Hillary health
Folks ain't buying it this time
Brainwashing can be most effectively accomplished through subtle — preferably imperceptible — repetition and reinforcement of ideas. Targets of efficacious brainwashing campaigns will never realize the tactic being used — unless someone provides clear evidence of the perpetrator's methods.

On that note, consider the captive audience cable television and mainstream, corporate news outlets have at their disposal — when a big story hits headlines, the American public sits for hours, glued to nonstop coverage and overanalysis of every detail.

This week being no exception, when Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton fainted after an early exit from a 9/11 memorial ceremony in New York City, conservative mainstream media scrambled to theorize on the ever-deepening questions surrounding her health.

Qualifying to head the empire, after all, would ostensibly require a person in their physical prime.

On the other side, left-leaning corporate media — previously exposed for colluding with the Democratic National Committee to bathe the former secretary of state in the glowing light of positivity — was forced to scramble to explain away her sudden inability to stand, while Facebook blatantly censored coverage of the incident in its trending topics section.

After a laughably thin attempt by the Clinton camp to attribute the fainting spell to early autumn heat, we learned she'd been coping with pneumonia — and that her appearance at the memorial actually represented an act of bravery and strength.

Keeping in mind the aforementioned collusion, it's imperative to also note just six corporations own no less than 90 percent of all media — cable television outlets, radio, and print — in the United States. In technical terms, this is an oligopoly — essentially, through mergers and corporate ownership, the news Americans see, hear, and read largely spouts whatever its sponsors approve of because, otherwise, the outlets would suffer financial ruin.

In a research study appearing in a Gonzaga University Master's Thesis by Frank McCoy in 2012, the effects of this hugely concentrated media ownership are presented as highly problematic for the public, but keenly advantageous for the corporations. McCoy urges the public to remain alert to this fact, because, as he wrote,
"Without an awareness of the grave consequences involved with an increasingly concentrated media environment the public (i.e. non-elites) will continue to be systematically brainwashed by the propagandist arm of the government that is the mass media and will unknowingly acquiesce to the interests of the dominant elites."
This is how brainwashing so exclusively serves the corporate and political plutocrats — vast swaths of the public have no idea what they're being subjected to.

Repetitive pounding of an idea or phrase gradually shapes thought by reinforcing an idea that might otherwise be doubted. When you hear something enough times, it's easier to accept — as if the number of mentions somehow validates the idea, regardless of merit.

Nowhere has this been more apparent, all political collusion aside, than in coverage of everything pro-Hillary Clinton — and one thing this oligopolistic media couldn't stand for, all puns intended, is negative publicity from a fainting spell.

But it's okay — as you'll see in the telling compilation video below — Hillary might have fainted, but that's only because she wanted to "power through" her harried schedule despite suffering such a serious illness as pneumonia.

Notably, the intentional choice of the word "power" for its triple-entendre — not only does this push the idea that Clinton isn't seriously ill, it intimates her desire to work when necessary, no matter the consequences, and subtly reiterates her status as an elite at the height of, well, political power.

Behold, the mainstream media brainwashing in the laughable collection of media pundits touting the "powering through" of Hillary Clinton: