Writing the book on mass indoctrination

The New Neo Posted on by

This book by Buck Sexton sounds worth reading: Manufacturing Delusion: How the Left Uses Brainwashing, Indoctrination, and Propaganda Against You. From the Amazon blurb:

Some of history’s greatest empires have devolved into genocidal lunacy—often with shocking compliance from their own people. What methods can create this madness?

In Manufacturing Delusion, acclaimed conservative commentator and former CIA officer Buck Sexton offers answers. Drawing on his intelligence experience, expertise in crowd psychology, knowledge of propaganda, and research into some of history’s darkest totalitarian chapters, he equips you to identify mind control tactics used to form compliant citizens. He explores the eight tactics of mass delusion through examining:

— How Stalin used Pavlovian mind games to establish absolute control
— How Chinese thought reform transformed opposition into terrorized pawns
— How Jihadist preachers replace shared humanity with weaponized fear

Using these examples and others, Sexton walks you through a history of controlling regimes and the methods they used to create passive citizens. More importantly, he shows you how some of the early stages of mass delusion have already occurred right here in the United States of America, on issues of public health, gender, and racial justice.

I heard about the book through this interview with the author. Although the book’s title only mentions the left, he says in the interview that he also sees it on the right (or the former right, or the pretend right – aka Carlson and Owens). However, that is still a fringe group on the right, whereas it’s a widespread and mainstreamed tool of the left.

Here’s the interview:

In the interview, Sexton also mentions a much older book, The Rape of the Mind: The Psychology of Thought Control, Menticide, and Brainwashing by Joost A. M. Meerloo. It was first published in 1956 and this is from Amazon’s description:

In 1933 Meerloo began to study the methods by which systematic mental pressure brings people to abject submission, and by which totalitarians imprint their subjective “truth” on their victims’ minds. In “The Rape of the Mind” he goes far beyond the direct military implications of mental torture to describing how our own culture unobtrusively shows symptoms of pressurizing people’s minds. He presents a systematic analysis of the methods of brainwashing and mental torture and coercion, and shows how totalitarian strategy, with its use of mass psychology, leads to systematized “rape of the mind.” He describes the new age of cold war with its mental terror, verbocracy, and semantic fog, the use of fear as a tool of mass submission and the problem of treason and loyalty, so loaded with dangerous confusion. The “Rape of the Mind” is written for the interested layman, not only for experts and scientists. Contents: Part One: The Techniques of Individual Submission. 1. You Too Would Confess. 2. Pavlov’s Students as Circus Tamers. 3. Medication into Submission. 4. Why Do They Yield? The Psychodynamics of False Confession. Part Two: The Techniques of Mass Submission. 5. The Cold War against the Mind. 6. Totalitaria and its Dictatorship. 7. The Intrusion by Totalitarian Thinking. 8. Trial by Trial. 9. Fear as a Tool of Terror. Part Three: Unobtrusive Coercion. 10. The Child is Father to the Man. 11. Mental Contagion and Mass Delusion. 12. Technology Invades Our Minds. 13. Intrusion by the Administrative Mind. 14. The Turncoat in Each of Us. Part Four: In Search of Defenses. 15. Training Against Mental Torture. 16. Education for Discipline or Higher Morale. 17. From Old to New Courage. 18. Freedom — Our Mental Backbone

I think “our mental backbone” has gone rather squishy lately.

The reason I have highlighted the Meerloo book, though, is that – strangely enough – I read it when I was about ten years old. Did I understand it? Certainly not deeply. But the topic already interested me so much that I plowed through it.

How did it fall into my hands? My family had received a free and unsolicited catalogue in the mail from Marboro Books, which was (according to Google AI) “a notable discount book retailer and publisher founded in 1947, famous for selling remainders and overstock books at steep discounts through retail stores and mail-order catalogs, the chain was acquired by Barnes & Noble in 1979.” When the catalogue came, I pored over it, fascinated. It was the first time it occurred to me that I could order an adult book – and by “adult” I certainly don’t mean anything to do with sex.

