In 1961, psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton published Thought Reform and the Psychology of Totalism, which is a book on the psychology of brainwashing (which he called “thought reform”). Lifton’s research subjects included American servicemen who had been held captive during the Korean War, and Chinese people who had fled their homeland after having been indoctrinated … Read more
The small rodent known as the lemming is often used as a metaphor to represent someone who mindlessly follows a crowd toward catastrophe. This is because it is commonly believed that lemmings commit mass suicide every few years by jumping off a cliff and drowning. The metaphor is useful because there are, indeed, people who … Read more
As a blogger in the Mormon Democrat space, I have recently realized that I may have been seeing the struggle through too narrow a lens. I had thought that Trumpism, and the even more radically fascist post-presidency Trumpism, was primarily a problem of lies versus truth. My response has been to relentlessly tell the truth … Read more
The central aspect of Donald Trump’s character, and the thing that qualifies him as evil (rather just a buffoon), is that he is a congenital liar. The Bible clearly states that “all liars” will go to hell (Revelation 21:8). The Book of Mormon teaches that the devil is “the father of all lies” (2Nephi 2:18). … Read more
It is all too easy to become entrapped in a web of lies and deceit. Ever since the War in Heaven Satan and his allies have been spinning their threads of lies, rumors, and half-truths to ensnare us. Propaganda, dissemination of information—facts, arguments, rumours, half-truths, or lies—to influence public opinion. Encyclopaedia Britannica The scary thing … Read more