[American Thinker] There are three types of "science" -- good science, bad science, and political science. Perhaps some of the recent confusion and conflict occurs when rational, ethical, and honest people assume others use good science when, instead, dishonest and nefarious people often use bad science or political science.During the recent COVID outbreak we have repeatedly been told to follow their "science" and trust the experts even though their science changes at a rapid pace. COVID came from bat soup. COVID may have leaked from a lab. "Classified report with early support for lab leak theory." Wear masks. Masks are not effective. Reports and revisions; more reports and more revisions ad nauseam.
If we ignore bad science and political science, perhaps we can see how the gullible are deceived about COVID and many things associated with it. But how could so many Americans be so gullible? We know that, as Lincoln reputedly said, "You can fool all the people some of the time and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time." But are there tactics that allow you to fool most of the people most of the time?
What if there were a well-established body of science for brainwashing and well-established techniques to achieve predictable results? The CIA believed it was possible, when it developed Project MKUltra in the 1960s, to discover ways to brainwash people. Merely mentioning MKUltra sounds like a tinfoil hat conspiracy theory but the fact is that the project did exist.
Taxpayers funded the research as a national security issue. As the Smithsonian Magazine explained, in 1950, journalist Edward Hunter coined the term "brainwashing" to describe the way in which Chinese people were turned into mindless Communist Party members. The term became common currency in 1953 as the American military men held captive in Korea began confessing to all sorts of crimes against humanity, and "5,000 of the 7,200 POWs either petitioned the U.S. government to end the war or signed confessions of their alleged crimes. The final blow came when 21 American soldiers refused repatriation."
Brainwashing was now seen as a national security priority. Indeed, the same Edward Hunter who coined the phrase, was a propaganda specialist working for the CIA, as he admitted in congressional testimony:
