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Comment by pnathan | Hacker News Reader

> I don't even know anymore. We're gonna have to raise the bar on what it means to be a "tinfoil hatter"; the original definition has become reality.

That's sort of where I've gotten to this summer. It's really frustrating and saddening.

Although mind-control waves still aren't, TO THE BEST OF MY KNOWLEDGE, a thing.

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Mainstream media bombardment and constant advertising harassment do a pretty good job of mind control, though.

Also, culture is the best mind control. Raise people with a mind set the way you want it and you never have to do anything directly, because they already are siding with you even through cognative dissonance.

Public schools are far more significant than the media.

You could be right. Or it could be the exact opposite. Or something else. It doesn't matter. Fundamentally we do it to ourselves, because we're herd/pack/social animals. We shun anyone too different from the tribe, it's in our DNA. Because of that, we are highly evolved to fit in.

Yeah, we're self aware and all that, we have choices, but what we generally choose to do is identify with some group and hate opposing groups. It's what we do.

The chimpanzees are laughing at us.

In England and Wales, truancy is a criminal offence for parents.[6] Since 1998, a police officer of or above the rank of superintendent may direct that for a specified time in a specified area a police officer may remove a child believed to be absent from a school without authority to that school or to another designated place....

It's not that widely known, but you can remove your child from state education as a parent and teach them yourself. You just have to tell the local authority you're doing so in writing.

>Although mind-control waves still aren't, TO THE BEST OF MY KNOWLEDGE, a thing.

knowing that you're under constant surveilance and your every step/action is recorded makes wonders in the way of shaping and controlling your behavior.

Too often people forget that propaganda machines (media outlets) and biased education materials significantly shape the perspective people have of the world. That's the kind of 'mind control' which matters.

Unfortunately, nothing as simple as a tinfoil hat can block this though.

Manufacture of consent is effectively mind control.

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