#Thought Control

[route22ny]

Today's Doonesbury cartoon.

[unwelcome-ozian]

“Loading the language is the mind-numbing process by which ‘the most far-reaching and complex of human problems are compressed into brief, highly reductive, definitive- sounding phrases, easily memorized and easily expressed’, whose aim is to shut down independent thinking.” ― Kathleen Taylor, Brainwashing: The Science of Thought Control

[commonsensecommentary]

Hardcore Leftist ideology and freedom of speech are (surprise!) apparently incompatible. Academia’s attraction to state/institutional control of thought “for the greater good” has turned higher education in America into a bad joke.

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

"Nineteen Eighty-Four was not supposed to be an instruction manual."

Yet so much Orwell's writings ring true today. Big Brother Watch is determined to make Nineteen Eighty-Four fiction again.

[360degreesasthecrowflies]

Old friends/Social media thoughts

It was something of an odd time all in all visiting my old friends this Spring. I think they've always tended to be very politically engaged, and perhaps more pessimistic all ways round than me, but this time, the negativity was endless and relentless, spilling over from politics onto what felt like every casual topic I brought up.

It could be, of course, that the visit just came at what happened to be a personal bad time for both of them that they didn't want to mention. I'm not ruling it out.

And I do, I suppose, have the boost of my energy-boosting meds to help with my own mood...

I felt consistently like, however, there was perhaps some repressed anger from them - I guess at the world generally? - that was coming out that way. It made me a little introspective about the different ways to have an 'online life' today and in the past, and how they might differently impact our feelings and experiences. If you follow this blog or my writing at all you'll know that I'm a little oldschool; this is my blog; with my avatar, and it's about certain things, and the me in real life has more rolled into them; whereas modern social media, or how a lot of people now use the internet, has their online self and their irl self being one and the same or the one being an extension of the other.

(Much) more about that under the jump~

In my real life, I'm mostly a calm person. It's hard to flap me or upset me. When I do get upset, I write about it, or I talk it out. It doesn't necessarily spiral me in the moment. This isn't necessarily connected in every way or the dominant reason behind it, I think, but, I also don't really use social media at all, and certainly not in the way that a lot of people do. I haven't started and stopped, I never really got into it. I already had my blog to fulfil that function.

After visiting these two friends who I haven't seen for a while earlier in the month, I was struck by how they both seemed really angry at everything conceivable, and from what they talked about, they did also seem to be using a lot of social media - of the endless scroll, mini dopamine hit, then 3-anger-spurring pieces variety - whether tiktok, instagram or Mu*Sky aka X, because they were constantly making references to videos they'd seen or memes that I had no conception of or context for. But, strikingly for me, they seemed to be just consuming this content, passively. Just reading posts, or watching videos, and then on to the next one - rather than, as we do on tumblr, and as we did in the blogs and usenet-like groups of old, using posts as a jumping-off point it to express ourselves and let loose some of that stirred up emotion. My friends were angry with the news, and the state of the world, but they were also angry with all politicians, all Catholics (as the Pope had just died), and then as we went about our vacation, they were angry with other tourists, certain of the activities we did, with me for not knowing in depth some of the things they were angry about, with certain singers that came on the radio, it felt like almost anything we saw could set them off, almost as if they'd been 'programmed' to activate 'anger' following an ever-expanding list of certain trigger sights or sounds.

Of course, I myself get angry about things. It's only human, especially in the kind of messed up world we increasingly find ourselves living in. I have bad days, or days when it feels the world is too heavy - anyone who reads my blog will know that. But, and I think this is important - I let the immediate emotion out... whether by writing about it, or by thinking more about it, and then, I can put that energy towards finding a solve, or, at the least, a mitigation, or even something to help keep my own head above water, rather than talking about the same troubles over and over again in desperate circles.

For me this weekend was something of an inadvertent or unintentional case study into social media + cultural shift (towards passivity and non-conflict on a personal level) creating a vicious cycle negative feedback loop. The social feeds my friends had created, curated, or some combination in conjunction with a learning algorithm were showing them item after item to provoke anger; while also imparting on them that anger expressed openly is socially taboo.

This forces them to bottle up their emotions, while also seeking more and more fuel for the fire through addiction to the feed; 24 hour news now updated and re-angled to the second.

It's just my theory, but writing it out has put it together for me. I think that's why they were both on a hair-trigger ready to go off all weekend.

I don't really know what can be done about that situation. So many people are essentially addicts who don't even realise they're addicted... the human brain isn't meant to be able to process such a large volume and constant stream of traumatic information, we literally have protective disablers within our own brain and psyche to 'switch off' from getting overloaded in that regard... yet that now comes with the mixed message from our culture that we have to be 'always on', always aware, always ready to engage etc. ...

