Masses, Elites, and Rebels: The Theory of “Brainwashing”
redsails.org
I’ve become very skeptical of the concept of “brainwashing.” Over the past few months this skepticism has boiled over into open and explicit disagreement with even well-meaning pushers within the Marxist-Leninist corner. I often find it difficult to explain concisely why it is…

So I’ve heard of a previous post from which reminded me of this article from Red Sails…

So far, only a few people have mentioned Red Sails in that previous post, though with a different, but relevant article, but none have mentioned there its most famous article “Masses, Elites, and Rebels”

(Note: this has been posted a bunch of times on this community, you better read it, it’s a short one)

I will let a few excerpts speak for themselves

“Brainwashing” as a political theory breaks society down into three mutually-exclusive camps: 1) a group of elite manipulators, 2) vast masses under their control, 3) a rebellious group of enlightened critics (to which the person launching the accusation of “brainwashing” implicitly always belongs, since they are neither unaware of it nor abetting it). An unstated premise of this political theory is that what determines which of these camps any individual belongs to is a mixture of intellectual enlightenment and moral purity.

{…}

I am going to argue that this narrative is nonsense. It tries to pass off as universal and eternal something that in reality is particular and ephemeral. In short: Westerners aren’t helpless innocents whose minds are injected with atrocity propaganda, science fiction-style; they’re generally smug bourgeois proletarians who intelligently seek out as much racist propaganda as they can get their hands on.

{…}

The prevailing populist narrative grants the People (of the West) moral innocence by attributing to them utter stupidity and naivety; I invert the equation and demand a Marxist narrative instead: Westerners are willingly complicit in crimes because they instinctively and correctly understand that they benefit as a class (as a global bourgeois proletariat) from the exploitation enabled by their military and their propaganda — organs of coercion and consent. [6] We’re not as stupid as we’re made out to be. This means that we can be reasoned with, that there is a way out.

Admittedly I am smuglord about this…

But pls, make this a primer on the side bar of this comm, many ppl need to see this

  • Smeagolicious [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    16·
    9 months ago
    An incoherent rant, pls ignore

    Yes! Fuck, I’m tired of this pseudo deterministic outlook some people seem to have about propaganda! I’m not going to excuse the piece of shit racist, homophobic, transphobic, greedy rat fucks of america, white america especially, because of some vague attribution to material conditions as if that succinctly and neatly justifies every single human interaction down to the individual. It’s engineered yes, but so many of these fucks know better - I’ve lived with them, I’ve worked with them, deep down they know it. They’ll seek out their reinforcing propaganda because they know the system benefits them, even if they’re just one rung up from the bottom and kicking down. It’s not a matter of the people who buy in having “harder lives” or less privilege, because countless bougie fucks buy into it, god damn. I saw the idea floated that not falling for the propaganda likely indicated that you’re privileged like, fuck off entirely with this. Say that to the black, indigenous, all the radicals who’ve been stomped on and shit on and given nothing for their entire lives and didn’t buy in.