Even if you avoid the mainstream media, there is hardly any escape possible from their programming. And that is to be understood in the most literal sense: the programming of your mind with language, through a medium, such as the television or a centrally controlled social media platform. This programming is only as efficient as the words that are used, and so the words must be chosen very carefully. Once proven successful, they will be repeated, and again repeated ad infinitum or until the programming is no longer needed. The programmed will now carry on the message.

Linguistic programming is deployed within a large spectrum of severity. It's used a lot in marketing, but politicians and their spin doctors follow the same trainings as those marketers. To them, there is a division between them and you; they are working on you. Language must be an integral part of any of their programming projects, as it's the proven way to get into your brain and eventually into your very soul. They will make you do things that you would not have if it weren't for their programming.

Perhaps the most infamous form of linguistic programming is 'conspiracy theorist' and its later cousin 'tinfoil hat'. The notion 'conspiracy theory' dates from 1863 but it seemed to have been refound in the 1960s as a way to insta-ridicule anyone who dared question any official narrative. It was proactively pushed, until the programming was complete and the term became a household item to throw at anyone one doesn't agree with. Every now and then, however, it pops up in the media as though they thought a booster shot of this old and tired notion was needed, just to be sure. Even their best words lose their powers over time if not tended to.

A more recent, Dutch specialty has become the use of the derogatory term 'wappie', which doesn't have any real meaning but is close to the original meaning of 'covidiot'. It is used against any citizen who dares to think for themselves, the ones who doubt there's a pandemic, who criticize the measures, the ones who stand up for their basic human rights and those of their children, the ones who organize peaceful protests and get beaten the living hell out of them by senselessly aggressive police thugs, sometimes with serious injuries as a result. These people are scorned, and – incredibly - blamed for the prolongation of the measures. The Dutch minister of Public Health recently stated that he was worried about “wappie sounds” in the parliament, insulting and dismissing just about all the voters to a certain competing party he was referring to, and anyone else who doubts whether the lockdowns, curfews and forced vaccinations really are the solution to the ever growing problems society faces.

And it gets worse. Many people are of the opinion that it's perfectly just that a girl was hit by a water cannon that broke her skull, that a man was worked to the ground, beaten and kicked while also dealing with a police dog, that a lady was pushed in front of a running police van by an undercover police thug, or that Dutch army veterans, who formed a line of defense to protect protesters from police, are assaulted and arrested by the very people they protected or liberated during their military careers. Because according to them “these 'wappies' had it coming and they should abide by the rules”. Unfortunately, there are just too many examples to include here.

You'd expect trolls to comment with “haha you stupid wappie” to a social media post about let's say, the trampling of our human rights, the absence of scientific proof that viruses infect, or that radiation is the cause of many diseases. But today it's anyone: mothers, children, grandfathers, nurses, teachers, university professors, politicians: they all seem to have been successfully programmed, and apparently dehumanizing their brothers and sisters is now part of their everyday life. A life that, to them, must be equally unrecognizable from the life they had until a year ago, as it is to us.