The result was that they had almost forgotten how to REALLY engage in real life with someone ready to just have a back and forth conversation instead of jumping from one rage-inducing topic or point to another, five or ten within the space of five minutes...

I don't know how we can possibly work together around thorny issues to build any kind of consensus when that's the case.

Which is, I suppose, probably what Big Social Media that has aligned itself with the current US administration, wants.

[saber-monet]

“They’re talking shit” manifesting technique

Or

“Let them talk shit” Method

So this is the technique that I used, and still currently use as an over-thinker to manifest my desired reality and maintain my desired mental state.

So back in college, I was insecure. The type of insecure, where if I hung out with friends and then I left the room, only thing that would be racing through my mind would be the idea of them talking about me behind my back. Like Just talking the most shit and calling me out of my name. Granted these are the types of friends I had back then, I now know better.

So here was the pattern :

Every time I left the room, and I felt insecure about something I had just said or done, I would imagine them saying bad things about me or finding me weird of off putting. The things I would imagine them saying, would break my heart. So I put a stop to it.

And I recognized those people were not in the room with me and I was using my imagination to hurt myself .

I could have been imagining them saying anything because I have that power and I’m choosing to see them saying most terrible things about me. So, I made the decision to imagine them still talking shit, but this time it was about all the good things I wanted.

( you have to keep the same hater energy when you do this btw)

Example:

“Who does she think she is? Just because she has a great body and works out and is always in a happy state of being. She think she’s better than us. 😒.  she think she’s rich too. She only has about $100,000 in her bank account. The rest is tied up in the stock market and crypto currency. So she technically doesn’t even have that much money. 🙄”

“ she wants to be an influencer sooo bad .ugh, So what if your YouTube channel grew by 200,000 subs in less than 3 weeks and you’re getting amazing sponsorship oppertunities. So what bitch you ain’t pewdie pie. You don’t even have 1,000,000 subs yet . Pipe down”

So in those examples, I just affirmed a reality where:

- I great healthy body

- im in a happy/content state of being

- $100,000 in in my bank account

-I have plentiful bountiful investments/crypto currency

-my YouTube channel successful

-I’m getting great sponsorship opportunities

And because I used other people to affirm those for me, it’s a stronger self concept/reality. Because I’m affirming it in, first person, third person and second person( by default).

This technique works with any “negative” dominating emotion.

So if you were anxious or have anxious dominant feelings. Start affirming, anxious thoughts that you would WANT to have.

For example:

“I hope my professor doesn’t hate me for being more educated/smarter on the subject than he is 😭. Like I get he spent years in school studying this stuff, but it comes easy to me and surpass his expertise every time without fail. I hope he doesn’t think I’m trying to show him up😰”

“ I hope the bank doesn’t get suspicious about how much money I’ve been depositing into my account. 😥Plus I’ve been getting so much money this year from random sources, in such large amounts, I’m kind of worried that the IRS is going to get involved and make filing my taxes a little complicated this year.☹️”

So, in those two short sentences, you just affirm that

you’re smart,

you’re doing well in the class, and

you’ve been getting large amounts of money throughout the year, from expected and unexpected sources. 

Remember if you want it, you can get it. Try “under-thinking” , it’s easier than you’d expect. No matter what state you are in. If you were able to tell a consistent story about how you want to be, you’re good.

* when I use the word “negative”, I’m talking about the words you are using to describe the situation. Because by default every situation is neutral. It doesn’t become positive or negative until you choose to assign it a value .

Don’t force yourself to be happy, force your thoughts to tell a better story. One that wouldn’t mind living out and experience. And the only except thoughts that affirmed the reality that you want. From any angle. You have to learn when and how to work with your emotions. Emotions are only bad if you identify them as bad.

When you come up with any other examples, please, I would love to hear them. share them with me.

[creature-wizard]

"You just have a victim mentality" seems to be turning into the New Age thought-terminating cliche at this point. Literally any acknowledgement that life ain't always sunshine and daisies, and sometimes you actually do have to wrangle with a difficult problem? That's victim mentality now, apparently.

[meeelis]

Fragile

[route22ny]

(Sharing the text in full for those who missed the earlier link.)

American democracy faces its greatest peril since 1861. President Donald Trump and his Project 2025-infused zealots are ripping through two centuries of progress in human rights, civil rights, sexual rights and democratic rights. Historically, race always has been the elephant in our culture.

