r/TerrifyingAsFuck • u/TheMrMorbid • Mar 14 '24

war Chinese prisoners being buried alive by their Japanese captors outside the city of Nanjing, during the infamous Rape of Nanjing, 1937.

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u/indefilade Mar 14 '24

It’s not brainwashing, it’s nationalism. Brainwashing implies effort. There was no effort needed to get the Japanese military to do this. Same for the Nazi army.

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u/cbreezy456 Mar 15 '24

Brainwashing is an important step in the rise of ultra- nationalism. How did you miss that step?

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u/indefilade Mar 15 '24

Didn’t take much brainwashing to convince the Japanese and Nazis. They were ready for genocide from the word go.

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u/YeezusWoks Mar 15 '24

Propagada leads to brainwashing. You keep referring to “effort” as if brainwashing takes some kind of force. It doesn’t. American nationalism IS already a form a brainwashing (i.e. singing the national anthem at events, reciting the pledge of allegiance, etc). None of which require any kind of effort or force. It’s just the norm in America society. When I joined the Marines, I did it for “love of country.” However, the national anthem in and of itself didn’t automatically brainwash me into seeing “others” as the enemy. That came in the form of propaganda in boot camp, and combat training. The videos of Marines getting their brains blown out by “hadjis” was the brainwashing we needed to emotionally embed hate for the “enemy.” It was the videos, the posters, and the training that brainwashed young and impressionable Marines into believing that “towel head goat fuckers” deserve to die because they killed Americans and the proof is in the combat footage they show you minutes before learning how to use the M249 SAW. That’s how they prepare you for combat, it’s all brainwashing techniques.

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u/KingHavana Mar 16 '24

Thank you for sharing this and being open about your experience.