In 1961 renowned psychologist Dr. Robert J Lifton published a book on thought reform (brainwashing).
Based on observations of brainwashing in China, his book outlines eight elements of thought reform.
These thought reform elements are being applied by cultural Marxism to dramatically affect our thinking.
Here are those eight elements. The annotations are mine.
1 — Control or attempting to control communication
The longbow, airplane, and atomic bomb revolutionized warfare.
The current dominant weapon is the media. No shots are fired. We simply acquiesce to the will of our foes.
British journalist Theodore Dalrymple observed that Marxist don’t use logic or data to sway our opinion. They use guilt.
He wrote:
“In my study of communist societies, I came to the conclusion that the purpose of communist propaganda was not to persuade or convince, not to inform, but to humiliate; and therefore, the less it corresponded to reality the better.”
2 – Mystical manipulation (hidden maneuvers)
The far left uses abstracts to affect our thinking.
A glass ceiling is an abstract that evokes the thought of an imposed limitation. A dog whistle suggests an implied and indirect thought. You can’t see glass ceilings and you can’t hear dog whistles.
I mentioned these phantom concepts in last week’s column. Here they are again with a few additions:
• Racism
• Division
• Hostility
• Exclusion
• Confusion
• Ignorance
• Triggering
• Polarizing
• Xenohobe
• Dog whistle
• Objectifying
• Homophobe
• Islamophobe
• Social justice
• Glass ceiling
• Empowerment
• People of color
• White privilege
• Disenfranchise
• Systemic racism
• Disparate impact
• Polarized society
• White supremacy
• Micro aggressions
• Critical race theory
• Hate (or hate group)
• Climate change denier
• Spew hate on the Internet
• “Don’t you know it’s [current year]?”
3 – Demand for purity
Lifton notes that dangerous cults divide the world into pure good and pure evil.
Cultural Marxism divides the world into the proletariat and bourgeoisie. The proletariat is expressed as “people of color” while the bourgeoisie is expressed as “white privilege”. The proletariat is oppressed. The bourgeoisie is the oppressor.
4 – Ethos of confession
Lifton said:
If somebody is kept confessing you can achieve control of his or her guilt and shame mechanisms. There is no greater control that one can achieve over another human being.
By convincing us to continually confess our white privilege, cultural Marxism achieves control of our guilt and shame mechanisms. “And there is no greater control that one can achieve over another human being.”
5 – Sacred science
Cultural Marxism attributes natural effects to social causes. Social engineers may then tinker with society; making calibrations based on pseudo-scientific conclusions.
Here are three examples.
• Cultural Marxism envelopes natural phenomenon — such as weather patterns and climate changes — into its philosophy by claiming those patterns and changes are harbingers of an environmental apocalypse and can ultimately be attributed to free-market capitalism.
• Relating to race, cultural Marxism will defy the overwhelming evidence of forensic sciences to pretend race is a social construct.
• Note how cultural Marxism’s “science” exploits women: Men are visually attracted to women. Cultural Marxism exploits this natural phenomenon by evoking the phantom notion of “objectifying” women. Without thought reform women would consider it a compliment to be called “pretty” by a male co-worker. After thought reform women would consider such a comment to be offensive because it objectifies them.
6 – Loading of the language
According to Lifton, loading of a language means:
A rhetoric and a language that only permits the claims of the particular group to be expressed. Alternative claims are blocked out by the very language.
Cultural Marxism considers the term “illegal alien” to be offensively racist, in spite of the fact that illegal aliens are both illegal and alien. “Undocumented guest” is the cultural Marxism placement term, even if the illegal alien possesses a valid drivers license (a document) and was invited into the country by no one.
7 – Doctrine over person
Lifton said:
Any doubts or any critical feelings that one’s accurate perceptions inform one about are attributed to one’s own shortcomings.
One has to embrace the doctrine rather than one’s own personal discoveries.
One can be accurate, but will suffer the punishment of social ostracization and stigmatization for his honesty. This is a phenomenon I call “the Galileo syndrome”. Galileo, you’ll recall, was accurate in denying the sun revolved around the earth. Authorities forced him to renounce his accuracy under the threat of death.
Today he would be demonized as a “solar rotation denier”.
Likewise, Nobel Laureate James Watson was demonized for noting that sub-Saharan Africans were less intelligent than white people, even though his observation was supported by decades of in-depth research. Specifically he said, “…all our social policies are based on the fact that their intelligence is the same as ours – whereas all the testing says not really.”
8 – The dispensing of existence
Lifton said:
Cultic groups so embellish their own claim to absolute truth that they divide the world into those who have a right to exist and those who have no such right.
This was observed when Hillary Clinton characterized half of Donald Trump supporters as a “basket of deplorables”.
Clinton later apologized for using the word “half”.
Trump supporters are dehumanized as “Racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamaphobic, you name it.”
https://youtube.com/watch?v=25OEwqBl7DU
photo credit: Quinn Dobrowski; Pseudoscientific via photopin (license)