Trump’s inquisitors, leaving nothing to chance, are banning words. I have poured the list of Trump’s banned words into a gallon bucket. I have shaken the bucket as if it were filled with all the possible winning tickets of a lottery and jump-started a sentence that led to a paragraph, and a paragraph that led to this article. I have used every word on the banned list except obesity. Oops, I used it as well. And more words have been added to this list since I started writing.

Some of these word-scrubbing zealots are more zealous than their superiors. They make mistakes so egregious they have to put back some words, pictures and stories due to public outrage. When Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth banned the books of Maya Angelou but kept Hitler’s Mein Kampf on the shelves of the library of the Naval Academy, more than eyebrows raised.

I concluded the banned words are a direct attack on democracy. Instead, they are excellent words providing a foundation for celebrating democracy and human rights. These words should not be banned but debated, discussed, wrestled with, deliberated and hammered out. I gladly accept my identity as a promoter of democracy and confess a sense of trauma even reading a list of banned words.

Walt Whitman’s contagious democratic spirit fills his poetry: “O Democracy, for you, for you I am trilling these songs.” I consider it poetic justice that we can be led to renew our democratic freedoms by a queer socialist poet capable of saving America from itself.

The list of banned words concentrates on four areas that are an attack on America’s true democratic values.

Support antiracism

Democracy has no space in its diverse and beautiful house for racism. A person can swear on a stack of King James Bibles she is not racist but when she has a meltdown over words like all-inclusive, antiracist, biases, diversity, equity, indigenous people, inequality, the racial bias shines a light on the deeply embedded racist.

No matter how many times a person says, “Everyone who knows me knows I’m not a racist, but I just don’t like to hear people talk about injustice, inequities, minorities, multiculturalism and oppression,” there’s an implied confession.

“The new face of racism in America doesn’t hide under white robes or burn crosses. Now, it hides behind denial and banning words.”

The new face of racism in America doesn’t hide under white robes or burn crosses. Now, it hides behind denial and banning words. But scratch beneath the surface, and there’s old Jim Crow with his loaded biases including implicit biases. There’s a sense MAGA misses segregation.

Since the passage of the Civil Rights Act, Americans have, first reluctantly and then robustly, promoted the rights of African Americans. Affirmative action signaled a willingness to start making up for the huge disadvantages African American students faced in education. Attention was given to minority enrollment and minority hiring opportunities. Progressives long have been supporters of minority opportunity and have gladly supported minority-serving institutions.

America was proud to fly the flag of inclusion, to embrace inclusive leadership, increase diversity, and overcome inequalities. You can count on progressives fostering inclusivity. When Barack Obama was elected president in 2008, some thought America had accomplished Martin’s dream. As important as it was to elect a Black man, not once, but twice as our president, it didn’t mean the tide of racism had permanently turned.

Only in 2016 did we learn that one man, Donald Trump, whose only ideology is white supremacy, would take advantage of the latent racism in our nation to win the presidency, not once but twice. Under Trump, every gain we thought we had made permanent in civil rights was in danger of being demolished. White supremacy now works to exploit tribal loyalties.

At least 10 words are on the list directly using variations of race: race and ethnicity, racial, racial diversity, racial identity, racial inequality, racial justice, racially and racism. The incongruity reminds me of a mother in a Southern short story who believed, “If you don’t discuss something, it doesn’t exist.”

This heteronormative, masculine movement attempts to hide its ideology of male supremacy by banning male dominated. It is like a group of Southern Baptist pastors pretending the SBC is not male dominated. Among the banned words that cry MAGA denial, sensitivity to reality and easily jarred feelings, I discovered the following words: Underappreciated, underprivileged, underrepresented, undeserved, underserved, understudied, under studied, undervalued, victim, victims and vulnerable populations.

The anti-DEI fervor of Trump and his surrogates has moved with remarkable and cruel speed. High-ranking African American women have been fired from their positions. President Trump has fired Carla Hayden, first woman and first Black person to lead the Library of Congress.

“The word-banning fever reaches epidemic proportion when liberals promote diversity, equity and inclusion.”

The word-banning fever reaches epidemic proportion when liberals promote diversity, equity and inclusion. The banned list becomes repetitive: diverse, diverse backgrounds, diverse communities, diverse community, diverse group, diverse groups, diversified, diversify, equity, equality, equitable, equitableness, entitlement, inclusion, inclusive, inclusive leadership, inclusiveness and inclusivity.

