There is a misunderstanding that brainwashing, a technique of mental and psychological reprogramming conducted in an environment of ideological totalism, is irresistible and permanent. However, social isolation, sensory and sleep deprivation, torture, and psychological manipulation in a dystopian environment do not transform most subjects into passive automatons that are amenable to any and all suggestions.
A far more successful system of thought control and persuasion is described by founders of Critical Race Theory (CRT), who far better understood the psychological motivations required to instill long-lasting and uncompromising cognitive alterations. Their genius was to disguise this obscure, destructive Marxist philosophy by identifying the operational component of CRT with three benign words that appeal to fairness and the fellowship of the human race—diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
Brainwashing and DEI share a spectrum of similar mind-altering practices, including the strict control of word definitions and speech patterns, the emphasis on confession without absolution, the forfeiture of individual identity to the group, and the labeling of detractors in absolute, pejorative terms. But unlike the brainwashing techniques employed in the Chinese prison camps of the 1950s, DEI offers its subjects a sense of belonging and a path to the self-defined moral high ground that has captured the will of millions, who are willing to devote their lives with near religious fervor to the transformation of the world’s institutions.
In 1950 the journalist and CIA operative Eduard Hunter introduced and glamorized the term brainwashing to describe the coercive methods of mind control the Chinese Communists employed against US POWs during the Korean War. His sensational claims of an irresistible form of indoctrination that rendered its subjects intellectually placid remodeled evinced parallels to the fictional works of Brave New World and 1984. The movie The Manchurian Candidate led the public to speculate that there were those among us, who could be activated by a simple word or deed to metamorphose from an everyday citizen to an active Communist agent.
The psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton repudiated many of Hunter’s claims, citing evidence from his extensive interviews of both military and civilian prisoners that were the targets of intensive, programmed thought reform. Lifton stated that the process could be resisted, its implementation was systemic, and the methods were not exclusive to the Chinese. Supporting his claim was that only twenty-one of twenty-two thousand US POWs refused repatriation, while the remainder, despite receiving comprehensive mental reprogramming, elected to return home.
Lifton published his findings in 1961 in the book, Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism: A Study of “Brainwashing” in China. He listed eight elements that form the basis for intimidatory mind programming that share similar psychological objectives with DEI. Communication is highly controlled with the reduction of language to easily remembered clichés in a system where subjects do not realize they are being manipulated.
Purity of thought is a requisite, and it is defined in a good vs. evil dialectic that considers opposing doctrines as illegitimate. Ideology is sacred, and one’s character must be shaped to fit the template. Those who stray from the doctrine must confess lapses, while unrepentant detractors have no authority to express contrary opinions.
In a 2014 interview Dr. Lifton reiterated that the term brainwashing was a misleading construct and that he preferred the terms thought reform or mind control. Brainwashing imputes an all-or-nothing phenomena and does not account for different types or levels of persuasion. He provided two examples applicable to the political and academic setting that he described as “more gentle expressions of totalism.” The politician can be compelled to confess for failing to adhere to political orthodoxy, and the student can be subjected to psychological coercion for failing to attain proper achievement, depending on the ideas promulgated by one’s teachers.
For thirteen years impressionable K-12 students are bombarded with relentless propaganda promoted by teachers who interact with them as trusted adult authority figures. The two largest teachers’ unions in the United States, the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT), staunchly support DEI, and its member teachers could be described as its disciples. The NEA’s three million educators and retired members are pledged to promote inclusivity and racial justice—both politically charged terms drawn from the core of Marxist critical theories. The smaller AFT includes 80,000 educators and 250,000 retired members, but the organization’s DEI and racial justice resolutions read more like the Occupy Wall Street Manifesto than a pledge to provide the highest quality of merit-based education.
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