Do Governments promote an attitude?

With the laws and regulations they do and do not enforce? Censorship? Relations with Religion and Business?


They definitely do, they are in charge, they make the rules, not the people. That is why the people in each country think the way they do, because of their government. The governments turn everyone into a brainwashed disciple, believing that whatever policy or action is good for the people. When it truly is not, usually each one is money driven or suppresses rights. Not matter what government or party.


agree?
not agree?
dont care?

 

Agree.

Governments promote an attitude.
And I believe, its harmful, rather than useful.

 

Governments often promote an attitude with the laws and regulations they enforce (it kinda comes automatically with a consistent set of regulations) but I disagree with the rest of your post. It's not so black and white.

 

black and white? how? The government chooses what influences it allows on its people. Each country makes that determination. Free thinking is then restricted.

Also, I found that your statement "I disagree with the rest of your post" very weak at best. Perhaps you should go and post in the "what have you eaten thread?". It would probably be more your speed:2thumbsup:

 

It's all put in an extreme perspective... as usual with you.

No, 'the government' (which differs per country so you can not talk about all governments at the same time without generalizing/simplifying/making things black and white) is not always the only one that makes the rules.
No, not all people in each country do not think the way they do solely or in the first place because of their government.
Well I quit there because the brainwashing part is too old, lame and boring to nuance. Well for you at least. Maybe I would take the effort for somebody else :2thumbsup:

 

It's not brainwashing-- that's ridiculous.

People are constantly disagreeing, constantly debating, constantly questioning each other and especially politicians. I don't think the majority of people are obsessed with politics, but then, they also have lives to live.

If you want to educate yourself, all kinds of literature on different perspectives is available at your public library, and if not there, it's online. You can read libertarian perspectives, socialist perspectives, fascist perspectives... there are legal online forums dedicated to white nationalism for crying out loud!

When I went to university, you could take courses on communism, socialism, capitalism, etc... in fact, my professor was the leader of the communist party at one point. None of my professors stood up in front of everyone and said 'this is good and this is bad', because it would have been bad for discussion, which they wanted.

The problem isn't that people are being brainwashed it's that they're lazy, paranoid and distracted. People like Stp would rather come on here and rail against an imaginary stereotype and spout a bunch of ridiculous assumptions over and over than have a discussion. They haven't actually looked into anything they're saying or thought about things, they just say it because they like the way it feels. Or they have problems with authority.

Accusations of people being 'brainwashed' these days are usually thrown around by people who just want you to agree with them... it's basically the same thing as saying 'you're stupid and I'm smart'.

A lot of anger comes from people feeling more entitled to information about the government, but also the conspiracists like Alex Jones whose ideas are slowly creeping into the mainstream and influencing outlets like Fox News in their quest for higher ratings from madeup stories about how everything is going to collapse in a few months. They are giving voices to people who would never have been treated with respect if they weren't on TV.

 

Free thinking isn't restricted in most first world countries. We have access to libraries and the internet and basically any available resource we can use to expand our minds.

Many people, especially in America, are intellectually lazy but it doesn't mean there are any real restrictions on their ability to learn. They just choose not to.

 

Certainly, all governments project an attitude, for internal and external consumption.

The question is: to what level does the citizenry buy-in?

Also How does "The Attitude" change when Government changes in multiparty nations.

 

True brainwashing is when you do not know it is happening and anything beyond that looks wrong or incorrect. Reality is more decieving than you think.

 

Brainwashing is what the Chinese do to their prisoners of war-- by making them sleep in filth, torture each other, treating them like infants, etc.

But it's not brainwashing for people to want to conform to the general opinions of their social groups, or for people to agree with certain things that they hear. If that's what you're saying, then I could also argue that you're also brainwashed because you come to this site and the opinions of the people on here influence you to think the way you think.

Any time you see the kind of knee-jerk indignation or predictable hostility towards the police/politicians/the 'system' that many 'rebel' personalities tend to exhibit, you can be sure they're not coming from a rational, well-thought-out place.

Don't get me wrong, sometimes it's good to be pissed off, but being pissed off doesn't help you assess the situation clearly and it definitely doesn't mean you're somehow 'free' from social pressures or media influences.

Mindless rebellion is just as bad as mindless conformity.

 

How mental.

Aren't people brainwashed, mind controlled and conformed to maintain and perpetuate a constant, unending war of the mind? I think so. I dislike it. Extremely. The atmosphere is near constant arguing and debate. Americans don't know how to NOT fight. The fighting Americans will fight anything, anytime, anywhere. And derive a grandiose sense of pride in it. I think it's revolting. Causes so much strife and grief .. we dig our own graves after having been handed the shovel and trained how to use it.

 

People are influenced by outside sources like other people, deliberately or not. Only a hysterical person or fearmongers would use the term brainwashing for that.

 

I think this is what it comes down to. Lots of people would rather watch television or play videogames than read a book or look something up on wikipedia. People like the OP and PR will try to claim that these things are distractions put there by the ruling elite/NWO/Illuminati/lizard people to control the masses, but I think that it is more due to laziness.

I still hang out with my friends from high school from time to time, and if I mention something about something I've read recently, I feel out of place. I usually get a response like "oh, I haven't read a book since high school."

 

I don't think there is any us them dichotomy and government and governmental decisions are exaggerations of our own vain or political self who advertises for a preferred agenda and hides things that don't contribute to that.

If you care about the impression you make on others then there is bound to be deceit. Don't let your left hand know what your right is doing. Don't make promises because you can't predict the future. Be utterly honest moment to moment about your preferences and don't find yourself settling for the sake of.

The constant unending war in the mind is brought on by an apparent disparity between acceptable and unacceptable but only one of those positions is true.
If we are elevated by truth then it must be in meeting our needs. Unacceptable then can't be the truth. Fear, doubt, and suspicion are all liars.

 

It's definitely laziness... but I don't think that the conspiracist's brand of laziness is much better. And make no mistake, it IS laziness to read/absorb the bare minimum of info, switch off your critical thinking and move all the way to blind outrage.

I think a lot of the conspiracy/doomsday mindset floating around is due to the same laziness responsible for apathy, but also boredom. Why would you want to be a normal, boring person having a normal, boring discussion about normal, boring politics when you can be a heroic freedom fighter obsessed with the pursuit of liberty, justice and the truth?

I think that this article explains it pretty well:

http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/insights-into-the-personalities-conspiracy-theorists/

And this picture:


And this one too:

 

Fighting means you're NOT brainwashed.
I would imagine that brainwashed people would tend to agree with each other.

 

I don't think fighting is an indicator of mental clarity and accuracy.

I think Humanity is badly conformed to deformity. Form family of words: inform, conform, deform, transform ..

That's just what mind control is all about .. not just dominance and control but ultimately, to cause a transformation. Caterpillars and butterflies sort of stuff. But we're becoming lizards, not butterflies lmao

 

Definitely. Good point :2thumbsup:

 

I don't really understand what you're saying.

If there's no debate, if everyone agrees, then there is conformity. If there's a lot of debate and no one agrees, then there is no conformity.

I would imagine the ideal is a happy medium, not one or the other.

 

Discussion is different from arguing. Debate is different from arguing.

The question is: do governments promote an attitude?

I think it's a collective thing .. society and government together promote an atmosphere of constant arguing. I don't think anybody could deny that the internet can be a hostile place. We've all heard the word "troll" a million times. I know people can fall into the trap and become a "troll" when they most likely didn't intend to be. That can only come about by fostering, encouraging, perpetuating and maintaining an argument mind-set. I think it's conformity and destructive.