Psychoanthrowalker: Ramblings of my soul

Yes, it absolutely does!

Propaganda is baked into our daily reality so seamlessly and thoroughly that it mostly feels like common sense.

It's why we defend brands like they're old friends.

It's why we discuss celebrities we've never met and who don't know we exist as if we know their hearts, defending or condemning them based on how talented their publicists are.

It's why we confuse relatability for trustworthiness

It's why we mistake emotional resonance for moral principles.

It's why we think our opinions are purely self-generated despite being nudged by countless carefully curated narratives which have more (and more subtle) ways of reaching us than at any time in human history.

It's why we treat people's lives, public policy, and geopolitical matters like team sports.

It's why we need to constantly interrogate our own assumptions, habitually subjecting them to fact checking, methodical scrutiny, and cynicism.

It's why we need media literacy and media ecology to be taught to kids of all ages.

It's why everyone should read Orwell, Huxley, Neil Postman, and Marshal McLuhan.

It's why we should all study logic, rhetoric, and ethics - so we can understand and apply moral reasoning based on principles.

The point isn't whether or not we're affected by propaganda, because we all are.

The point is whether or not we know we're affected...which ironically is the exact blind spot that makes people think they're immune.

The moment you assume you're above that influence? That's when it's working best.

That's why, Anon, the post you're responding to didn't say "you are not immune to propoganda."

It said:

If you think you're immune to propaganda, that means the propaganda is working.

That was what...500 words? So Anon's problem is aliteracy.

"You're right! No one is! That's why we all have to put constant effort into identifying and resisting harmful propaganda!"

To harden yourself against propaganda, or assholes in general, you need logic, rhetoric, and media literacy, but you also need a clear understanding of where you come from (and where you disagree with your culture); a basic understanding that if someone says 'ow, that hurt' you done fucked up; and some history and science, because there really are patterns in this kind of thing.

However, you can completely ignore Orwell, or any other fiction book. Stories can be fun and sometimes thought experiments, but the only use I've gotten out of them is knowing where memes come from. They aren't science and often have parts that self-contradict (or, in other words, that story literally can't happen).

Confusing the two indicates you've never actually read the work you're dismissing.

Cognitive dissonance (Leon Festinger, 1957) is the mental discomfort that comes from holding conflicting beliefs or acting against your own values. It bothers you and pushes you to seek consistency.

Doublethink (from Orwell's 1984) is the opposite. It's the deliberate ability and the cultivated-through-propaganda habit of accepting uncritically two contradictory beliefs as equally true, to feel no discomfort, and to regard that numbness with pride as a virtue.

The Party member knows the Party is lying and still believes the lie.

One is a bug in human psychology, the other is a method of totalitarian control through propaganda.

Dissonance tries to heal the mind. Doublethink trains you to break it.

Cognitive dissonance drives you toward honesty and integrity. Doublethink teaches you to kill both.

These are not the same thing.

Why Literature Matters

The idea that the only purpose of literature is to know where memes come from might be the single most excruciating comment I've read this year. It's like saying the only use for a symphony is recognizing ringtones.

Fiction is one of the best defenses against propaganda because it trains you to think like a writer.

Reading masterful fiction teaches you how stories work. How authors pull emotional strings, withhold information, frame villains as victims and heroes as fools. Once you see those techniques on the page, you start spotting them everywhere else. In advertising, in punditry, and in propaganda.

Good fiction gives you x-ray vision for manipulation.

It teaches you to see the scaffolding behind narrative persuasion and realize that narrative is the ultimate brain hack.

It also trains empathy the way nothing else does. When you live inside another person's head (even one you'd normally despise) you develop cognitive flexibility. You learn that motives are complex, that narrators lie, and that truth is rarely simple.

Propaganda relies on rigidity and simplicity. Fiction teaches you to see complexity and nuance.

That's why Orwell wrote 1984. It wasn't prophecy. It was prevention.

Dystopian fiction is never about the future, it's a mirror for the present.

Fiction is perhaps the most relevant training for navigating a world full of people trying to manipulate your perception of reality.

The Reading Crisis

I worry about the generations after mine. Constant exposure to social media has:

Crippled attention spans

Taught people to see creative works as disposable, cheap, and forgettable

Encouraged moral and aesthetic relativism

Robbed millions of the cognitive training books once provided

Not posts. Not memes. Not fanfic.

Books.

Long-form, complex, demanding books which create a shared meditation between the mind of the writer and the mind of the reader.

"Brainrot" is utterly insufficient describe the depth and seriousness of this problem of generational aliteracy. Our entire society is already starting to pay a terrible price for it, and the situation shows all signs of worsening.

An Apology to @pinkrangerv

I have struggled for a way to express my horror here without being a dick, and I'm not sure I've succeeded.

I'm mostly angry that all of your teachers failed you this badly, because you're obviously very bright and that makes their failure all the more tragic and infuriating. You deserved better.

Please consider reading Christopher Hitchens' Why Orwell Matters, if you won't read Orwell himself.

Essential Reading for Propaganda Defense

If one wants to have all possible defenses against propaganda at one's disposal, one shouldn't stop after reading Animal Farm, 1984, and Huxley's Brave New World.

More fiction suggestions to help defend your mind against propaganda:

Sinclair Lewis - It Can't Happen Here

Ray Bradbury - Fahrenheit 451

Philip K. Dick - The Man in the High Castle

Shirley Jackson - The Lottery

Arthur Koestler - Darkness at Noon

Margaret Atwood - The Handmaid's Tale

Kazuo Ishiguro - Never Let Me Go