RE: Trudge onward brave friend... your mind is your shield, you need not flee in fear... face your fear...
Heh. The term brainwashing WOULD fit just based upon what those base root words mean. Yet, it is also called things like Cognitive Dissonance, and many other psychological labels I likely do not know.
Usually brainwashing was a concerted effort by some group, entity, kidnapper, etc to convince a person that the world and reality were a certain way, and to instill in them mechanisms for resisting any attempt to hear otherwise. :)
I do think it is accurate. Yet it also seems there is a lot of that occurring in our education system, in our religions, in our news broadcasts, etc.
When you are forcing BIAS upon another and expecting them to absorb, repeat, and not challenge your bias then in some way you actually are attempting to brainwash someone. :)
I see no value in that. I have my own mind. I do not benefit from another person thinking the way I do. I benefit from encountering people that have different thoughts and ideas than I do. This is the best chance for me to learn new things.
I prefer a good intellectual fight/ heated discussion over boring agreements any day!
Too bad I agree with you ;)... Well maybe except for one thing: looking at the list of "trigger words", there are surely some influentual groups that want these topics to not be discussed. So I actually think this is systematic brainwashing and not just some people being crazy / not capable of using their brain in a healthy way.
Edit: Maybe its a bit of both tho ;)
Well I agree with you. I also intentionally tried to think of a lot of different words I've seen trigger people. They were no indicator of my own views. :)
Though I do enjoy reading and debating on a large number of those topics.
To be clear: I dont think this is a left vs right issue.
I rather think the very idea of the left-right spectrum is a big contributer. It creates artificial barriers and lets people swallow ideas in bulk instead of one by one.
If I should describe myself in common political terms then I am a nationalistic, liberal socialist. That is just to show that people need to break free from the thought of the classic left-right dualism.
Heh... I was a Libertarian meaning I am neither left nor right though I've been accused of being both at different points in some threads. I now consider myself most closely an Anarcho-Capitalist though if you want to really get down to it I am an Individual and I believe in Voluntaryism.
I think there is a problem with the entire left/right thing as well and have for a long time. That is exactly why I put them as trigger words as I often see people triggered by them. ;)
Left/Right = False Dichotomy