Iria Vasquez-Paez

What is fake news? What are alternative facts? What is political brainwashing? Fake news is called such because it is seen as being reported by a non-legitimate news agency, thus becoming political gaslighting. Alternative facts are about total lies to the American people by the Machine. The mere division between Democrat and Republican reeks of political brainwashing because really, they work together to further national interest. The Machine only takes news questions from Fox News. This is the way Republicans think, even though Democrats are part and parcel of the same coin. “Fake News” is a term that undermines legitimate news sources like CNN. Supporters of the Machine are brainwashed into believing what the Republicans say. Politicians deal with many untrue news stories that are, in fact, the real fake news. Real journalists use the term “fake news” to call out news that is an obvious fabrication.

Whenever an anti-vaxxer friend of mine posts rude things about how vaccines cause autism, I’m reminded that vaccines do not cause autism. It is impossible to correct somebody that brainwashed, if only because they truly believe what they have been told. College teaches you to think for yourself. Some of these people lack a college education since college teaches one to think for themselves. Having met people on the autism spectrum, I’m now more aware that autism has genetic causes. Autism is something you are born with, not made into. I’m just a neurotypical schizoaffective according to Community Health Awareness Council’s psychiatric evaluation. I’m just an ordinary schizophrenic, in which case, we will be moving on to what fake news is. Our current climate has people brainwashed into believing that normal media outlets that criticize are fake news. Well, there is such thing as the tabloids, which are pretty much fake news.

First off, start with not believing everything you hear, read, or listen to from the brainwasher. People who try to force you to believe certain things mean you very serious harm. It is worse when they say that they have your own best interests in mind, seeing as they want to help you. If they say, "I’m doing this for your own good," beware because their actions are not meant for your own good. Really listening to your gut instincts helps you when you are in the presence of someone who is gaslighting you or saying, “It really didn’t happen that way,” and messing with your perceptions. Brainwashers try to learn what they can about you just so they can manipulate your beliefs, replacing it with their own beliefs that they want you think about yourself. They want to know of your weaknesses as well as whom you trust. When they know which persons you trust, they brainwash you out of trusting them.

A brainwasher has genuine ill will towards you because they want to make you believe what they believe about who you are, which I learned from If You Had Controlling Parents, How to Make Peace With Your Past And Take Your Place In The World, Dan Neuharth. Many of them mean you serious harm because they want to strip you of what makes you, you. Cults do this for power and control over people who join them. Often, cult victims are lonely people who do not have solid friendships although personally, I’d rather be lonely than in a toxic friendship like I was in three years ago. Control over someone else is a ridiculous motive because no one can have total control over someone else’s mind, body and soul. Although to me, I feel that this occurs in my family, almost as if someone controls someone else’s spirit. Brainwashing happens in cults when control of sleeping habits, and control of access to information can happen. (Neuharth p.100) It is why I didn’t know much about schizophrenia or psychic stuff growing up because my family didn’t provide me with many resources about it.

That expression, “when something is too good to be true, it usually is,” has actually been real in my life. Because of my current set of medications including Lamictal, I find myself harder to brainwash in the immediate present since I started Lamictal until now. The way brainwashing works is that the brainwasher starts off by making you feel really good. If you struggle with self-esteem like I do, then they make a huge effort to make you feel really good. This is why I’ve stared therapy at a local college yet again. I have stuff I need to sort through, skills I need to learn, and in general, I have to get my head together. Brainwashing is a repetitive phenomenon in which you are told the same things over and over again until you believe it. Some people are so used to it, they walk around unaware that they’ve been brainwashed to put up with abuse.

They do not know any better, despite all the proof they are offered. To place Republicans, who as a general rule, deny climate change, in positions at the Environmental Protection Agency is just wow. Climate change is real, it is a fact, and it is not going way. 2018 marks the end of seven years of drought in California. Think about what that means; many have done away with their lawns except in Southern California where the snoots actually import water for their prissy, perfect lawns while poorer neighborhoods have soccer lawns dry up. Yes, Los Angeles is a land of a lot of income inequality. Conservative Republicans hang on every word of the Trump administration until hurricanes devastate other states, since humans driving, for example, cause climate change. The ideological hot mess between Democrats and Republicans will only get worse until Republicans get their heads out of their hats in order to see that climate change actually happens. Gallup found that 85 percent of Democrats are reasonable enough to see that human activity has lead to climate change, and 38 percent of Republicans agree. To continue to deny climate change is just ridiculous. If a friend of mine in the 1990s mentioned that having to wear shorts in the winter means that climate change is happening, then by now after the seven year drought we had in California, I agree with her. Climate change should not be up for debate on this planet. We are stuck with the one planet we have and we are busy polluting, causing our own problems, and shooting ourselves in the foot. Regardless of what side you are on, conservative or liberal, you have to make sure to see that climate change needs to be addressed formally. It is backwards to pretend otherwise. Should we all be putting aside our differences and working together to fix the problems we have made for ourselves?