One interesting word or acronym on the list is BIPOC. The meaning: Black, Indigenous, People of Color. Throw in Black and Black and Latinx and you have a full-grown racism. Two odd synonyms on the list are key groups and key people. And what is the MAGA addiction to acronyms? DEI, DEIA, DEIAB, DEIJ, MSI, EEJ, EJ, GBV, LGBT, LGBTQ, Mx, MSI and msm. One gets the sense MAGA is stitched together by lies, conspiracy theories, revenge, slogans and acronyms.

They aim for a homogenized all-white culture void of distressing mentions of indigenous people and indigenous community. Trump and MAGA want nothing to do with special populations.

Trump attempts to disrupt our democratic support for marginalized groups we are not members of by placing allyship on the banned list. As white progressives, it is part of our calling to support minorities, immigrants, LGBTQ, women, Native Americans and every group suffering from oppression and discrimination.

No doubt socio-cultural and socio-economic show up in the list as manifestations of MAGA fear of multi-culturalism, diversity and differences.

MAGA tips its hand at serous disdain for a diverse culture by adding cultural competence, cultural differences, cultural heritage, cultural relevance, cultural sensitivity, culturally appropriate and culturally responsive to the banned words list.

A residual hate bubbles under the MAGA surface. This is why they fight so hard to preserve the freedom of hate speech.

Support LGBTQ

MAGA has more white rage against LGBTQ people than any other group. The banned list insists on a subtle mockery with the phrase men who have sex with men (an allusion to Leviticus 18:22 and an utter disregard of Acts 10:15 — “What God has made clean, you must not call profane”).

“MAGA has more white rage against LGBTQ people than any other group.”

They struggle in all areas of human sexuality from abortion to transgender identity. MAGA has created an imaginary but frightening “gender war.” The usual MAGA fear of feminism also includes sex, sexual preferences, sexuality, nonbinary and they/them. Evangelical repression of sex is now coming up through the sewers of clergy sexual misconduct, sexual misbehavior and sexual misunderstanding.

For decades MAGA fought to define a human embryo as a child. Now, they fight over gender assigned at birth — male or female. Somehow MAGA has nightmares about the occurrence of intersex — having sex organs or other sexual characteristics that are not clearly male or female, that are a combination of typical male and female organs or that do not correspond to the individual’s chromosomal sex.

Understandably, a group willing to go to war over public restrooms, having previously fought over the closet, would not embrace the term chestfeed, a gender neutral term.

While MAGA evangelicals have a decided and century-old disdain for biology, when it comes to sexuality they are suddenly determined opponents of the words biologically female and biologically male.

Support science

Trump is the most powerful man in the world and he is a climate-denier. The banned words swirling around the issue of global warming demonstrate this is about more than words because Trump is acting irresponsibly by ignoring and attempting to destroy research and progress in defeating global warming.

Trump mocks the idea of clean energy, climate crisis and climate science. His slogan, “Drill, baby drill” is a direct slap in the face of the attempts of our scientific community to decrease our dependence on fossil fuels before we become fossils as did the dinosaurs.

“Trump is the most powerful man in the world and he is a climate-denier.”

Climate deniers are a determined bunch of politicians, engaging in an all-out effort to place barrier/s to any attempt to ward off the coming climate apocalypse.

Anti-science now controls the Department of Health and Human Services under Robert F. Kennedy Jr. That a nonscience, nonphysician, conspiracy theorist is the director of HHS boggles the mind. Kennedy recently went swimming in a creek with high bacteria levels, including E. coli. He has a strange aversion to fluoride in water. He continues to ignore the measles epidemic even as it spreads. He promotes conspiracy theories about the cause of autism, pontificates on mental health, promotes unscientific ideas on dietary guidelines/ultra processed foods, peanut allergies and vaccines.

Of course, people-centered care, person-centered and person-centered care make the list. People-centered care extends the concept of patient-centered care to individuals, families, communities and society.

The disregard of the Trump administration for the well-being of all Americans shows up in the banning of health disparity and health equity. The terms refer to everyone having a fair and just opportunity to attain the highest possible level of good health.

The banned words tell us how little the Trump administration cares about environmental justice and environmental quality. The most crucial of all the dangers bearing down on our planet is not a giant meteor falling from the sky, but our own negligence in caring for the environment.

The administration’s lack of concern for health shows up in the banning of Cancer Moonshot, COVID-19, science-based, stem cell or fetal tissue research, health disparity and health equity. For example, Cancer Moonshot was a 2016 initiative aimed at more scientific discovery in cancer research with the goal of preventing more than 4 million cancer deaths by 2047. In 2022, 608,366 people died of cancer. Anyone not wanting to do everything scientifically possible to eradicate cancer deaths seems anti-humane. But a determined MAGA has banned NCI (National Cancer Institute) budget as a topic of deliberation.

