OPINION: Lather rinse repeat

“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” — George Orwell, 1984 

Most of the country is brainwashed and about half are severely brainwashed to the extent that they no longer operate in reality. Of course, YOU are not brainwashed … or are you? How could you tell? Here is a test. Answer these three questions:

Do you believe that Trump called white supremacists in Charlottesville “fine people?” 

Did Trump tell people to drink or inject bleach to fight COVID? 

Were the Jan. 6 protesters insurrectionists attempting to overthrow the government by occupying the Capitol? 

If you answered YES to any of these questions, stop reading because nothing that I am about to say will make any sense to you, and you will only get angry and frustrated.  

If you recognized the three questions as hoaxes then there is hope for you. Over the last eight years, you have become more aware that the news is mostly fake. If you were really paying close attention, especially for the last month, you were shocked to find out that the fakery is a coordinated, centralized effort to brainwash citizens.  

Since 2019 you have been observing Joe Biden’s slide into senility, but the media has been chanting that Joe is perfectly fine, sharp as a tack, and he mumbles because of a speech impediment. Meanwhile, VP Harris was universally disliked with the lowest approval ratings of any vice president. It is as if they were using her as contrast to Biden. The Democrats and their operatives in the media were telling us this was normal.  

The Biden Administration’s policies are hugely unpopular. Open border, inflation, DEI, defund the police, lawfare, etc. were all polling negative so their best persuasion tool was to use fear and make Trump into an existential threat to just about everything. 

Then the debate happened and in a classic “the emperor has no clothes” moment, everybody was acutely aware of Joe’s diminished cognitive abilities. Their first reaction was to deny it happened. They said that Joe got off to a slow start because he had a cold. Democrats faithfully lined up in support of Biden but the poll numbers kept dropping. 

Then the failed assassination attempt and Trump’s heroic reaction along with iconic imagery closed the deal. Biden would lose to Trump, and everybody knew it. Time for Plan “B,” take Biden to the woodshed. He was likely given the option of withdrawing from the race and remaining president or being removed from office using the 25th Amendment. Biden needs those last-minute Presidential Pardons so he agreed to withdraw. He then endorsed Harris to return the favor and force them into having a candidate demonstrably worse than Joe.  

It was then that we really got to see the Democrat brainwashing machine in action. One of the first steps in rehabilitating Harris was to disassociate her from the border crisis. They sent out talking points to be parroted by the media that Harris was never the Border Czar, and calling her that was just a Republican smear. Unfortunately there is LOTS of footage of those very same media slaves cheering Harris, the new Border Czar, and even government documents from the White House identifying Harris as the Border Czar.  

The fact that they would lie so brazenly despite the likelihood they would get caught speaks to their level of fealty to their Democrat masters. Trump does pose an existential threat, to their power, so extreme measures are justified. 

The assassination attempt exposed the Democrats' “Trump is Hitler” fear rhetoric as a likely cause of political violence. They realized that continuing down the fear path was no longer viable. They needed a new angle.  

Remember back in 2016 with all the media outlets and Hillary simultaneously started calling Trump “dark?” That was no accident as it was later discovered that persuasion consultant Robert Cialdini hatched that dark pearl.  

The Democrat party is largely composed of liberal women and their beta male allies, so it was no shock that the latest persuasion framing is the mean girl insult “weird.” It was shocking how fast the media propagated the “Republicans are weird” framing. What was particularly creepy was watching the talking heads pretend that “weird” was a word they thought up. To watch them look into the camera and lie erased any remaining trace of credibility.   

There are several compilation videos of media outlets parroting the “weird” framing so you can see the brainwashing happening in real time, and once you see it you can’t unsee it.  

The failed assassination attempt has forced the Democrats to abandon the fear persuasion high ground. The “weird” framing is powerful persuasion, but it is simply a mean girl insult that is only persuasive to the swipe left, beta male “White Dudes for Kamala.” Sad. 

Republicans need to reject the “weird” framing and focus on our strengths. Policy, policy, policy. The Democrat policies of open borders, eliminating private health insurance, forced gun confiscation, DEI, allowing men in women’s sports and confiscating your earnings to distribute to their supporters are all losing propositions for Democrats, which is exactly why they need to be exposed and amplified.  

Your defense against being brainwashed is to be aware of the attempt. Watch for their next play. Once you see the gears of the machine, their power to influence you vanishes.  

It’s just common sense.

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Brent Regan is chairman of the Kootenai County Republican Central Committee.