My childhood interests were a portent of things to come as a blogger, because not only did I order that Meerloo book with my allowance, but I also ordered Charles MacKay’s classic Extraordinary Popular Delusions and The Madness of Crowds. That one was first published in 1841:

The subjects of Mackay’s debunking include alchemy, crusades, duels, economic bubbles, fortune-telling, haunted houses, the Drummer of Tedworth, the influence of politics and religion on the shapes of beards and hair, magnetisers (influence of imagination in curing disease), murder through poisoning, prophecies, popular admiration of great thieves, popular follies of great cities, and relics.

I think I’m going to order the Sexton book. I seem to have lost the others along the way, although I had them for a long long time.

Open thread 7/11/2026

The New Neo Posted on by

My freshman year in college I took an art history survey course that focused quite a bit on the art of very ancient civilizations, by which I mean pre-Roman and even pre-Greek art. For me, the work shown in these videos was most memorable. I could hardly believe how sophisticated it was. In particular the dying lioness, with her paralyzed hindquarters, was powerful, frightening, and yet sensitive and touching, all at the same time:

Platner officially drops out and proves what a class act he is

The New Neo Posted on by

I assume this is his actual X account:

Note the sign-off. After all the more formal jargon, we have this:

F*ck ICE. Free Palestine. Up the hearts.

Solidarity forever,
Graham Platner

I think one of his motives with the sign-off was to embarrass the Democrat politicians who initially supported him and then abandoned him. Then again, he could have done a lot worse there at the end, this being Platner.

So we have those two big progressive causes – anti-ICE and pro-Palestinian. What does “up the hearts” mean? It seems to be a reference to the Portland (Maine), soccer team, the Portland Hearts of Pine. And “Solidarity Forever” is an old labor movement song:

The iconic labor song “Solidarity Forever” turns 109 years old today. Written in defiance of early 20th-century oppression, it railed against the forces that “would lash us into serfdom” with the abiding counsel that the “union makes us strong.”

Will Platner manage to keep himself in the spotlight somehow? I think he’d certainly like to.

The Charlie Kirk murder conspiracy theorists and the Tyler Robinson evidence

The New Neo Posted on by

Many people are pointing out that the current preliminary hearing in Utah in preparation for Tyler Robinson’s trial in the murder of Charlie Kirk is revealing how bankrupt the “theories” of conspiracy theorists such as Candace Owens are. But actually, almost all the facts being presented in the hearing were already known to anyone paying much attention at all to the case. Thing is, most people don’t do their homework, and that helps make them easy prey for someone like Owens and the others.

The case against Robinson is about as strong as a case can be. It’s not just that there isn’t a reasonable doubt, there is simply no doubt. And that’s been obvious for quite some time. But that doesn’t stop the conspiracy theorists. They thrive on something about human nature: cynicism, suspicion, the urge to doubt authorities (an impulse which, unfortunately, is sometimes quite justified), and the need to feel superior to the common gullible masses.

It’s also a kind of club thing: we are the cognoscenti and you are not. Or maybe a sorority, because people who study such things say that Owens’ followers tend to be women. Although it’s certainly possible that a great many are bots, I have little doubt that a significant number are real people. There is a big market for such things – including and perhaps especially the virulent Jew-hatred that Candace spreads.

It’s certainly not limited to Jew-hatred, either, although that’s a large part of it. Owens also has been viciously attacking Ericka Kirk, whom she’s painted not only as being in on her husband’s murder, but as having never been what she says she is but rather is – among other things – a child trafficker. Owens acolytes (and/or bots) roam around the internet, commenting on videos featuring Kirk and casting her as a villainess extraordinaire. It is actually a sickening thing to behold.

As a result of the overwhelming evidence against Robinson in the legal proceedings, will conspiracy theorists abandon the murky webs they’ve spun regarding Kirk’s death? There might be a couple of people here and there who do so, but not the major players and not the bulk of their followers. They will simply wiggle out of it or change the focus slightly. Not only is it a money-making endeavor for people like Owens, but for her followers it has become a deep belief.

[NOTE: Over the years, I’ve written many posts about the Kennedy assassination conspiracy theorists. The majority of Americans still do not think that Oswald killed Kennedy or that he acted alone (see this). However, the evidence that he did is totally overwhelming, as I’ve explained in many previous posts.

