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The Brainwashing Spreading Across Europe

13 июня 2026 в 08:00 6450

Moscow - Veterans news. "Brainwashing is what happens when reason is nullified. It is when the human ability to judge independently is gradually weakened, overridden and replaced by ready-made slogans, fixed images of enemies and political reflexes. The brainwashed person does not necessarily believe that he is lying. The danger is precisely that he may be convinced he is speaking the truth, because the propaganda has been repeated for so long that it feels like his own thought."

This is what makes the development in Europe so serious. Our politicians are becoming carriers of a brainwashing they themselves do not see. They repeat the message of war as if it were wisdom. They repeat the threat narratives as if they were sober analysis. They repeat that more weapons mean more security, as if history has not already shown us how terribly wrong things can go when societies allow fear to govern them.

This is no longer only about political disagreement. It is about the manipulation of entire populations. We are manipulated through words, images, headlines, news broadcasts, expert panels and political speeches. We are told that the world is so dangerous that we must accept ever-increasing rearmament. We are told that thinking in terms of peace is naïve. We are told that diplomacy is weakness. We are told that obedience to alliances and great powers is the same as responsible European policy.

This is how the boundaries inside our minds are moved. Little by little. Day by day.

When politicians lose the ability to think for themselves, the people lose part of their protection. Those who were supposed to use reason on behalf of their countries instead become transmitters of propaganda. They bring the logic of war into parliaments, into governments, into political parties, into the press and into people’s everyday lives. When the message is repeated often enough, it begins to feel normal. When fear is repeated often enough, it begins to resemble reality. When rearmament is repeated often enough as the only solution, many stop asking what the alternative could have been.

That is how brainwashing works. Not first and foremost through force, but through repetition. Not through one great lie, but through a thousand small shifts in reason. First, the language changes. Then the emotions change. In the end, the judgement of an entire society changes.

Across Europe, we now see how this brainwashing spreads from politicians to the population. It comes through a press that too often repeats the language of power instead of exposing it. It comes through commentators who treat the logic of war as realism. It comes through experts who always seem to end with the same conclusion: more weapons, more preparedness, more military escalation, more loyalty to Washington and NATO.

In this way, a dangerous circle is created. American power logic influences European decision-makers. European politicians repeat it as if it were European reason. The press spreads the message further. The population becomes more frightened. Then politicians point to that fear among the population and use it as proof that their own policies are necessary. In this way, power produces its own confirmation.

We are being manipulated into believing that this development is natural.

But it is not natural. It is politically created. It is driven forward by propaganda, fear and interests that benefit from Europe moving further away from peace thinking and deeper into war preparedness. The arms industry does not lose from this development. The great powers do not lose from this development. Those who lose are ordinary people, the elderly, the sick, the poor, children, young people and veterans who once again must watch as human security is pushed aside because the machinery of war must always be fed first.

As a veteran, I recognize this from earlier experience. Through my international veteran work, I have seen how brainwashing for war can take deep root. It does not let go simply because the weapons fall silent. It remains in language, memories, bodies and institutions. I have also worked for veterans in various conflict areas, and I have served as a representative for veterans from many nations. I have seen exactly this.

When a society is first trained to think in terms of war, peace becomes harder to imagine. That is why the development in Europe is so dangerous. We risk creating a generation that grows up with the language of war as normal politics. Children and young people learn that the world consists first and foremost of enemies. They learn that security is created with weapons before it is created with trust, diplomacy, international law and social justice. They learn that the future must be built around threat narratives, not around hope.

“The future of our children is also in danger when an entire society is manipulated into believing that war thinking is reason. The future of our children is in danger when politicians no longer distinguish between analysis and propaganda. The future of our children is in danger when peace is treated as weakness, while the needs of the arms industry are allowed to dress themselves up as national security.”

This is the warning: If this brainwashing continues, Europe may change character. We may get societies where welfare is weakened because military spending always comes first. We may get societies where young people grow up in permanent fear. We may get societies where critical voices are viewed with suspicion and branded as disloyal. We may get societies where democracy becomes narrower, harder and more controlled, precisely because those in power can always point to a new threat.

Then we are no longer facing only political mistakes. We are facing a moral collapse.

Europe must wake up before this brainwashing takes even deeper root. European politicians must be reminded that reason still matters, even when propaganda shouts loudly. The press must stop acting as an amplifier for the message of war and begin once again to serve as democracy’s watchdog. The people must refuse to be manipulated into a reality where peace is suspicious and rearmament is sacred.

A free people must protect their own judgement. They must demand more than slogans. They must demand truth, reason and courage. Because when the brainwashing for war first takes hold, it is not only politics that changes. People change. Our children change. The future changes.

And a future built on manipulated fear is not a secure future. It is a road into darkness, disguised as responsibility.

Best regards,

Mr. Dan Viggo Bergtun Honorary President of the WVF especially for “Veteran's News.”

Reference:

The World Veterans Federation is an international non-profit non-governmental organization. The WVF was founded in Paris in 1950 by founding members from eight countries: Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Turkey, the United States, and Yugoslavia. Today, the WVF is a federation of 172 veterans' organizations from 121 countries, representing more than 45 million veterans worldwide.

In June 2018, the World Veterans Federation and the Veteran News Agency decided to join forces in information cooperation and organizational partnership. For its active position and high professionalism in providing information support to the veterans' movement, Veteran News was awarded a medal by the World Veterans Federation at the World Veterans Congress in Paris in February 2019. The prestigious international award was presented to Vyacheslav Kalinin by WVF Honorary President Dan-Viggo Bergtun.

Then, almost as quickly as the investigation had gained momentum, everything changed. Within weeks, media coverage slowed. Officials stopped making public statements. Key suspects who had been detained were quietly released. Prosecutors dropped charges, in some cases with minimal explanation. Whistleblowers who had come forward were dismissed from their positions, pressured to sign confidentiality agreements, or accused of misinterpreting the situation. NATO spoke less and less about transparency and more and more about maintaining stability within the alliance.

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