Americans may not realize it but we are some of the most brainwashed people in history. For 80 years we have been fed from the Kool Aid Fountain of Freedom, taught that Capitalism is good, socialism bad, that the voting booth is the best way for change (if voting really changed things they would have outlawed it), to chant my country right or wrong, to support the troops, that we defend freedom around the world, to worship the enlisted men and women on city lamposts. We are conditioned to mutter "thank you for your service" to any military person and not question why they are fighting our endless wars. That we are the Leader of the Free World (whatever that means).
The reality is that we have been ruled by an oligarchy that only cares for itself, in cahoots with the MIC which generates obscene profits for its tight circle of sycophants. This tight knit and secretive group is run like an exclusive club-- who is kept out matters more than who is let in. They engage in coup d'etats around the world and if thousands get killed in the process, they call it collateral damage and wash their hands of it (200,000 Guatemalans were killed in the 30 year military rule after the US sponsored coup of 1954)
How do you get the American public out of its zombie-like slumber to not parrot what they have been force-fed for 80 years? It is a tall order. But keep talking and writing about it even if your interlocutors want to shut you off and switch the topic and react with silence.
First of all, you have to choose your battles. For one thing, write off the professional-managerial class. Either they have already gotten it from the material available, or their salary and their social capital depends on not getting it. In the first case they can be benign and even helpful but keep a polite distance. In the second case they are the enemy and should be fed lies and disinformation and abuse constantly until they tap out.
Americans may not realize it but we are some of the most brainwashed people in history. For 80 years we have been fed from the Kool Aid Fountain of Freedom, taught that Capitalism is good, socialism bad, that the voting booth is the best way for change (if voting really changed things they would have outlawed it), to chant my country right or wrong, to support the troops, that we defend freedom around the world, to worship the enlisted men and women on city lamposts. We are conditioned to mutter "thank you for your service" to any military person and not question why they are fighting our endless wars. That we are the Leader of the Free World (whatever that means).
The reality is that we have been ruled by an oligarchy that only cares for itself, in cahoots with the MIC which generates obscene profits for its tight circle of sycophants. This tight knit and secretive group is run like an exclusive club-- who is kept out matters more than who is let in. They engage in coup d'etats around the world and if thousands get killed in the process, they call it collateral damage and wash their hands of it (200,000 Guatemalans were killed in the 30 year military rule after the US sponsored coup of 1954)
How do you get the American public out of its zombie-like slumber to not parrot what they have been force-fed for 80 years? It is a tall order. But keep talking and writing about it even if your interlocutors want to shut you off and switch the topic and react with silence.
If I had a cure for cognitive dissonance, I would have shared it a long time ago....
First of all, you have to choose your battles. For one thing, write off the professional-managerial class. Either they have already gotten it from the material available, or their salary and their social capital depends on not getting it. In the first case they can be benign and even helpful but keep a polite distance. In the second case they are the enemy and should be fed lies and disinformation and abuse constantly until they tap out.