I’m not going to rehash it here, having already spent so much time doing so. Suffice to say that I recommend the book Reclaiming History to anyone interested. You can find the text (or at least most of it) online here. As I said, I’ve written many posts on the subject, but here’s one of my posts that’s an overview.]

Trump and Rubio on Iran

The New Neo Posted on by

I’ve long thought that Rubio has no illusions about Iran and its past or current leaders. Whether Trump actually has some illusions on those subjects I really don’t know. But he sometimes speaks and behaves as though he does, although it may be some sort of strategic pretense.

I happened to see this relevant clip yesterday. I’ve cued up a one-minute excerpt:

However, I don’t think Trump is necessarily finished with negotiating, no matter what he says.

The Democrats are holding out for a hero in Maine

The New Neo Posted on by

Singer Bonnie Tyler died at 75 on July 8. She had one of the most distinctive and instantly recognizable voices in pop music, with a rasp (the result of a vocal cord operation) that had the hint of desperation that gave her songs a built-in urgency. He most famous is probably “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” But another big hit was “Holding Out for a Hero,” which totally suited Tyler’s style. This video (which I’d never seen before) is a typically dramatic over-the-top 1980s effort, the visuals bordering on the ever-so-slightly kinky.

Enjoy:

RIP Bonnie Tyler.

Speaking of kinky male heroes, it reminds me of the dilemma facing the Democrat Party, one that Graham Platner’s candidacy spotlighted. Some people wonder why Platner was chosen in the first place to run for office, and pushed by certain factions who thought he’d be a good candidate. I think the answer isn’t obscure: he was their designated working-class hero. At least, he could be presented that way. Because it’s all about casting. And sometimes an actor has to be replaced while the play is still in production.

Democrats have lost many members of a demographic that used to be a goodly portion of their base: white, male, working class. They don’t need those votes in deep blue states or cities, and are free to run rich Communists with a foreign background such as Mamdani. But in purple ones and in nationwide elections it’s a riskier proposition, although it can still happen (see Michigan and El-Sayed; but Michigan has a particularly large Muslim voting bloc). But Democratss would very much like to have those white working-class men voting for them everywhere.

Thus, you had the nomination of the abominable Tim Walz as Harris’s VP. It was an effort that failed because Walz was a leftist’s idea of a masculine guy, but he fell very short of that and just came across as weird (a descriptor he used for J. D. Vance but that fit Walz far better).

Vance, by the way, really did start out as a white working-class guy – or even more poor than that – but rose higher by dint of brains and hard work.

Initially Platner must have seemed like a good solution to the problem. Male, “oyster farmer,” young, tattooed, veteran, Maine native, possessed of a rugged quality. A leftist who didn’t look like a leftist. For a while he polled quite well against Susan Collins, who is old and female and has been in office for a gazillion years. But Platner had a past, and the past wasn’t all that long ago.

Who chose Platner? Like most of these working-class heroes and foreign academic Communists, he was chosen by people whose specialty it is to find them and back them:

It’s about one of these “finders,” Daniel Moraff. The Times article said, “He looks for a particular type: military veterans with blue-collar jobs and no electoral experience but an interest in politics and (typically) labor unions.”

Next in line in Maine for the role seems to be Troy Jackson. The difference is that he really is from a working-class background and really was a logger, although he lacks a history of military service. He also has been a Maine politician for about twenty-five years and was the president of the Maine Senate. However, he’s got the usual political baggage, in his case that he was originally an abortion-opposing and same-sex-marriage-opposing Republican and switched both his party and his positions. There’s also this:

Jackson initially maintained a close political alliance with Platner, with the two frequently appearing at campaign rallies together and running in a ranked-choice voting alliance during the 2026 primary cycle. However, after multiple scandals involving Platner, including allegations that he raped a former girlfriend, Jackson has distanced himself from Platner.

On Israel, Jackson adheres to the requisite Democrat Party line:

“Anybody with eyes and a heart knows the Israeli government is committing genocide in Gaza. It has to end, and we as Americans have the power to end it.” Jackson added that he will “never vote in favor of US taxpayer-funded military aid to Israel” as a senator.

