Day Twenty-One. Carefully Choose the Ideas You Take in from Television, Ads, Movies, and the Internet

Group norms are propagated through virtually every structure in society, including mainstream television programs, movies, ads, and online information. Most of what is on television is superficial. Most television shows aim to engage and amuse, not challenge the mind or educate. Every day we are bombarded with messages that insult our intelligence while seeking to manipulate or influence our psyche (through intentional, subliminal messages). The vast majority of television programs, movies, and ads attract us either by feeding simplistic emotional beliefs (which flatter our infantile mind), or by stimulating our primitive drives for sexual gratification ...

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