Here's How To Tell If You're Brainwashed: Self-Reflection For The Intellectually Honest
I used to write propaganda for army intelligence. My mission was to draft the psychological profile of the enemy, define narratives that served our interests, and communicate them in a way that was relatable and manipulable, exploiting the enemy’s historical/political insecurities, and more. This propaganda would then be disseminated by our assets within enemy territory in an effort to subvert the enemy’s morale, compromise their loyalties, and therefore reduce the enemy’s effectiveness.
My propaganda experience gave me valuable insight about what brainwashing is, how it works, and how you can detect it.
Propaganda is what brainwashes you.
To get an idea whether you are brainwashed, ask yourself these questions:
Do you find that you agree 100% with someone or some ideology, and you can’t find that you can criticize him or it about anything? Are you 100% onboard with something? This may indicate that you rely on others for your individual sense of self-worth, and you are thus manipulable to them. It also means that you are emotionally invested in your beliefs, not logically. Logic and science are naturally skeptical and suspicious.
Do you get emotionally agitated and aggressive when people criticize your beliefs, even in a well-intended manner? This could indicate that you are emotionally, not intelligently, invested in something, because it conveniently manages your insecurities. If you can’t admit you have insecurities, this is further proof that you are insecure., and therefore, exploitable.
Do you find that you are addicted to consuming a specific line of messaging? Do you catch yourself having withdrawal symptoms when you can’t get validation of your beliefs on a daily basis? This could indicate that you are invested in a self or group identity that is heavily reliant upon a predetermined set of inflexible beliefs and values. It also means that deep down your subconscious suspects that what you believe in is brainwashing, and so, you seek constant validation to avoid having to face a breakdown of your belief systems, which would be a severe blow to your fragile sense of self-worth.
Do you get your messaging and ideology from people who don’t practice what they preach, or who demand that you change when they never do? Do they use psychological abuse against you, like shaming, guilt-tripping, fear porn, or love that you never earned? This may mean that you have allowed yourself to be manipulated into believing or doing things against your will, just because submitting to your manipulator’s emotional blackmail somewhat manages your insecurities momentarily.
Do you believe things just because someone told you, and you trust their perceived credibility, or because you verified it yourself? Do the people who told you what to believe in have any way of knowing what they claim they know? Do you have to take their word for it? Are your beliefs based solely on huge leaps of faith in people who appear credible solely due to the blatant arrogant confidence of their message delivery? This may mean that you are insecure in yourself, and you therefore place more value in other people’s opinions than your own critical abilities, and your natural, warranted and scientific skepticism. Yes, almost every claim in this world you cannot verify yourself. But you can trust people’s incentives not to lie when a lie can be exposed at some point, and when the messenger gets to suffer severe consequences for that lie. If he doesn’t face consequences for lying, or if he claims things that are unfalsifiable (things you can’t prove otherwise), then you should be extremely skeptical, if you want to maintain your individual integrity and self-ownership.
Are you generally insecure, without a strong sense of identity and self-determination, purpose and meaning in life? This makes you susceptible to group identity, which makes you extremely manipulable and ripe for brainwashing. This is a good cue to challenge all of your cherished beliefs, so that you are more sincere with yourself. If anything, challenging your belief as a non-judgmental unbiased outsider, or a devil’s advocate, can only strengthen your beliefs, as long as your beliefs are based on logic, not emotion.
Are your beliefs based on emotion instead of logic? Ask yourself why you believe what you believe. Did you logically conclude it, or you wanted to believe it because it was convenient, or it gave you some satisfaction to believe it? Do you believe convenient things only, or can you have the intellectual honesty to believe in harsh realities too? If your fundamental beliefs are too good to be true, or are generally always good for you, and not others, then perhaps you have brainwashed yourself just for the benefit of deluded reassurance in a fairy-tale reality.
Are you generally over-confident and extremely self-assured about your beliefs? This is the same as being insecure in them, because arrogance is masked insecurity. Being absolute in your beliefs is the same as being completely relativistic about them. This means you are emotionally driven, not logically, which makes you susceptible to brainwashing.
At the end of the day, being brainwashed denies your integrity, self-ownership and dignity. Brainwashing occurs only when you have little self-esteem, and when you lack the values, principles and individual identity to give you self-reliance. Without self-reliance, you desperately seek idols and ideologies to give you some sense of meaning. This is what manipulators exploit.
Make sure that you identity your individual (not collective) values, principles, virtues, ideals, and morals, and then, faithfully adhere to them. Live by them, whatever the cost.
Stand for something, or fall for for anything. This is how brainwashing works: people who have no self-identity or self-ownership are desperate to cling on to anything that gives them meaning. So they will easily allow themselves to be brainwashed just for some belief that gives them purpose and meaning, no matter how fake or empty or meaningless.
This is why the ultimate ideal is freedom, and allowing freedom for others to determine who they are. Why? Because no ideal or belief is meaningful if it can’t emerge without forcing it on others, or without manipulating people into adopting it.
I used my army propaganda and marketing experience to write a whole book about manipulation tactics, and how they work to brainwash you:
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