The other day someone in a forum I frequent said something to the effect that the followers of <famous politician> were a bunch of brainwashed idiots.
Hmmmm. I have a lot of problems with that statement.
Now, I am not known for my high opinion of most people’s intelligence or thinking ability—but that isn’t to say that I do not think that people have agency or are so stupid that they can be easily convinced of certain things.
As I have noted before, my background is in rhetoric—and any rhetorician worth his salt knows that persuading people is extremely difficult in most cases. “Brainwashing” is even harder than that (in the amount of effort and resources required).
Persuasion actually requires the active participation of the target. It requires agency on both sides. People are not passive objects (for the most part).
People have amazingly good BS detectors when they actually pay attention to them. It is a survival characteristic developed through the long span of evolution. That means that you (as the persuader) either need to be VERY good at lying… or your target has to WANT to believe your lie.
It is amazing how many lies and not true things that people WANT to believe.
A lot of that willing belief in untruth is rooted in identity. Identity, in turn, is a central aspect of group membership and in-group and out-group boundaries.
The TLDR version of that is that the people who you think are “brainwashed” are willing participants in their own deception (if you can call it that). They are not blameless. They are not dupes or empty vessels filled by the nefarious politician or ideologue.
It’s not like (in this modern digital age.. or even in the pre-digital hardcopy printed age) they can’t actually find out (to a fair degree of accuracy) what is true or correct—or most likely to be true or correct. They don’t bother. They have the answer they want—the narrative they want.
So don’t call them brainwashed and by doing so excuse them from the accountability for what they choose to believe and what they choose to do on the basis of that belief.