Transcription
There is some wild propaganda that Americans are taught and don't even realize it's propaganda. Now, I should preface this by stating that I am an American. I love my country. My family goes all the way back to Jamestown. My grandfather fought in World War II. I was born in Los Angeles. I went to university in Texas. I was raised singing the Star Spangled Banner and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. I am about as American as it gets. Well, besides these guys.
But I've also spent the last decade studying cults, dogma, and religious extremism and thought control. And as someone who has lived in over a dozen countries and traveled to more than 35 of them, I've started noticing some extremely troubling forms of propaganda that Americans are taught from childhood. Things that people in free developed democratic countries overseas find absolutely bizarre and things that most Americans never question because we've been marinating in it since birth. And look, every country has its own brand of propaganda. I'm not trying to pretend that America is uniquely evil here, but what makes American propaganda so effective is that most of us don't even realize it exists. We think that propaganda is something that happens in North Korea or Soviet bases, posters of dictators, and state controlled media. We don't recognize it when it's sung at football games and printed on a bumper sticker.
So, here are seven forms of propaganda that you probably didn't even realize that you grew up with if you're an American.
Number one, US-centric education. American history is extraordinarily short. We are talking a few centuries compared to civilizations that span millennia. And yet, if you grew up in an American public school, you would think that the United States was the center of human history. Geography classes often aren't taught at all. And world history courses when they are taught are basically how does the rest of the planet relate to America. The Vietnam War is taught as a war for freedom. Westward expansion is framed as brave pioneers taming a wild frontier, not as the systematic displacement and genocide of indigenous peoples who've been living there for thousands of years. World War II, Americans swoop in and save the day with little mention of the roughly 27 million Soviets who died on the Eastern Front doing the bulk of the fighting against Hitler.
Now compare that to how other countries teach history. In much of Europe, kids actually learn global history. They study African kingdoms, Asian dynasties, Middle Eastern contributions to science and mathematics. They learn about colonialism for what it actually is. Not heroic adventure, but exploitation. When I talk to Americans who are traveling abroad for the first time, I'm often shocked at how little they know about the rest of the world. And that's not by accident. A nation which doesn't teach its citizens about the world produces citizens who don't question their own nation's role in it.
Number two, the Cold War binary. If you grew up in America any time after 1950, you absorbed one of the most effective propaganda frameworks ever constructed. Communism equals evil, capitalism equals freedom. Full stop. No nuance, no discussion, just a clean binary where one side wears white hats and the other side is a cartoon villain. What they don't teach you is that during the Cold War, the United States overthrew democratically elected governments around the world simply because the governments leaned left. In 1953, the CIA helped orchestrate a coup against Iran's democratically elected Prime Minister Muhammad Mosedc because he nationalized Iran's oil industry. In 1954, the US toppled Guatemala's president, Arbenz, because his land reforms threatened the profits of United Fruit Company. In 1973, the CIA backed the overthrow of Chile's Salvador Aliende, a democratically elected socialist, and replaced him with Austo Pino, a brutal military dictator who tortured and murdered thousands. The Congo, Brazil, Indonesia, it's all the same playbook. America claimed to be defending democracy while systematically destroying it in order to exploit country after country.
This all is recent history, and this binary thinking is still alive and well. If you suggest universal healthcare in America, watch how quickly someone calls you a communist, propose free public university education, something that dozens of thriving democracies already provide, and suddenly you're a Marxist. The Cold War ended over 30 years ago, but the propaganda framework it built is still alive and kicking.
If you want to start breaking free from propaganda, one of the most effective and powerful things that you can do is to expose yourself to other cultures, other perspectives, and other languages. My dad was a language teacher and I grew up multilingual. And I can tell you firsthand that learning another language doesn't just teach you new words, it gives you an entirely different lens through which to view the world. Which is why I love today's sponsor, Lingo Pie. Lingo Pie takes a completely different approach to language learning compared to the ineffective methods used in most classrooms and school. Instead of memorizing vocabulary lists or slogging through dry exercises, you learn by watching real TV shows and movies from the countries where the language is spoken, immersing yourself in their culture. It is engaging and is far closer to how people naturally acquire language. If you don't recognize a word, every subtitle is clickable, so you can instantly see the translation and save it. Lingo Pi then automatically turns these words into flashcards, which you can review later. There's also an AI grammar coach that explains phrases in context and a pronunciation tool that listens to you speak and gives feedback on your accent so that you can sound more natural. The platform has over 3,000 shows and movies across 14 different languages, and you can use it on just about any device. So rather than forcing yourself to study, why not just entertain yourself and let your brain absorb the language in a way that's fun? I like it so much that I actually bought a lifetime subscription long before they ever offered to sponsor the channel. It's easily my favorite way to learn. So if you've ever wanted to learn another language or just expose yourself to different cultures and perspectives, click the link below to get a 7-day free trial plus 55% off an annual plan and go see how it works for yourself.