The article says that’s the first time he’s spoken much publicly about Israel, and it happened yesterday. Funny thing, that – he’s hopping on the bandwagon in an attempt to replace Platner. Jackson is also backed by Hasan Piker and Bernie Sanders. The same article helpfully lists the other contenders for the nomination as well, and mentions their attitudes on the Israel question. They exhibit different degrees of anti-Israel sentiment. But only one candidate seems to be supportive of the country, and that’s Shenna Bellows, the secretary of state of Maine.

One more thing about Troy Jackson – this allegation has emerged:

A progressive advocacy group on Tuesday accused former Maine Senate President Troy Jackson of striking a female colleague with a bottle he threw during a state Senate caucus dispute years ago, complicating his emergence as the leading Democrat contender to replace Graham Platner on the November ballot against Republican Sen. Susan Collins. …

In a post on X, the group said Jackson, “in a heated disagreement, struck a female colleague with a bottle he threw at her” during a caucus meeting when he served as Senate president, and it described the episode as “a widespread open secret” in Maine politics that was “not an isolated incident.”

The group conceded that people close to Jackson were denying the account.

The Democrats have until July 27 to make a decision. It will be the Party regulars of Maine who will choose Platner’s successor. They have an interesting task ahead – how to thread the needle.

[NOTE: If anyone’s interested in how it is that Platner can be on total disability from the service, here’s an article about that.]

And then there’s Wisconsin and Francesca Hong

The New Neo Posted on by

Here we go again. A DSA far-leftist named Francesca Hong is running for the Democratic nomination for governor of Wisconsin.

Wisconsin is a purple state, and that’s a statewide office. So the Democrats are understandably nervous about her:

Most political observers assume Democratic insiders are trying to stop Francesca Hong because they fear she would lose a general election. Given Hong’s support for abolishing police, abolishing prisons, and other positions well to the left of most Wisconsin voters, many Democrats worry she could squander what they believe is a favorable political environment in 2026 while dragging down legislative candidates and jeopardizing hopes of a Democratic trifecta.

There is certainly some truth to that.

But the deeper fear has far less to do with November than it does with what happens afterward.

If Hong wins the Democratic primary, she instantly becomes the face of Wisconsin Democrats. Whether she wins or loses in November almost becomes secondary. She would emerge as the standard bearer for the Democratic Party, and an influential voice who can fundamentally re-shape Democrat politics in the state. …

Establishment Democrats see the direction their party is heading—both in Wisconsin and across the country. And many are increasingly fearful that Democratic Socialism is no longer a fringe movement, but the future of the Democratic Party. And they are terrified that they will lose their position of power in this new-look Socialist Party.

Yes, but I’m more worried that, as in New York, these DSA candidates will win elections. I suppose it’s likely that Wisconsin isn’t ready for Hong. But in a few years it may be.

The article goes on to discuss a host of more local races in Wisconsin in which ultra-leftists are challenging more moderate Democrats and even conventionally “progressive” candidates. It’s become very apparent that this DSA takeover attempt is an extremely well-organized national movement.

Here’s some background on Hong, who is from deep-blue Madison:

Hong was born on November 4, 1988, in Madison, Wisconsin, to Korean American immigrant parents

During the 2024 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Hong backed the Uncommitted National Movement to protest President Joe Biden’s policies towards the Gaza war, and drafted a letter calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Hong also joined the State Assembly’s Socialist Caucus in 2024. …

Hong has described herself as the “wild card” in the race, running as a progressive outsider. During her campaign, she was compared to fellow democratic socialist and then-mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani in New York City. Hong has drawn inspiration from Mamdani’s mayoral campaign in running her own gubernatorial campaign.

Hong is the Democrats’ frontrunner in a recent poll, and she also leads the GOP frontrunner although her advantage is well within the margin of error and the number of undecided voters is large.

About Wisconsin’s history with socialist candidates:

Barry Burden, political science professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, told Newsweek that Hong’s style, message and organization approach are working well in the primary, but her style of politics is “less tested in a general election environment.”

