PAUL ENGLISH LIVE #155 · Brainwashing for Beginners

Broadcasts live every Thursday at 8:00p.m. uk time on Radio Soapbox: http://radiosoapbox.com

Tonight I went gloriously off-piste before getting to the heart of the matter. We began with a ramble through names, old television, streaking, pipe smoking, nostalgia and the strange way the seasons now seem to be dictated for us, before settling into a broader discussion about newspapers, satire and whether we ought to create our own irreverent publication in the spirit of the old trench papers. From there, I reflected on Hilaire Belloc, the decline in journalistic standards, and the way headlines and institutions now seem less interested in informing people than in steering them. Along the way we touched on the power of humour to tell the truth, the loss of self-reliance, and even found time for a passionate diversion into blackberry crumble, pizza dough, and a marvellous little 1950s-flavoured clip about time travel and modern neuroses.

In the second half, the conversation turned more directly to brainwashing, belief, propaganda and the mechanisms by which people are conditioned not to question what they are told. We talked about democracy, juries, law, hidden power, institutional decay, and several books and essays that have shaped these ideas for us, including works by Belloc, Jason Christoff, Tupper Saussy and others. Rudyard Kipling provided the soundtrack, with AI-rendered versions of The Stranger and Tommy prompting a discussion about nationhood, loyalty and cultural memory. In the final hour, Eli James joined us from America for a lively exchange on propaganda, social engineering, media narratives, education, mass persuasion and the wider spiritual and political malaise of the age.

• Paul English Live: https://paulenglishlive.com/
• Food For Thought Radio: https://www.fftradio.com/
• WBN324 Talk Radio: https://linktr.ee/wbn324
• Paul English Live on Rumble: https://rumble.com/user/paulenglishlive/channels
• The People's Lawyer: https://thepeopleslawyeruk.com/
• The Bowler Hat Farmer: https://thebowlerhatfarmer.com/
• Professor Richard Werner: https://professorwerner.org/
• Jason Christoff: https://www.jchristoff.com/
• Planet Mind Control: https://www.planetmindcontrol.com/
• Democracy Defined: https://democracydefined.org/
• Economics for Helen by Hilaire Belloc: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/75629
• Political Ponerology: https://www.redpillpress.com/shop/political-ponerology-expanded/
• Fake News by Mike Graham: https://books.mailshop.co.uk/fake-news-9781918396157/
• The Great Impersonation by Eli James: https://www.bannedbyamazon.com/product-page/the-great-impersonation
• The Kipling Society: https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/
• The Stranger by Rudyard Kipling: https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/readers-guide/rg_stranger1.htm
• Tommy by Rudyard Kipling: https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/readers-guide/rg_tommy1.htm
• The Wipers Times: https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/wipers-times
• Sooty Official Shop: https://sootyshop.com/en-us/pages/about-us
• Breaking Bad: https://www.sonypictures.com/tv/breakingbad
• Ray Stevens discography (includes The Streak): https://raystevens.com/discography/