There's this red sails article that pops up every once in a while. Don't get me wrong it's a fine article, but there's a bit that goes "something something don't think people are brainwashed and just need to be exposed to uncomfortable truths."
And like, I get it. But...that's exactly what happened to me. I mean, I'm not going to say it was exactly one thing that caused it. However, genuinely when i learned about the Iraq War in detail*, that was basically what flipped the switch in my head. Obviously I wasn't as theoretically developed as I am today, but thats what made me genuinely want to read Marx, Lenin, Mao, etc. It was exactly that process of being exposed to information like that that made me want to be a communist, and want to fight for it.
This isn't some debunking thing. I think what I'm trying to explain is that my story seems to be very different from other people's, and applying my own experiences might not really work if it's not how things commonly work.
And, as much as it is important, I do want something more in depth than just "organize and educate." Don't get me wrong, that's good advice. What I'm trying to ask moreso is, what is the actually psychology going on behind these decisions here? Obviously there's no cookie cutter/one size fits all strategy here, but some direction would be helpful in actually attempting to convince people.
*To elaborate, I always heard of Iraq as just "the war." Kinda like how Vietnam was. But no one ever explained to me what it was and school didn't really neither. So when I learned it was basically the US invading Iraq almost explicitly for oil and no one got punished for it and basically everyone got rich off of it besides normal people while hundreds of thousands Iraqis died, it really shook me.
I hate that redsails article because it really is just an exercise in pedantic semantics. It sets up a straw man for what brain washing is and beats it into the ground. Propaganda works. It isn't fool proof but brainwashing is a thing.
Even a bad lie can obfuscate the truth a little so they repeat the lies over and over.
The subconscious mind has safeguards to protect the well being of the body and conscious mind. Being able to reject information without examining it fully is an essential ability or people would never be able to make decisions in a crisis. Rejecting information that opposes your personal interests isn't a conscious decision.
Keeping the working class impoverished keeps peoples brains in crisis mode in order to curtail peoples ability to think things through.
With no time to think it out, a personal interest in rejecting the truth and and hearing 10 lies for every truth people are brain washed, or maybe its better to say they are "brain filthy."