I think this makes a useful distinction, but it’s against something this article didn’t quite say. If the “brainwashing machine” convinces you of its agenda by just giving you evidence, then of course you should believe what it will teach you. If it just replaces your brain with one that believes in its agenda, then this isn’t a belief that was “arrived at using your own reasoning process” (though this may have been added as response to what you said).
A similar move works to disarm your password example. I don’t gain any new information that changes my beliefs about the password, I just forget. There is no reasoning process that changes what I’m going to type into the box on the login page.
I think this makes a useful distinction, but it’s against something this article didn’t quite say. If the “brainwashing machine” convinces you of its agenda by just giving you evidence, then of course you should believe what it will teach you. If it just replaces your brain with one that believes in its agenda, then this isn’t a belief that was “arrived at using your own reasoning process” (though this may have been added as response to what you said).
A similar move works to disarm your password example. I don’t gain any new information that changes my beliefs about the password, I just forget. There is no reasoning process that changes what I’m going to type into the box on the login page.