Most of the ideas I believed when I was younger, I believed without ever having questioned. That means these ideas were never mine, they were ideas that were simply inserted into my brain.
A good example is atheism. When I was younger, I was an atheist. Then, when I grew up and started to think about things for myself, I realized that atheism is a dead-end philosophy that explains nothing and gives nothing, and is less plausible than the various religious postulations that it replaces.
Another example is religious tolerance. When I was younger I was a live-and-let-live kind of person who believed that everyone was equal and should be given respect and love. Only when I got older and started to think for myself did I realize that the point of view labeled "racist" was the only sane point of view for a human being to adopt. Anyone who doesn't distinguish between racial groups, and doesn't realize that some groups are intrinsically better than other groups, is a fool.
Propaganda takes control over the mind through constant repetition in the absence of any contrary opinions. The corporate television medium is an example of the perfect soil for the growth of mindless propaganda. Viewpoints fed into the head are ceaselessly repeated and reaffirmed on television, but never critically examined. Anyone is susceptible to this. Critical thinking is hard to kick-start. It takes effort, and it is frightening since it puts you at odds with the drone-like majority.
In order to break free of propaganda, you need to be a person inherently inclined to think for yourself; and you need to come across some piece of propaganda so outrageous, so unfair, so dishonest, so evil, that you instinctively rebel against it and begin to examine it critically. For me, it was the unfair treatment of those brave men who dared to question the dogma of the Holocaust. The way they were treated was so manifestly unjust, it made me furious with righteous indignation. From the Holocaust I have gone on to question all the other false dogmas that are circulated in Western society.
The regenerator for me is to notice things I avoid and explore them anyway, then I find the fear they planted to steer me. Then it's a matter of going back to basic principles and seeing if there's any argument for what I've been restricting myself to. A lot of junk ideas are just things you've heard and sounded true, or concluded when you were less experienced. Then it's like a cached web page that's out of date. Clear the cache and reconstruct the idea from scratch.
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