Number three, the land of the free myth. Americans are told from birth that the United States is the freest country on Earth. It's in the songs. It's on the bumper stickers. It's baked into the nation's identity so deeply that questioning it feels almost heretical. But is it true? Well, let's look at the data. On the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index, the US doesn't crack the top 50. It ranks 57th in the world, just below Sierra Leone. on the Kato Institute's human freedom index. And keep in mind, the Kato Institute is a libertarian think tank, not some leftist outfit. Multiple countries outrank America in both personal and economic freedom. The United States incarcerates more people per capita than almost every other country on the planet, more than China, more than Russia, Iran, or North Korea. The land of the free locks up more of its own citizens than almost every authoritarian regime on Earth. And a disproportionate number of them are black and Latino. This is not what freedom looks like. It is a system designed to warehouse people.
But it goes deeper. A handful of corporations control vast swaps of American industry from media to agriculture to healthcare and tech. These corporations aren't just influencing a little bit of government policy. They're writing the policy. Politicians respond to donors and lobbyists, not constituents. Hell, there was a Princeton study which actually found that the preferences of American voters have a near zero statistical impact on whether a policy gets passed or not. But the preferences of economic elites, big businesses, and organized interest groups are strongly correlated with what policies actually get passed into law. In other words, your politicians don't care what you want unless you're a billionaire. Elections are largely bought and paid for. Gerrymandering carves up districts so that the politicians can choose their voters rather than the other way around like it should be in a free democracy. Voter suppression laws target communities least likely to vote for the people in power. And the two-party system has become a self-reinforcing trap that incentivizes extremism over representation. We are taught, and this is hardcore propaganda, that America's electoral system is the best. Well, except when our guy loses, of course. But there is a much better electoral system. It is called ranked choice voting. And the only people who prefer our current system over ranked choice are those who are financially incentivized against freedom and democracy. Here's how it works. With ranked choice, instead of picking just one candidate and hoping for the best, you rank out your preferences with your top choice at the top and your least choice at the bottom. If no one wins a majority, the candidate with the fewest votes gets eliminated. and the people who voted for them have those votes redistributed to their second choice. You keep going until someone actually has majority support. It rewards candidates who appeal broadly rather than those who energize the extremes. It reduces what's known as the spoiler effect and creates a better reflection of what voters actually want. There are already several US cities and states which have already adopted ranked choice voting. And it's the norm in countries like Australia and Ireland, but most Americans have never even heard of it because the two parties currently in power have zero incentive to tell you about the system that would threaten their grip. And they have every incentive to criticize it.
>> You should run aggressively against rank choice voting. It is a big >>
Number four. America's stupidly big military budget. The US spends more on its military than the next 10 countries combined. Let that sink in. More than China, Russia, the UK, Saudi Arabia, Germany, France, Japan, South Korea, and Australia put together. Now, Americans are taught that this spending is about protecting freedom and defending the free world. And sure, a reasonable national defense is necessary, but the vast majority of this budget doesn't go to defense. It funds over 750 military bases in at least 80 countries. It funds interventions, regime changes, drone programs, and the maintenance of a global military empire. Meanwhile, American roads are crumbling. Bridges are collapsing. The health care system bankrupts families. Teachers buy their own classroom supplies. Student debt has surpassed 1.7 trillion, and millions of Americans can't afford basic prescriptions.
Other countries, meanwhile, invest their resources differently. universal health care, free or affordable higher education, robust public transit, paid parental leave, affordable child care, and as a result, their citizens are measurably healthier, better educated, less stressed, and by many metrics, happier. This isn't speculative. It's what the data consistently shows. Historians have a term for what happens when an empire pours its resources into military expansion while its domestic foundations rot. Imperial overstretch. And it's how empires collapse. The Romans did it, the British did it, the Soviets did it. And if you look at the trajectory, America is running headfirst over the same cliff.
