The term has been added to the lexicon recently and is used to explain when either an institution or an individual has been captured by an ideology and there is no room for discussion or disagreement. Institutions include, the media, government, and corporations. The thinking is sort of cult-like but not as extreme--usually. "The term ‘ideologically captured’ refers to a situation where an individual, organization, or institution becomes so committed to a particular set of beliefs or ideology that they may begin to ignore or reject conflicting evidence or alternative viewpoints."
I have a friend who is shall we say, captured by Scientology. “The organization uses intense ideological persuasion techniques, which might be perceived as mentally or emotionally ‘capturing’ individuals.” I really try not to discuss that aspect of her life with her. We are not that close and there was a time when I thought I could no longer be friends with her but then I just decided it's her prerogative to believe whatever she wants. It's sometimes difficult for me to get my head around the fact that she believes the tenets of this “religion.” It’s just complete nonsense. Watch this South Park clip which explains it…
To each his own I suppose. It's just difficult to swallow that she pays a lot of money to an organization that is clearly taking advantage of her as well as those less fortunate. She believes it helped her stop using drugs and I’m sure it did. It's just now with so many people talking about their negative experiences, like Leah Remini, it makes it all the more disturbing that she’s been captured and doesn’t recognize it. Or maybe she just doesn’t want to.
People who have left Scientology say they felt trapped by its demands and how difficult they make it to leave by applying a lot of social and psychological pressures. No religion should do that.
Once you’re captured by any ideology it’s difficult to escape. You become so entrenched and indoctrinated and it can become your entire identity. It’s important to remember a belief is just a belief which you do not have to be defined by and can change and evolve throughout your life.
Today, there is a lot of capture going on with politics and unfortunately your political leanings seem to determine how you feel about so many topics. One such topic is and was the Covid vaccine which makes no sense to me. Why has our health been conflated with politics? It should not be.
Most of the MSM is ideologically captured by the Left. (Fox News is the exception.) So is big tech. This is a problem. There seems to no longer be anywhere you can get unbiased reporting. What happened?
Academia is also captured by the Left. Look no further than the recent congressional hearings. “Over five hours at a congressional hearing, lawmakers pressed the presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and MIT on the topic of antisemitism. In some instances, they were unable to say whether calls for the genocide of Jews would violate their schools’ conduct policies.” What happened there?
Whatever you think about the war in Gaza, surely the answer posed to those presidents of the top schools in our country, should have been a resounding yes. If you replaced Jews with any other minority such as Blacks, the answer would most certainly have been yes.
Similarly people who are blue no matter who as well as the MAGA people who seem to think Trump is the second coming of Christ—are captured. With regard to the former, I think it's primarily because they see Trump as the devil and anyone would be better. I've tried to enlighten them--that sounds so condescending--may be it is. Not about Trump, but just about not seeing things so black and white and recognizing media bias.
They are captured by the MSM who constantly criticize every move he makes. The media also tend to leave out pertinent facts which change the nature of the story they are reporting on. They distort and censor his remarks often by clipping only a segment of what he said. They really needn’t do that as he puts his foot in his mouth on his own just fine. The more they do it, the more popular he becomes. It’s the Streisand effect on steroids.
They do the same to RFKJ. They make him out to be a "kook" a "spoiler." It's just going to get worse as he climbs in the polls.
The corporation that is the poster child for ideological capture is Disney. This one is really bizarre. I am all for inclusion and diversity but they are next level. Let’s start with this. They “encourage white employees to complete a ‘white privilege checklist.’”What does that even mean?
It gets so much weirder. “Disney executives organized an all-hands meeting, called the ‘Reimagine Tomorrow Conversation Series,’ and pledged to mobilize the entire corporation in service of the ‘LGBTQIA+ community.’ Executives recruited the company’s most intersectional employees, including a ‘black, queer, and trans person,’ a ‘bi-romantic asexual,’ and ‘the mother [of] one transgender child and one pansexual child,’ and announced ambitious new initiatives—seeking to change everything from gender pronouns at the company’s theme parks to the sexual orientation of background characters in the company’s films.” What is a bi-romantic asexual? For the love of God.
Kathleen Kennedy, who is a high-level Disney executive, is at the forefront of pushing this agenda. Once again South Park to the rescue. I don’t know how they get away with it but I’m so glad they do…
I think Disney will be changing their tune pretty soon. Their stock is way down and their decision to focus on identity politics by sacrificing and undermining their creative output in order to serve some woke ideology has done nothing but turn their uber expensive films and shows into flops. They just check the boxes for everything except for the quality of the content.
“Disney’s stock price hit a nine-year low when it fell below $84 last week which comfortably put it behind Netflix in the ranking of the world's biggest media companies, but it shouldn't have come as a surprise.”
Once again it’s an overreach. They also need to stop with the prequels and sequels and repurposing of every title they own. There have been over 30 Marvel movies! Enough already. Also who is coming up with the titles to these stinkers? Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania? It’s so tired. The only thing that will stop this is their bottom line.
It is difficult to pinpoint how and why this happened except to say they don’t want the few really loud woke mobsters coming for them saying they are racist, sexist or whatever else. Trying to appease their woke workforce is not working. They need a new strategy where they can be inclusive organically rather than being contrived.
