America’s Colonization of the Minds

By Paul Steigan.

Even though the US empire is on a steep decline and is doing very poorly even in fields where the country was previously completely superior, it maintains a position and an almost bewitching control over ideology and culture. We see this in how Norwegian media and Norwegian culture are also infiltrated by “American values”, how the media writes off everything that comes from American channels and how even the left is more Americanized than ever. We saw this especially under Obama and Biden.

It’s rare that we’ve seen an analysis of this phenomenon from the Chinese side, but now there’s a report from something as little-regarded as a Chinese think tank, which is interesting. They call this phenomenon the US colonization of the mind. We liked this way of phrasing it and have looked into the report a little more.

The report, titled Colonization of the Mind — The Means, Roots, and Global Perils of US Cognitive Warfare , was prepared by the Xinhua Institute, a think tank affiliated with the Xinhua News Agency, in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming. The report was published at the Global South Media and Think Tank Forum 2025.

Until now, the US and the West have been completely dominant in terms of both think tanks and publishing such reports. Now they have competition, and that is both a sign of the times and something to note.

The document is a critical analysis of US strategies of ideological and cognitive warfare, dubbed “colonization of the mind.” It focuses on how the US has used soft power, propaganda, and technology since World War II to shape global perceptions, undermine governments, and maintain hegemony.

The document points to the Trump administration’s decision in 2025 to dismantle USAID and USAGM as an expose of decades of ideological export, opinion manipulation, and government subversion. The United States has used cultural and value-based dominance to secure global obedience, inspired by thinkers such as Joseph Nye and Zbigniew Brzezinski. The authors warn of the loss of cultural sovereignty and urge resistance to U.S. mental colonization.

Chapter 1: Historical Facts About the US Colonization of the Minds

Having established its hegemony after World War II, the United States shifted to “soft power” (culture and values) for cost-effective global control, as opposed to traditional intellectual exchange. “This involves forced transformation, malicious manipulation, covert infiltration, and long-term erosion,” as the report states.

The Chinese report points to well-known phenomena such as:

– White propaganda (open, via Voice of America and Hollywood), black propaganda (covert, via the CIA such as Operation Mockingbird and PRISM) and gray propaganda (semi-open, via NED and NGOs).

– English as lingua franca, narrative hegemony, media control and knowledge production (Western academic dominance).

– Securing cultural hegemony (making American values universal), political dominance (making US interests global norms), and economic privilege (using public opinion to suppress competitors like Huawei and TikTok).

The report points to the role of Hollywood, which has been strongly controlled by the Pentagon and the CIA, Disney, NewsCorp, information warfare after the breakthrough of television, ideological warfare through new media and the transition to cognitive warfare after 2016. Here, social media, not least Facebook, plays a central role.

Technological system: Monopoly on communications (satellites, Starlink), social platforms (algorithmic manipulation) and cognitive technologies (AI, biotechnology for brain control).

Ideological and cultural subversion of countries

The report calls it “ideological invasion” (e.g., “peaceful evolution” against the Soviet Union) weakens consensus, funds opposition, and leads to government collapse (over 50 cases after WWII, according to William Blum).

Through control of the media, the US has spread outright lies (e.g. Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction) to create division, via the media and the CIA for geopolitical gains.

They have engaged in an open and covert subversion of spiritual independence and the cultivation of pro-US forces: creating “whitewashed” elites in developing countries, promoting cultural domestication and servility.

The document concludes that US cognitive warfare poses a global threat to sovereignty and peace, and calls for resistance to protect national identity and ideological integrity. It is written in a critical, anti-American tone, with examples from history and the present.

Our note: Both the corona dictatorship and the Ukraine psychosis have been cognitive warfare on a global scale. Incredibly advanced methods have been used combined with classic techniques of domination.

Counter-Strategy: Liberation of the Minds
The report concludes that the Global South must develop counter-strategies by breaking the chains of the colonization of the mind and promoting exchanges between civilizations and mutual learning:

“As a key member of the global south, China, drawing on its own development experience and the shared aspirations of people around the world, has put forward a series of visionary proposals: the Global Development Initiative (GDI), the Global Security Initiative (GSI), the Global Civilization Initiative (GCI), and the Global Governance Initiative (GGI). This series of proposals offers new paths and innovative approaches for nations to break away from ideological dogmas, shed intellectual dependence, and embark on truly independent development paths.”

“Cultural self-confidence is the foundation of national strength and prosperity. Both developing and developed countries must strengthen their confidence in their national culture, history and development. Cultural trust is the most fundamental, comprehensive and deeply rooted form of trust. It constitutes the most fundamental, profound and lasting strength for a nation’s development. A nation with cultural self-confidence can stand firm, remain stable and achieve far.”

Reposted with thanks from Steigan.