Support democracy

We must find ways to advance democratic ends. One way of doing this job is to reject the banned words and use them in our speeches, essays, books, articles and sermons. I see the banned words as tropes that make a democratic turn toward preserving human rights and civil rights.

The banned words include anti-democracy words: activism, activists, advocacy, advocate and advocates. Trump’s attack on law firms he deems his enemy illustrates his disdain for advocacy. So does his relentless attack on judges and the Constitution.

I have questions about the list: Why is pregnant people on the banned list? Why put commercial sex worker and prostitute on the list? Does MAGA really believe they can eradicate the world’s oldest profession?

“Does MAGA really believe they can eradicate the world’s oldest profession?”

Placing marijuana on the list merely confuses me.

Why ban word such as disabilities, disability and disabled? (Maybe this has to do with Trump’s aversion to disabled people. He mocked a New York Times reporter with a disability). This helps explain why accessible and accessibility are banned words.

Are you serious? The Gulf of Mexico is on the banned list. I suppose Trump wasn’t satisfied with denying the Associated Press to participate in press conferences.

Why the angst over the word systemic? My best guess is MAGA is sensitive about the reality of systemic racism as it exposes how they may not be individually racist, but are racist to the core in cultural, ethnic and political ways.

Why does discussion of federal policy make the list? No authoritarian administration desires discussion or deliberation, only fealty.

Why would any sane person oppose the word belong or sense of belonging?

Some final words

People who despise diversity only know how to celebrate sameness, a mind-numbing monotonous sameness void of the richness of African Americans (Blacks), Hispanics, Asians, gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgender and queers. Ours is a rich and multi-cultural nation blessed by the God who made of one blood all nations of the earth.

The land of purple-colored mountains holds within her bosom the richness of indigenous communities. Native American reservations now dotted with casinos show in living color the American struggle to care adequately for others.

The church, having inherited the universal gospel of Jesus, is called to be the clear, authentic voice of inclusion. The early church struggled with inclusion before the Gentiles were admitted as full members.

In my self-assessment, I stand with Whitman to affirm to want “nothing which all cannot have.” I affirm I have not been under the influence of alcohol or opioids. I have pointed out the disparity in Trump and MAGA’s relentless campaign against democracy. If my defense of democracy puts me at risk, so be it. Others may stereotype me as a typical progressive, but I am at peace with my expression.

There is nothing to fear in the words on the banned list and I have taken it on myself to move them all to the celebrated words list. I believe all words should be free to walk in the corridors of all minds at all times. There are more than a million words in the English language, and I don’t want to lose even one.

Rodney W. Kennedy is a pastor and writer in New York state. He is the author of 11 books, including his latest, Dancing with Metaphors in the Pulpit.

[unwelcome-ozian]

In 1974, through the leadership of Senator Edward M. Kennedy and others, a National Commission for the Protection of Human Subjects of Biomedical and Behavioral Experimentation was formed. Some of it's initial findings were:

There is a widespread and growing interest in the development of methods designed to predict, identify, control, and modify individual human behavior.

Few substantive measures have as yet been taken to resolve the important questions of freedom, privacy, and self-determination raised by behavior control technology

The Federal government is heavily involved in a variety of behavior modification programs ranging from simple reinforcement techniques to psychosurgery..

[suit212]

In light of a full sack, every woman appears as Aphrodite.

[Bert Brecht] But what should women think about their inner Aphrodite – should they feel insulted or flattered? Well, women have the great honor of ignoring alpha males (haha) while they play the Siren. But just not for him.

[saber-monet]

you are unstoppable

fear cant stop you,

your emotions cannot stop you,

negative thinking cannot

discomfort cannot stop you

when you want it, you have it !

[meeelis]

God I want to travel to world.

[route22ny]

Federal Government's Growing Banned Words List Is Chilling Act of Censorship - PEN America

"While every president aims to use language that reflects its priorities in its communications, the widespread restrictions on specific words represent a dystopian effort to control what Americans think and say, despite President Trump’s lip service to 'freedom of speech and ending federal censorship.'"

[thesagittarianmind]

[unwelcome-ozian]

Writing in the Journal of Homeland Security, a publication of the ANSER Institute for Homeland Security, Anthony Stahelski identifies five phases of social psychological conditioning which he calls cult-like conditioning techniques employed by terrorist groups: [Stahelski, 2004]:

Depluralization: stripping away all other group member identities Self-deindividuation: stripping away each member’s personal identity Other-deindividuation: stripping away the personal identities of enemies Dehumanization: identifying enemies as subhuman or nonhuman Demonization: identifying enemies as evil