The Prog Whisperer
- How to Perform a Robotomy and Deprogram the Left
October 2016
I’ve been making a study of propaganda and mass psychology to better understand how the Left is so successful at turning people into robots. To that end, I read Let Our Children Go,! co-authored by Ted Patrick (the ‘father of deprogramming’), to see how brainwashed young adults have been extracted from religious cults. The book is filled with numerous insights that can be applied to people who have been brainwashed by the Left.
Cult victims are told:
Real-World Applications – I’m Tea Party. The Tea Party has been demonized unfairly. So I ask people who approach our booths: Have you ever talked to a Tea Partier before? What do you think we stand for? Let me ask you three questions:
Of course, they answer no to all three. Then I say, ‘congratulations, you’re a Tea Partier (or should be checked for Tea Party tendencies, ha ha). Why? Because you believe in our three core values (which is all we’re about, nothing else):
I’m asking them questions, getting them to think for themselves, and also to relate their answers to their prior experience, i.e., what they already believe and are attached to.
You might also have occasion to ask the Lefties you encounter:
Just to be clear, I’m not advocating you kidnap anyone or lock them in a room to work on them for 12 hours straight (Ted Patrick got in some trouble for this). The suggestions above are more arrows in the quiver in your ordinary interactions and debates with progressives.
- How to Perform a Robotomy and Deprogram the Left
October 2016
I’ve been making a study of propaganda and mass psychology to better understand how the Left is so successful at turning people into robots. To that end, I read Let Our Children Go,! co-authored by Ted Patrick (the ‘father of deprogramming’), to see how brainwashed young adults have been extracted from religious cults. The book is filled with numerous insights that can be applied to people who have been brainwashed by the Left.
Cult victims are told:
- Nonbelievers are devils (insert Tea Party here) and, if you listen to any of their criticism of the cult, the devil will take over your brain. Any doubt you form is a way for Satan to get to you. Using your mind or thinking for yourself is the way of the devil; you will go astray. This becomes a totally closed system with all escape routes systematically cut off. The ideas become ubiquitous (insert mainstream media, handmaiden of the Left), so you are never left alone with your own thoughts for one second.
- You are told you are either with us or with Satan. If you leave, you are lower than Satan. ‘If you try to leave, we’ll be hurt. Don’t you like us? You don’t want to hurt us, do you?’ (Just try leaving the Left, if you’re in it now, and see what kind of treatment you get from your ‘friends’. If you don’t believe me, read up on David Horowitz, who was universally shunned when he turned conservative.)
- We’ll do all your thinking for you; you don’t have to worry about that. We will give you your instructions; don’t try to think. Group prayer is used to repeat slogans and manipulate the mind.
- The believer develops an emotional attachment to the cult which is manipulated in various ways. For example: ‘We’re your parents and your family, now. Stay true to us or you will hurt your family and your friends.’ Also, they make you feel obligated to them, so you willingly panhandle for them on street corners. Every dollar gathered for the cult is a dollar taken away from Satan. This is after you have given the cult all of your own money.
- The ends justify the means, so that lying, cheating, and stealing are OK and to be excused if it helps the cult. (This helps explain why the ethically-challenged Hillary Clinton keeps so many devoted followers – lying is good if it means we win. Winning is the only thing.) You must be ready to lie, cheat, steal, and even kill for the cause.
- It’s OK to deceive nonbelievers; we are beyond good and evil. (Some years ago, Al Gore said it’s OK to lie as long as you’re making a point.)
- The leader is to be glorified almost as a demi-god (Obamabots). Dear Leader loves you and cares about you.
- You are the servants of mankind, you are saving the world (but you don’t actually have to do anything).
- Ask them questions. (From a recent story on de-radicalization efforts in Britain: “It starts with me listening and slowly chipping away at his thoughts and getting him to realize what he is thinking is crazy. In the end, they hear their own voices more than yours.” Daily Signal)
- Tell them forthrightly they have been duped, deceived, brainwashed, manipulated, and exploited. Tell them you are trying to get them to think for themselves again. The less they have read, the easier they are to deprogram, because they only have slogans to fall back on.
- Show how the leaders make lots of money and live fabulous lifestyles, while the rank-and-file toils away (Richard Trumka, call your office)
- Emphasize their prior ties to family and other important parts of their life
- Expose how the cult sows discord, division, and hatred. It deliberately turns people against their country and foments discontent - ‘patriotism is sinful’, ‘the system is evil’, ‘become a revolutionary’, ‘tear down institutions’, etc. Here, the cults sound exactly like the Left. After exposing all this, confront the believer: ‘What kind of philosophy teaches you to hate people and demonize others? That’s evil. You’re an evil person.’
- Show how they prey on people’s loneliness and fear of being alone. (Other books like Eric Hoffer’s ‘True Believer’ and Erich Fromm’s ‘Escape from Freedom‘ explain how the human personality can be tipped to prefer submission to freedom in order to feel connected to something larger than oneself and avoid feeling isolated.)
- Enlist the aid of deprogrammed converts who know the cult’s tricks inside and out
Real-World Applications – I’m Tea Party. The Tea Party has been demonized unfairly. So I ask people who approach our booths: Have you ever talked to a Tea Partier before? What do you think we stand for? Let me ask you three questions:
- Do you think the government should run every aspect of everybody’s life?
- Do you think the government should run the entire economy?
- Do you think the government should bankrupt future generations with crazy spending?
Of course, they answer no to all three. Then I say, ‘congratulations, you’re a Tea Partier (or should be checked for Tea Party tendencies, ha ha). Why? Because you believe in our three core values (which is all we’re about, nothing else):
- Limited government under the Constitution
- Free markets, and
- Fiscal responsibility
I’m asking them questions, getting them to think for themselves, and also to relate their answers to their prior experience, i.e., what they already believe and are attached to.
You might also have occasion to ask the Lefties you encounter:
- Do you consider yourself a thinking person?
- What conservative or libertarian sources do you read?
- How can you consider yourself a thinking person if you don’t read anything from the other side of the ledger, or know both sides of an issue?
Just to be clear, I’m not advocating you kidnap anyone or lock them in a room to work on them for 12 hours straight (Ted Patrick got in some trouble for this). The suggestions above are more arrows in the quiver in your ordinary interactions and debates with progressives.