“Socialist and populist messages have had resonance in Wisconsin at various times, from the reforms of Robert La Follette a century ago, to several socialist mayors in Milwaukee, to a strong showing by both Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump in the last decade,” he said. “There are more conventional Democratic candidates in the field who fare just fine in a general election but could also fail to fully rally the progressive base.”

Meet Chris Rabb, who will be the House member from the 3rd District of Pennsylvania

The New Neo Posted on by

DSA member Chris Rabb will be representing the 3rd US House District, which is in Philadelphia. Why do I say he “will,” as though it’s already a fait accompli? After all, the election hasn’t happened yet. The reason is that Rabb is running unopposed; the GOP realizes it would be a waste of time and money to field a candidate there, it is such a deep deep blue area. In fact, it’s the bluest district in the entire House, according to this video.

You can see from the video that Rabb has a great deal of ambition for the DSA message, which he thinks can also resonate in districts that aren’t so deep blue:

Rabb’s story in the primary has been a familiar one. He beat out two Democrats who were not as radical as he and who had more name recognition. All three candidates were black and so I assume race had little to nothing to do with his win over his opponents:

Rabb, who ran an unapologetically progressive campaign, set himself apart from the initially crowded field of candidates by describing himself as the “anti-establishment” Democrat in the race.

His progressive stances – and allyship with leftist organizations, including the Democratic Socialists of America and Working Families Party – proved to be key to his winning the deep blue seat against a party leader in Sharif Street and a tough newcomer in Dr. Ala Stanford.

“A couple of months ago, I was on the precipice of withdrawing from this race,” Rabb said to supporters at his election watch party. “I was reminded that tough times pass, but tough people last.”

You can see, however, that Rabb didn’t get a majority, although he got a strong plurality.

Here’s a quote from Rabb for Independence Day:

Rabb is the Democrat nominee for Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional District who thought it was a good idea to actually denounce the Declaration of Independence ahead of America’s semiquincentennial.

“Those screeds that were very lofty but were notoriously catering to a performative aspect of collective genius that purposely erased indigenous and black peoples,” Rabb said at “America at 250 — Trump Fascism, Historical Erasure, and the Battle Over Truth.”

“It created distance from an empire to help very privileged people continue that privilege and ultimately institutionalize that through the U.S. Constitution many years later. But it certainly did not provide independence to indigenous and black peoples,” he claimed. “And we cannot talk about anything today without acknowledging that this is a nation born on stolen land & stolen labor.”

He hits every leftist note, master of the buzzword (“performative,” “privilege,” “stolen land”).

Rabb’s Wiki entry is interesting. In a familiar pattern, he is an Ivy League graduate (Yale in his case, with a Master’s in organizational dynamics from the University of Pennsylvania), and his father is both a doctor and a college professor. He is a descendent of many activist leaders in the black community:

Rabb was born in Chicago, to an ophthalmologist and professor father, Maurice Rabb Jr., and a politically active mother, Madeline Murphy Rabb. His maternal grandmother, Madeline Wheeler Murphy, was a Baltimore-based community activist, and his maternal grandfather, William H. Murphy Sr., was a judge in Baltimore. Rabb’s great-great-grandfather, John H. Murphy Sr., was born into slavery and founded the Baltimore Afro-American in 1892.

Rabb hasn’t gotten the same kind of publicity as some of the other DSA progressives. But it seems to me he could be a rising star in the Democratic Socialist movement.

How the new comment system will work – the idea is that there will be a minimum of disruption

The New Neo Posted on by

You may not even notice the change. At least, that’s what my research indicates.

For previous commenters, as long as you use the name and email address you’ve used here right along, you should be grandfathered in and have no problem whatsoever.

New commenters will have their first comment held in moderation until I approve it. After that, it should be smooth sailing for them, too.

I probably will make the switchover some time this weekend. I’ll announce it at the time. Let me know through an email if you encounter any difficulties when it happens. No regular commenter should have any trouble with the transition, but you never know with these things.

Open thread 7/9/2026

The New Neo Posted on by

The person who compiles this series of video interviews is excellent at what he does. The note he wrote for this video states that it went viral and that as a result the woman got gifts and cards from all over the world: