I’m a free thinker. And what I mean by that is that I freely allow US government propaganda to be the only thing in my brain

Free thinkers only permit themselves to think in freedom. How can I have a free mind if I let unfree thoughts from countries that hate us for our freedom pass through it?

You should talk to your local democracy officer. Sounds like you need a visit to the freedom camps to understand what freedom means.

As a free thinker, I only think thoughts approved by the Department of Freedom.

Obviously the US invented freedom, it did not exist historically.

Therefore it is an obvious requirement that you be American to be a free-thinker, so only American news outlets can be free. If they say something wrong, then they have obviously been subverted by China/Russia and are no longer free.

I can still remember somewhat when I thought like them (maybe not as egoistically as some, but still…). There’s this noticeable blind spot in it that relates to what people are saying about state department talking points. “I do research and check sources” means little if your inherent assumption is that US and allied sources are reliable and anywhere the US calls an enemy is unreliable and suspicious. The US has crafted this narrative that impartiality and neutrality is possible if you simply decouple emotional tone from what you’re saying, wear a suit while saying it, and outsource the narrative to someone who isn’t a direct elected official of the government.

But… though there are elements of reality that are observably true with consistency, there is no such thing as being neutral. Every narrative has to choose what information to include or not include and how to include it. You can’t include things on “both sides” and now you are impartial. For example, if one group has power and another has none, speaking about them as if they are on equal footing in a mutually-instigated conflict is not neutrality, it’s implicitly taking the side of the group that has power.

Conscious fascists understand this and they choose to side with dehumanization, with systemic violence. Many a well-meaning liberal does not understand this and acts like they can rise above, extract themself from the fray, stand apart, and be clearer of mind for it. But the real clarity comes from understanding what the factions are, the sides there are, and choosing sides. When I thought like a liberal, I had to rely on forced attempts at universalizing complex situations and reducing them to vulgarized oversimplifications about “human nature” or “cultural trends” or some such vague thing. When I started thinking like a dialectical and historical materialist and learning about the movements and events that have come before, even with only a bare bones understanding of it, I got way more clarity than I ever got out of “do research and check sources” liberalism.

I think of that satirical idea, Last Thursdayism, that the universe was created last thursday, in such a way that it would seem like it has been around for a long time. That is what I would compare liberal “free thinker” thought process to. It behaves as if history began only a few days ago, as if everything runs on simplistic, unchanging universal themes, and if you just point at the themes and laugh, you’ll be above the fray and can be content with knowing you’re not falling for the tricks that those not-free-thinkers do.

One of my favorite brands of silliness.

‘‘Free thinkers’’ love to think of themselves as ‘‘enlightened’’, as brilliant individuals whom have ‘‘cracked the code’’, broke the binary, went beyond the pale of ‘‘good and evil’’, rose above the filth of material reality, of left and right in political terms.

There are none more sheepishly led by the nose than those that think they’re free, paraphrasing from Goethe, and deliberately utilizing the word ‘‘sheep’’ in there. Because these are the clowns that always call people ‘‘sheep’’ while, as comrades have pointed out, bleating state department talking points. They think they’re freed from material reality, ‘‘free spirits’’ roaming aimlessly, ‘‘sovereign citizens’’ in defiance of state decrees. The amount of irony in their existence is what I find most entertaining, and why I love seeing their ass takes on YT comment sections.

Some thoughts are more freer than others.