my co-worker, a british woman who moved here (USA) with her husband, is a perfectly nice person. i have no problems with her, but talking to her opened my eyes to how insanely ignorant and brainwashed your average person is
she’s the definition of just a normal ass regular ass type of person. progressive but not overtly political and just kinda floating through existence. which is fine.
we were talking and she was saying all of this negative stuff about china. i of course told her my point of view which is that im very very pro china and don’t think anything she was saying was actually proven. she then went on to say maybe im right and that she doesnt get why china is bad but japan is our ally “because its the same country isnt it?” so this tells me many normal people are walking around with negative opinions about china meanwhile they literally dont even know china isnt a part of japan.
she then went on to clarify, “wait maybe im thinking of korea. which is the bad one again?” IF YOU THINK SOMETHING IS SUPPOSEDLY BAD, SHOULDNT YOU KNOW WHAT THE BAD THING IS? how is that not a light that goes off for her and makes her consider “how tf do i think a place is bad when i literally don’t even know what place im talking about?”
i just said “well it depends on your perspective” and then changed the conversation to be about the tv show Tulsa King lmao
in my experience, they’ve been conditioned to think something is bad without having any verifiable reason to think so, so they’re not really logical (god forgive me
for using the L word) and many times will flat out refuse any of the information you give them because they already ‘know’ the place is bad and that’s that. many of them will even call you brainwashed for suggesting something other than what they’ve been told, which is pretty funny lol
There’s definitely a tactic to it, you can’t just blast them with the really hard stuff upfront.
Sometimes people can’t be reached, but it’s crucial not to just write off anyone who seems to just be ignorant. Not that you personally need to be responsible for undoing their propaganda brain, but it’s important that in general we don’t just give up on people who feel like they can be at least nudged in a better direction.