Cracked: 5 Brainwashing Tricks That Work No Matter How Smart You Are
What’s this? Another article on Cracked about how incorrigibly tribal-minded us homo sapiens are? Well, yes. But the proverbial devil is in the proverbial details. Proverbially.
It’s still worth reading. That’s what I’m getting at.
Everyone is talking about Scientology again, and why not? It’s a billion-dollar cult apparently based on convincing actors they have superpowers. But there’s no reason to single them out — look around and you’ll see the world is full of people who’ve either gotten brainwashed into doing something weird (like that co-worker who’s way too into yoga) or murderous (like, you know, all those people who keep joining ISIS). You would never do something like that, of course, so what makes those people different?
Why is it so easy for evil/stupid movements to find followers — including intelligent, well-educated ones? I’m pretty sure the future of civilization hangs on figuring this out, so here’s what I’ve got: