Cults in our Midst." You can find it in my blog post entitled: "Do you know the difference between real education versus coercive thought reform?" The chart which Singer drew up is called "The Continuum of Influence and Persuasion." On one side of the continuum is true education that involves open and civil discourse with no intent to deceive. On the other side is coercive thought reform, or brainwashing, which uses deceptive tactics to blunt independent thought and control the person. In between are other, varying forms of influence: advertising, propaganda, indoctrination. It's very helpful to understand what's going on in each of these forms of persuasion. I believe that the study of cult methods is useful for resisting political correctness. And especially today. First of all, few people are actually focusing today on the methods and processes of thought reform. Certainly not the media or academia. And as we are battered with floods of information from all quarters -- the internet, news outlets, social media, TV, our education institutions, and so on -- one thing should be clear: there is a battle to push us into conformity of thought to the benefit of power elites and their power-consolidating agendas. There's nothing new there. This has been the story in advertising and propaganda from time immemorial. But what is most disconcerting is that few are investigating the actual guts of the propaganda machinery itself. At some point we have to tune out the constant barrage of blather and start sniffing out the machinery that its coming from! Stella's Book Club The study of cults offers a key to understanding how propagandists behave: their methods, their features, their techniques for controlling how people think. It's especially helpful in strengthening us to resist the temptation to self-censor in our culture of political correctness. And that's critical because giving in to it creates a spiral of silence that makes it ever harder to express an independent thought. Propagandists know this! Anyone pushing a power-centralizing agenda tends to be hellbent on shutting off all other forms of influence in people's lives. Driving you into this sort of isolation is exactly what political correctness is designed to do. Did it ever occur to you that this is precisely how cult leaders operate as well? So, please take a look at Singer's book as soon as possible. Find another person to do the same so you can talk about it. Hopefully you can grow a book club like mine, dedicated to propaganda awareness and the fight for freedom of expression. I hope soon to post some some study questions that go with the book.
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