So I've been learning within the past year or so that brainwashing seems to be bullshit. It's been combination of the Korea War Blowback podcast season, a recent Seth Skorkowsky YouTube episode on moral panics in D&D/ttrpg history, and stuff like that.

It started during the Korean War to explain why prisoners of war were okay with the North Koreans or something, to dismiss the strong arguments of North Koreans as being the good guys in that war. Hell, it was written about by a CIA agent lol.

Stockholm Syndrome also seems to be untrue in a similar capacity from what I can tell. Haven't looked as much into it, but I've heard similar things that not really accepted by the psychology community as being a definitely proved thing that exists.

But what's up Patty Hearst? That seems to be the most straightforward example of "brain washing" that I've seen.