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If an American POW comes back to the US and says the US was the aggressor in the Korean War, he does not have an opinion, he has been "brainwashed". What kind

If an American POW comes back to the US and says the US was the aggressor in the Korean War, he does not have an opinion, he has been "brainwashed". What kind of mental gymnastics do I have to perform to think this way. It's about a step removed from saying someone who denies Jesus Is Lord has been possessed by a demon. Or the same thing really.

StavrosK 13y ago
> What kind of mental gymnastics do I have to perform to think this way. They probably used the foot-in-the-door technique on themselves.
nostromo 13y ago
The key here is the delta, not what opinions are right or wrong. > compared to the POWs in North Korea, their beliefs had changed massively since they’d left home The title does color the outcome by calling it brainwashing, but that word is not used in the actual article.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
- pessimizer 13y ago
  Convincing someone of something that later, under investigation, turns out not to be true, is not brainwashing.
  - pyre 13y ago
    I thought that brainwashing was a label applied to the technique used to convince someone. You can brainwash someone that holds strong convictions which are wrong to believe in the truth.
    - pessimizer 13y ago
      Brainwashing is a label applied to the mysterious techniques that communist foreigners and non-Christian religions use to convince someone. Labels applied to the techniques used to convince someone are 'rhetoric,' and 'argumentation,' amongst others.
  - flatline 13y ago
    I don't think there's any such thing as what the term "brainwashing" implies, but it is effectively a systematic form of mind control. If you can implant a thought and have it take hold, have the person own it and believe it and ultimately defend that position, that's pretty powerful. If you can do that in a systematic way, you can potentially get a large number of people to take actions that are in your own self-interest and not necessarily in theirs. Pretty heady stuff, there you have the foundations for a religion, a revolution. I think this type of thing is about as close to brainwashing as it gets.
    - pessimizer 13y ago
      The term "brainwashing" implies 'Asian,' 'Communist,' and/or 'cult.' It describes nothing.
marshray 13y ago
Soldiers didn't have the internet. They didn't often get up-to-date newspapers and magazines. If they were lucky, they could sometimes get news/propaganda from shortwave radio, e.g., "Voice of America". Mainly they got news from their military and letters from home. So go for a year or two like this in a horrific combat zone in an utterly foreign Asian country. Then get captured and spend a few years writing essays about Communism in a Chinese-run POW camp (if you're lucky). It is both reasonable and compassionate that, when they get out, that individual should not be held to account for whatever documents they may have signed or political statements they may have made during that time. Whether 'brainwashing' was complete fiction or not, it was a concept which let broken men put the past behind them and have a welcome return to their home country.

StavrosK 13y ago

> What kind of mental gymnastics do I have to perform to think this way. They probably used the foot-in-the-door technique on themselves.

nostromo 13y ago

The key here is the delta, not what opinions are right or wrong. > compared to the POWs in North Korea, their beliefs had changed massively since they’d left home The title does color the outcome by calling it brainwashing, but that word is not used in the actual article.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

pessimizer 13y ago
Convincing someone of something that later, under investigation, turns out not to be true, is not brainwashing.
- pyre 13y ago
  I thought that brainwashing was a label applied to the technique used to convince someone. You can brainwash someone that holds strong convictions which are wrong to believe in the truth.
  - pessimizer 13y ago
    Brainwashing is a label applied to the mysterious techniques that communist foreigners and non-Christian religions use to convince someone. Labels applied to the techniques used to convince someone are 'rhetoric,' and 'argumentation,' amongst others.
- flatline 13y ago
  I don't think there's any such thing as what the term "brainwashing" implies, but it is effectively a systematic form of mind control. If you can implant a thought and have it take hold, have the person own it and believe it and ultimately defend that position, that's pretty powerful. If you can do that in a systematic way, you can potentially get a large number of people to take actions that are in your own self-interest and not necessarily in theirs. Pretty heady stuff, there you have the foundations for a religion, a revolution. I think this type of thing is about as close to brainwashing as it gets.
  - pessimizer 13y ago
    The term "brainwashing" implies 'Asian,' 'Communist,' and/or 'cult.' It describes nothing.

marshray 13y ago

Soldiers didn't have the internet. They didn't often get up-to-date newspapers and magazines. If they were lucky, they could sometimes get news/propaganda from shortwave radio, e.g., "Voice of America". Mainly they got news from their military and letters from home. So go for a year or two like this in a horrific combat zone in an utterly foreign Asian country. Then get captured and spend a few years writing essays about Communism in a Chinese-run POW camp (if you're lucky). It is both reasonable and compassionate that, when they get out, that individual should not be held to account for whatever documents they may have signed or political statements they may have made during that time. Whether 'brainwashing' was complete fiction or not, it was a concept which let broken men put the past behind them and have a welcome return to their home country.