Brain-Washed...Just like the rest of you

Someone in class said something about the religious radicals as being brain washed. I wanted to ask her, "Aren't we all?" To some degree that is. This was shown throughout the film that we watched. We are given, over and over again, images of the enemy as a monster, or a demon, or an animal that we give very little morality to, a rat, or a snake. These images in themselves has made their way into our society as bad and evil, but to place stereotypical characteristics on them as well, to emphasize that the Arab is bad, or the Jap must be stopped in order to protect our country, in order to protect our families is outrageous. By what we are taught by our parents, and teachers, and presidents we are subjected to images and themes that provide us with morals that are not necissarily our own. If a person was to grow up in a home saying that homosexuals are bad and if teachers told us that homosexuals are contagious and if the presidents insists that homosexuals are going to Hell, so steer clear of "their kind" of course we would consider that a kind of brain-wash. But the fact that propaganda that has been going on for years that has been telling us that we need to save the Iraqis, they need us to help them, to save them has not been thought about as brain washing at all. Instead we call ourselves heroes and cheer when we torture men and women without just cause. No one sees our rights being taken away under our noses. But that's not being brain-washed, no, that's just America.