"Brain-Washing in Red China" by Edward Hunter popularized the term 'brainwashing' in America. However, the concept of 'xinao' in China had a different meaning, referring to self-awareness and modernization. The term was later adopted by the US military and intelligence communities during the Cold War due to new brain function studies, leading to the concept of 'coercive persuasion' and 'psychic warfare'.
Interesting one. I agree that "real brainwashing," as described in this article, is hard (or maybe impossible) to perform. Wondering, though, what would the Cold War intelligence community think about TikTok (and other social media)? Social media's ability to use feeds to show information that reinforces some points of view is very powerful. The fact that the feed can display this information from multiple sources also makes us feel that it's legit and shared opinion. So, if your feed is full of one narrative, it's hard to discard this POV, the same way you can change the TV station if you disagree with them. This is btw one of the strongest arguments to ban/limit TikTok in the US.