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>The term IS meaningless, there is no clear distinction between "brainwashing, "education", "marketing", "propaganda" and "convincing" From Merriam Webster's d
by unclebucknasty 3y ago
>The term IS meaningless, there is no clear distinction between "brainwashing, "education", "marketing", "propaganda" and "convincing"
From Merriam Webster's definition of brainwashing [0]
1. a forcible indoctrination to induce someone to give up basic political, social, or religious beliefs and attitudes and to accept contrasting regimented ideas
2. persuasion by propaganda or salesmanship
So, the term isn't meaningless and, colloquially, is generally understood to emphasize the forcible or misleading / propaganda-based aspects of the formal definition.
[0] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/brainwashing https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/brainwashing
- thiagoharry 3y agoI agree that the term has a meaning in the dictionary, and colloquially people attribute a distinct and stronger meaning to it. But I think it becomes meaningless when we try to establish a more serious discussion about it. The origin of the term as war propaganda is what creates this colloquial meaning and it is also why it becomes difficult to distinguish it from other things: the evil enemy brainwashes, we just educate rebellious children and teach them to behave. The evil enemy brainwashes, we just fill the cinema with movies depicting our soldiers as heroes, and our news on TV convince even people against the war that the enemy is a real menace against us and should be attacked. We just have full of marketing companies trying to convince even people that do not want to buy more things to buy more things. All these things can make a person give up previous beliefs and accept contrasting ideas. And are forcible in a way or another.