(March 8, 2014 at 12:17 pm)Bittersmart Wrote: Come on now, stop that. We both know it's more complicated than that, and reducing what I'm saying to strawmen isn't the way to have a discussion. Like I said, I don't use the term "brainwashing" very often. I wasn't brainwashed when I was a child. I was taught. And then I grew up and taught myself something new. And then I changed my belief system. There was nothing overtly nefarious about it.
I think a tongue-in-cheek strawman argument is a fine response to an Reductio ad absurdum claim that she may have come by her beliefs on her own.
So what do you think "brainwashing" means?
"Brainwashing" means to cause one to adapt a radical belief by the application of systemic pressure.
The catholics certainly have a polished system and they apply enormous pressure to their children to believe ridiculous things like crackers turning to human flesh in your tummy. That wouldn't happen to a non-brainwashed person. Just because your mommy "taught" you about god, doesn't mean she wasn't brainwashing you about god. In fact, that is exactly what she was doing, just like my parents.
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