway here is one from General Motors Round&Round (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLE3NjuCsNI)
I like how they say the capitalist has to pay the workers but that is alright thought because workers need money to buy food, clothing and pay their rent as if they is the only reason why workers get wages.

I did notice that. They also said that the factory pays the workers a large sum of money as if the company was really going out on a limb for their employees.


Also notice how they suggest money simply circulates indefinitely and pretend profits don't exist, suggesting profits is just a delay between income and expenses, as they imply everything the capitalist makes will eventually be spent as the capitalist is also a consumer.

When we all know under capitalism the company owners get filthy rich and the workers play catch up their whole lives.

Great film Psy.

[cappin]

That video puts me in such an uneasy place.

On the one hand, the patriotism of americans is admirable, because so many don't realize what they're doing. I once, only 3 years ago, wanted to be an entrepreneur. I took a business and financing class, knowing it was the most promising career move in my economy and I wanted to be at the top, and succeed. What I didn't know was that by becoming a bourgeois monster, I would have to knock down everyone else along the way, and even if the concept approached me, I ignored it because I was focused only on my well being and if everyone else didn't do as good as I did, then fuck them because we all have a chance to fuck each other over and I just happened to work towards doing it better than everybody else, which would have been the case, but I also didn't know that not everyone could afford to go to school and not everyone was hyped up on the idea of economic warfare. I didn't know that I was lied to, and the world wasn't as peachy as it seemed in my nice little school that offered conquest of the poor and unfortunate. I was a beast ready to destroy everything in my path like all the the great capitalists before me. Then I read "Introducing Karl Marx", and I quite literally cried and continually nodded my head as I finally got the truth behind the glamorous life I lived. I had no idea the game I was in and being prepared to carry on was so complicated and outright vicious.

Capitalism, in the innocence of a dream, is sweet, but when applied is disastrous.


Adam Smith theorized "the "invisible hand" of the market, through which the pursuit of individual self-interest unintentionally produces a collective good for society."

It's false. It doesn't work. If you have someone who is in business for pure self interest, it will not necessarily follow with the best interests of everyone else. What kind of logic is that? Since when has being selfish inevitably turned into generosity? It creates master and slave- master gets a mansion; slave gets a hut at master's supposed expense while at the same time the bourgeois has no right or liberty under corrupt law to be master in the first place because the slaves don't need him and would do much better off on their own. Not only does it create this type of aristocracy, but it allows many many competing aristocrats to become greedier and harsher toward their serfs for a more promising leading role in the economy.

[cappin]

We're all pawns in a match. We're brought out and used against an opponent. We're disposable means to an end.

[Lector Malibu]

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v301/Nateskin/IWW-capitalism-pyr.gif

It all boils down to this.

[redSHARP]

I FUCKING LOVE THIS SITE! if everyone read this, the world might be a better place. the propaganda machine is strong, but if you want to see how crazy it is, read any book by Al Franken. he challenges the right wing nazi propaganda machine, plus it is funny as fuck. the right wingers have used their brainwashing to make sure the anything "left" is evil (unions, socialism, liberalism, communism); it all bullshit. this forum site allows anyone to see things in a different lense. kudos to all who are on this site (and not dicks).

[Nietzsche's Ghost]

Great post and well said

on the subject of brain washing

Here's an eye opener from the Americans circa 1955


Pretty sick



Fucking hell that about made me vomit

[AGITprop]

I used to believe, when I was much younger that communists were evil, I used to draw a lot, and the enemy tanks had hammers and sickles on them :) Its amazing how a child growing up in the 90's, years after the Red Scare is so easily conditioned to hate the greatest concept ever to be created by humankind.

Its very sad really.

[gla22]

Same here. I grew up thinking communism=totalitarianism and anarchism=chaos.
The anti-socialist propoganda is strong. The capitalist top 1% have reason to be.

[eyedrop]

This reminds me a bit of the lyric's of an anti-flag song, Anatomy of your enemy.

http://www.lyricsmode.com/lyrics/a/anti_flag/anatomy_of_your_enemy.html




Fourth step: Have the media broadcast only the ruling party's information
This can be done through state run media.
Remember, in times of conflict all for-profit media repeats the ruling party's information, therefore all for-profit media is state-run.

[RedHal]

IMO this is the key issue in understanding why workers in the "Free and Democratic" world go against their class interest and reject any form of radical movements. It's the usual fear tactic that the ruling class leads the ppl to consume and wage wars. Scare them shitless at the prospect of losing their "freedoms". So you can babble on about how horrible capitalism is and maybe get a few books published through some small publishing house, but what is that compared to the 24/7 bombardment, through school and the mass media, of how glorius capitalism is and the horrors of communism.

I think Norman Finkelstein puts it nicely:

How democratic is America given the enormous financial and media powers with a vested interest in maintaining the status quo?
There are contradictory tendencies in American society. There's a huge range of activities that one can engage in that mark it as a quite free society. It's also true to say that the powers that be have so much control over how people think that there are fewer and fewer people make use of the rights and information available to them. So I think that both are true. The amount of control exercised by the ruling elites over the decisions, choices, lifestyles, and so forth of American society mean that many of the rights and information that is available are not accessed. I can say what I wantthe worst that is going to happen to me is that I lose my job. I am not going to get shot or put in a psychiatric hospital..though it is also true to say that if a movement developed which actually tried to use on a mass level the rights available, I suspect there would be substantial repression.

Note the last part of his answer which is very true, any time a movement picks up steam and poses a real threat to the ruling class, that's when the shit hits the fans. An example of this would be the Black Panther Party where many were jailed and even assasinated by the state. Right now there is no mass movement in the first world that poses a serious threat to the ruling class.

[Svante]

brainwashiing:

this i s what is happening.Stephen Harper he jump off George bush lap each morning.then,Harper he go to parliament and meet secret i n committee. at 3PM whn i come home fro m school,i hear sucking sound in Outremont park(i live just litte way from there).later, i see Stephen Harper and Stéphane Dion both leave the park. when night arrive,the office of prime minister announce they will raise taxes. then all Canadiens stand up an d bend over. wait a minute, this aint brainwashin g, this is fucking!
:confused:

[bcbm]

I love it when smug ideologues who think they have all the answers tell me I am a brainwashed idiot. It makes me really receptive to their ideas.

[coda]

Good Post.

<<es, the press and TV news media is independent of governmental control and in private hands. But, the very fact that the informational services are in private hands should make you question the veracity of what they report and in whose interests this information is disseminated.
All American “mainstream” newspapers, printed periodicals, television networks, and radio stations are owned, controlled, and operated by the RICH. It’s irrelevant whether these are held as corporations, partnerships, or are under the ownership of a single wealthy individual.
The fact remains that the very rich, who comprise about 1% of the population of the United States, own and control 100% of the means of production of the news and information that Americans read, see, and hear.>

The US government in the form of the FCC has it's hand jointly down the pants of US tv and radio communications. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Federal_Communications_Commission
http://www.fcc.gov/aboutus.html

[Mariner's Revenge]

To play devil's advocate for a bit, wouldn't a person growing up in a revolutionary culture be brainwashed as well?

[Svante]

To play devil's advocate for a bit, wouldn't a person growing up in a revolutionary culture be brainwashed as well?

yes,brainwashe d i n the truth.this are muc h better then be brainwashed as Lutheran personne i n Catholique province and Jewish girl school down th e street.