Number five, the pledge of allegiance. Having children stand up every single morning, place their hands over their heart, face a flag, and recite a loyalty oath in unison is, by any standard, one of the creepiest things about America. I'm not saying this to be edgy. When you describe this practice to people from other democracies, their jaws hit the floor. They associate it with the kind of thing that you would see authoritarian regimes do, not in a country that calls itself the leader of the free world. Because think about what the pledge actually is. It is a feudal feely oath. It is a declaration of personal loyalty to a state. Now, I understand why elected officials and military personnel swear oaths of service. That makes sense. They're accepting a position of public responsibility, but requiring a six-year-old to pledge allegiance to a flag before they can even spell allegiance, it's brainwashing. Like, you realize the founding fathers would be horrified by this, right? These were men who literally threw off the yoke of another red, white, and blue flag when it represented tyranny. They understood and wrote extensively about the fact that it is the duty of every free person to question authority and resist tyranny, not just pledge blind loyalty to a piece of cloth. The entire American experiment was built on the idea that governments derive their power from the consent of the governed and that when a government fails its people, those people have the right and the obligation to challenge it. This is the entire reasoning behind the second amendment. Creating mindless, loyal zombies out of children is the exact opposite of what the founders fought for and yet suggest that we stop doing this in our children's schools and watch how fast you get called unamerican.
Number six, the myth that America was founded as a Christian nation. If you've ever driven through the American South, or honestly large parts of the Midwest and rural America, you've probably seen billboards saying things like, "Hell is real, abortion is murder, and Jesus saves." They line the highways like wallpaper. are so pervasive that most people stop noticing them. Religious messaging in America is so saturated into the culture that it becomes invisible, which is exactly what makes it so effective. But here's what a lot of Americans don't know. The United States was never a Christian nation. The founders were explicit about this. The Constitution makes zero mention of Christianity or Jesus. The First Amendment enshrines the separation of church and state. The Treaty of Tripoli, unanimously ratified by the Senate in 1797 and signed by President John Adams, states in very plain language that the government of the United States is not in any sense founded on the Christian religion. That is not my interpretation. That is a legally binding document from the founding generation. So where did the Christian nation myth come from? Well, in keeping with the rest of this video, propaganda. Cold War propaganda to be specific. Under God was added to the pledge of allegiance in 1954. In God we trust was added to the paper currency in 1957 and adopted as the national motto the year before. Our original motto eurobus unum is more about plurality. Out of many one. Both of these actions were deliberate moves to contrast the United States against godless communism. They weren't ancient traditions passed down by the founders. They're marketing decisions which were made by politicians in the 1950s. And now, barely 70 years later, millions of Americans will swear on a stack of Bibles that this country was founded as a Christian nation and that anyone who says otherwise is attacking their heritage. The conflation of patriotism with Christianity is itself a product of propaganda. And it's one of the most dangerous because it means that questioning religion in America isn't just seen as blasphemy, it's treason.
Number seven, American exceptionalism. This one is huge. The one that ties all the rest of it together. American exceptionalism isn't just this belief that America is different. It's a belief that America is inherently superior, better, divinely favored, the greatest country that God ever put on this earth. And it functions not just as a belief, but as a social enforcement mechanism. Because in America, criticism of the country is treated as betrayal. Point out that other nations have better healthc care outcomes, and you're told, "Well, why don't you just move there?" suggest that the military budget is bloated and it is bloated and suddenly you hate our troops. If you point out that Americans rank poorly on education, press freedom or infant mortality compared to other developed countries and you're suddenly ungrateful. Even liberals and progressives who critique America specifically because they want to improve it get branded as unpatriotic. Do you see how backwards that is? The messaging is clear. You can love America or you can criticize it. You can't do both. But in most healthy democracies, critique is understood as a form of patriotism. Wanting your country to live up to its own ideals isn't betrayal. It is the highest form of civic engagement. The pressure to never question America, to treat any criticism as an attack, to reflexively defend the status quo no matter how messed up it is, because admitting a problem feels like admitting defeat. That social pressure is itself one of the most effective forms of propaganda there is because it doesn't require a government agency or state-run media outlets. It's enforced by your neighbors and your co-workers, your family, and your own internalized guilt.
Like I said at the beginning, I don't hate America. I want it to be better. And if that makes me unamerican in your eyes, then well, I think I kind of proved my point. It is the civic duty of every citizen to question what we've been taught, to explore outside the bubble, whether that's through reading, traveling, or learning other languages using Lingo Pie, of course, and exposing ourselves to the perspectives that challenge our own assumptions. It's our duty to push back against propaganda and to exercise the very First Amendment rights that we claim to value because things don't have to be like this. They can be better, but we have to first recognize the propaganda and be honest with ourselves in order to get there.
If you guys enjoyed this video, please smash that like button, share this with someone who needs to hear it. And if you want to support my work, you can do so with either a pervideo pledge on patreon.com/holycoolade or a onetime PayPal donation. Links to all of that are in the description below. And if you're new here, smash that subscribe button because I have so much more crazy content to share with you. Thank you so much. And as always, dare to be curious, but don't drink the Kool-Aid.