Political Memes

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[–] Atomic@sh.itjust.works 1 point 8 months ago (2 children)

Where does any belief originate?

If you're trying to allude to those beliefs coming from brainwashing. Then we are all brainwashed by our parents.

But we generally call that "being raised". And as you're well aware, different people are raised differently.

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[–] MerryJaneDoe@lemmy.world 1 point 8 months ago (1 child)

Yes, that's kind of my point. We all are brainwashed, from Day One. You don't have a choice which ideas you're exposed to when you are a child.

As an adult, though, you can start to exert control over the narrative. You can explore ideas that your parents and school didn't share with you. You can pick up a book, learn what you want to learn, share ideas that were previously off limits.

Mass media (esp. doom scrolling) attempts to regain control of that narrative. And, yes, of course, mass media's job is to insert new beliefs. Why else would I have an opinion on Israel, a country I've never been to, that has no immediate relevance to my life? Why don't I have a similarly strong opinion about countries like Kiribati or Abkhazia?

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[–] Atomic@sh.itjust.works 1 point 8 months ago

I understand what you're trying to say. I don't necssesarily disagree, I think we just call it different things.

I'll explain my thoughts like this. All of our beliefs, what we're capable of, is like seeds. When we are raised, our parents, teachers, situations that affect us, plant them. Some we plant ourselves.

Not all of the seeds will grow. Throughout, our parents, friends, teachers, reward the growth of certain seeds and punish the growth of others. Parents especially might even try to rip out a seedling before it grows bigger.

you get the idea.

What I think mass media is doing (radicalisation), is encouraging the growth of seeds already planted but never encouraged to grow. And over a long course of time, the continuous reinforcement have made it grow into a tree. A full blown belief.

What I think brainwashing is doing, is taking one of those trees, chopping it down, and planting a sapling in its place.

Upon reflection. I do agree that some people are probably being brainwashed. Their trees have been rotting away and it doesn't take much to fell it.

But I think most are being radicalised.

Maybe those words mean the same, maybe I'm just making a distinction on my own. But at least you understand my thought process.

As to your last question. I think we do care, we just don't know it's happening. When we learn of new situations, we fall back on our forest of beliefs to guide us on how we feel about it. But if we were to care deeply about everything awful, well, I don't think there's enough hours in a year to cover it all before new awful things happen.