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   Annalee Newitz 🍜 (annaleen@wandering.shop)'s status on Saturday, 09-Dec-2023 09:54:23 JST Annalee Newitz 🍜

   I've been working on an article about the history of brainwashing as an idea. Today a researcher pointed out to me that there is one obvious difference between the way brainwashing is portrayed in the British novel 1984 vs the American movie The Manchurian Candidate. In 1984, the characters are being brainwashed by their own government. In the Manchurian Candidate, it's "the Reds." It's interesting to ponder the difference between those two fears, especially given contemporary politics.

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 09-Dec-2023 09:54:22 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Wolven

     @annaleen
     Oh, that is interesting. Yes.

     Thinking out loud here, and pretty far out on a limb: we could view MAGA as being a fusion of these two threads of paranoia, only a breath away from (and sometimes morphing into) cold war Red Scare, yet also viewing the home government as the enemy. It’s a mashup that doesn’t make logical sense (“We don’t trust democracy, which is communist“?!?), only racist sense. But psychologically I feel like there’s a thread there to pull…?

     @Wolven

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     Paul Cantrell (inthehands@hachyderm.io)'s status on Saturday, 09-Dec-2023 10:32:39 JST Paul Cantrell

     in reply to

     • Wolven

     @annaleen @Wolven
     My train of thought there is well outside of the boundaries of my expertise here, so if either of you have further thoughts at some point, I’d be v curious to hear

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     Annalee Newitz 🍜 (annaleen@wandering.shop)'s status on Saturday, 09-Dec-2023 10:32:45 JST Annalee Newitz 🍜

     in reply to

     • Paul Cantrell
     • Wolven

     @inthehands @Wolven I definitely think you're on to something there