If you acquire actual knowledge, then yes reading Lolita or Mein Kampf can make you kinder, because you realize the subtlety and banality of horrifying individu

If you acquire actual knowledge, then yes reading Lolita or Mein Kampf can make you kinder, because you realize the subtlety and banality of horrifying individuals. Certainly, taking away such knowledge would make you less who you are. I would say that more manipulative media and advertising are less that way, for the very reason that they are manipulative. If their goal was not to change who people are, why refer to them or use them in that way.