What is Brainwashing and How Does it Affect People's Beliefs?

[yourdadonapogostick]

brainwashed people are funny.

my parents are watching a show about Noah's arc. it said "to flood the world to the top of they himalayas, it would take five times the amount of water on the earth. where would this water have come from?" my mom emmediately yell out "God, duh" and she was serious.

i was talking to this girl in study hall on the last day of school and i was trying to explain to her that she is brainwashed. her reply was "i'm not brainwashed. my parents just sat me down and said 'this is what we believe and why we believe it.' i believe what my parents believe." i just laughed inside and then i asked her what brainwashing is. she still didn't get it.

 

[Pengwuino]

haha there like democrats

 

[Smasherman]

Or republicans, for that matter. ;)

 

[cronxeh]

well if by 'God' she means like an advanced alien civilization with plasma torpedos that just happen to bend spacetime continuum around the Earth at the time and creating tsunamis - she is correct. If she means some biblical god that was a father of a guy who walked on water and then died and then didnt really die - she has no proof, and simply illogical.

 

[Smasherman]

Ok, I'm going to post a serious response now. People have a lot of reasons to remain ignorant (though I find them lacking). Some people are apathetic for whatever reason, some people want to fit in, and others draw stability from their beliefs.

Also, telling someone that they're brainwashed is a terrible way to convince them.

 

[yourdadonapogostick]

i didn't say "you are brainwashed!" i was explaining to her and showing her evidence. another thing about brainwashed people: they reject anything that goes against what they are brainwashed to believe without even considering the evidence

 

[Smasherman]

Sorry, I imagined a different scenario.

I've had a lot of conversations with fellow students over a range of topics, though primarily religion, politics, and diet. I've found that most peoples' beliefs aren't entirely unfounded, they just haven't seriously explored alternative options.

In a way we're all brainwashed, however. It's the only way to operate when we don't the absolute truth (if there is one). That's why I question things considered self evident.

 

[yourdadonapogostick]

my mind is too analytical for me to be brainwashed. but brainwashed people don't think they are brainwashed, so i might be. if i consider the possiblity that i may be brainwashed, then it is very unlikely that i am, but it is possible.

[edit]plays "Over Thinking" in background[/edit]

 

[cronxeh]

i just take the nihilistic approach and screw them all

 

[Pengwuino]

In my experience, people who call other people brainwashed never make a civil attempt to change their mind. They do indeed yell out "your brainwashed" and "your an idiot". Maybe once in a while someone will acually ask "why do you feel this way about *whatever*" but most of the time it just seems like quick and uncivil dismissal. Kinda makes you wonder who really is the brainwashed person when peoples only reaction to certain topics is to yell out profanities and such towards those people.

 

[cronxeh]

well if you are aware of the conditions which the 'brainwashed person' in question has had in order to arrive to that conclusion - and you would base that on previous conversations as well as a formal definition of the brainwashing subject at hand - then you have all the right to simply assume that case solved and call them brainwashed if that was the initial conclusion you've arrived to at the first time, provided there was enough evidence for initial conclusion, and no new evidence provided during subsequent analysis of the brainwashed subjects

 

[Math Is Hard]

In my experience, people who call other people brainwashed never make a civil attempt to change their mind. They do indeed yell out "your brainwashed" and "your an idiot". Maybe once in a while someone will acually ask "why do you feel this way about *whatever*" but most of the time it just seems like quick and uncivil dismissal. Kinda makes you wonder who really is the brainwashed person when peoples only reaction to certain topics is to yell out profanities and such towards those people.

Well said.

 

[yourdadonapogostick]

like i said...to analytical...thought processees and such.

 

[Smasherman]

In my experience, people who call other people brainwashed never make a civil attempt to change their mind. They do indeed yell out "your brainwashed" and "your an idiot". Maybe once in a while someone will acually ask "why do you feel this way about *whatever*" but most of the time it just seems like quick and uncivil dismissal. Kinda makes you wonder who really is the brainwashed person when peoples only reaction to certain topics is to yell out profanities and such towards those people.

I agree with you. People generally don't bother to break down their arguments to persuade people. It does happen, though. I've been in several conversations where my friend and I try to persuade each other logically, but I find that it is rare.

 

[Pengwuino]

well if you are aware of the conditions which the 'brainwashed person' in question has had in order to arrive to that conclusion - and you would base that on previous conversations as well as a formal definition of the brainwashing subject at hand - then you have all the right to simply assume that case solved and call them brainwashed if that was the initial conclusion you've arrived to at the first time, provided there was enough evidence for initial conclusion, and no new evidence provided during subsequent analysis of the brainwashed subjects

Very true. Unfortunately it isn't the case in all too many situations.

 

[zoobyshoe]

Brainwashing as the name itself suggests, is a deliberate effort to "wash" someone's preconceptions out of their mind in order to replace them with concepts in line with a specific agenda. I believe the term was first coined to describe the psychological battering that American prisoners received at the hands of Chinese captors during the Korean Conflict.

It would apply easily to what "cult" members go through, as with David Koresh and Jim Jones, but "brainwashed" isn't really an accurate term for people who simply hold a lot of questionable, untested preconceptions. I think maybe, gullible is more accurate.