If they want to make a forceful statement to get their stock back up, I have an idea—have Kid Rock star in their next film Mufasa: The Lion King. It’s a musical after all and he can actually sing and roar as we all know. I’m kidding—kind of.
Kid Rock has been quite effective in affecting the stock market. Well once, when Anheuser-Busch's value dropped more than $5 billion after he shot some beer cans in protest over Dylan Mulvaney becoming Bud Light’s spokesperson. He could at least contribute a song to the soundtrack.
It’s going to be difficult for Disney to get out of this mess. Once a company or a person is captured it’s hard to escape. Even if you realize you're captured, it's difficult. The reason being it's so much easier to just go along with the narrative and with your team because when you break away from it you can experience true distress by losing friends etc. Plus people, like the Disney brass, most likely don’t want to admit maybe they were misguided shall we say.
Now for individuals. Imagine living on the upper west side of New York or anywhere in San Francisco and someone turned you on to a Tulsi Gabbard podcast and you are awakened to some things you were unaware of. She was a former member of the Democratic Party and has now switched over. Her reasons are quite compelling. Whether or not you are willing to listen to what she has to say, tells you a lot right off the bat.
What she's saying is the Democratic Party has lost its way. And it has. I was never captured by the Democratic party, but I certainly felt that my ideology was more aligned with them than the Republican Party. Definitely on social issues like abortion.
I used to think gun control was such an important issue and then I realized it’s just virtue signaling. The idea is patently good—there should be a waiting period and background checks and no one needs need to buy an AK-47 or AR-15. Without sounding crass, eliminating those weapons would certainly lower the body count.
According to Google, “More than half of people who own guns (56%) had either stolen it (6%), found it at the scene of the crime (7%), or obtained it off the street or from the underground market (43%). Most of the remainder (25%) had obtained it from a family member or friend, or as a gift.” This is Google saying that. So all of this time and energy about gun control is virtue signaling and the politicians know it. It’s how they push a certain agenda to get you on their side, which is quite frankly manipulative.
The government is treating the symptom and not the cause. What is causing people to pick up a gun and blow up a school? Just recently there was a stabbing of 2 Christian clerics at a Church in Sydney. So now are they going to start regulating what kind of knife you can buy?
I think I may have written about this before but it’s worth retelling. I was sitting next to these two teenagers on a flight from London to LA. There had just been a school shooting here and we got to talking and they told me that the knifing in schools is quite prevalent in England. Curiously they said the press didn’t cover it as extensively as we cover our shootings.
This is problematic. The media is trying to push an agenda. The news should report the news. They shouldn't just report gun shootings; they should report knife stabbings and any other kinds of murders. They pick and choose.
One way I try to make sure that I don't get captured is to watch CNN. Or Rachel Maddow although the latter has become untenable. She's a complete lunatic. Not just a lunatic but a bad person. In my opinion, of course who else’s.
But I do try to tune into CNN every now and again and I was very pleased that they had RFKJ on. And Erin Burnett did a great job. That's the first time they've had him on I think.
I understand people will say the same for Fox News and certainly they are mostly presenting one side, but they're a little bit better to be honest. I used to think FOX news was horrible and it’s not great but it’s actually better than CNN. On that issue I changed my mind by watching both and seeing what they’re up to. Overall, I try to avoid both.
In 2019, that’s 5 years ago, CNN reported Biden’s doctors said,"Joe Biden is ‘healthy and vigorous.’” Then with a straight face reported the following: “Biden is being treated for non-valvular atrial fibrillation, or AFib – an irregular heartbeat that O’Connor said Biden experiences no symptoms of. He takes Crestor to lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels, as well as Eliquis to prevent blood clots, Nexium for acid reflux, and Allegra and a nasal spray for seasonal allergies.”
But wait there’s more. “The most significant medical event in Biden’s history, his doctor wrote, came in 1988, when he suffered a brain aneurysm. During surgery, doctors found a second aneurysm that had not bled, which they also treated.” So 2 aneurysms and this—" “He suffered deep vein thrombosis and a pulmonary embolism. Doctors at the time inserted an ‘inferior vena cava filter,’ which would prevent future blood clots from reaching the heart and lungs, and treated him with an oral anti-coagulant for several months.” Ok this is years ago. The point is CNN made it out to be no big deal. How are all of those health complications no big deal? If that were Trump, the top focus of the broadcast would be about how Trump’s health made him unfit to be President. You know that’s true.
That said, there are people who are captured by Trump. They don't look at the fact that he is a really reprehensible person. He's obnoxious as hell and I could give a list of things I don't like about the guy, but as far as policy goes, I think his policies are much better than Biden’s. This does not make me a right wing Republican—I'm voting for RFK Jr. What it does do is make me a critical thinker who sees problems on both sides with both of these bozos. I do think that this time around people are not having to defend themselves as much when they vote for Trump. I guess that's progress— a little bit anyway.
It is important to recognize if you are captured. Try to maintain a balanced and critical perspective by listening to those with differing points of view. You will become more enlightened and aware on this journey we call life.
Now it’s time for TOTD. If you are trying to make a reservation at a popular restaurant which has a long waiting list, here’s what to do. Download the app Resy. It was acquired by American Express in 2019 and offers cardholders exclusive booking options. Another tip is to just show up. Often they can seat you at the bar or if someone doesn’t show up, then the table is yours. Be sure to call the restaurant and get the person’s name before you go.
That’s all for now. Much Love, Sabrina