An article by Dan-Viggo Bergtun published in steigan.no on June 11, 2026, and translated from Norwegian by us at “Beorn And The Shieldmaiden”. Even though the article is written primarily with Norway in mind, what Dan-Viggo says is equally applicable to all the Western European countries, so heed the warning!

We AI-translated from Norwegian the AI-generated image by Dan-Viggo Bergtun. There are a couple of inaccuracies, as can be expected. “Fred” means “peace” in Norwegian, so the bubble in the middle should read “Peace is naivety”. Two of the bubbles in the corner should read: “We must be scared” and “This is for our own best”.
See the original image in Norwegian further down in the article.

Brainwashing is when common sense is wiped out. It is when the human capacity for independent judgment is gradually weakened, overridden and replaced by ready-made slogans, fixed enemy images and political reflexes. The brainwashed person does not necessarily think he is lying. The dangerous thing is precisely that he can be convinced that he is telling the truth, because the propaganda has been repeated for so long that it is perceived as his own thought.

This is what makes the development in Norway so serious. Our politicians are becoming the bearers of a brainwashing they themselves do not see. They repeat the message of war as if it were wisdom. They repeat the threat images as if they were sober analysis. They repeat that more guns means more security, as if history has not already shown us how wrong it can go when societies let fear rule.

This is no longer just about political dissent. It is about the manipulation of an entire people. We are manipulated through words, images, headlines, news broadcasts, expert panels and political speeches. We are told that the world is so dangerous that we must accept ever more rearmament. We are told that thoughts of peace are naivety. We are told that diplomacy is weakness. We are told that obedience to alliances and great powers is the same as responsible Norwegian politics.

This is how the boundaries in our heads are shifted. Little by little. Day after day.

When politicians lose the ability to think for themselves, the people lose some of their protection. Those who were supposed to use reason on behalf of the country instead become transmitters of propaganda. They bring the logic of war into the Storting (the Parliament), into the government, into the parties, into the press and into people’s everyday lives. When the message is repeated often enough, it begins to feel normal. When the fear is repeated often enough, it begins to resemble reality. When rearmament is repeated often enough as the only solution, many stop asking what the alternative could have been.

That’s how brainwashing works. Not primarily through coercion, but through repetition. Not through one big lie, but through a thousand small shifts of reason. First, the language is changed. Then the feelings are changed. In the end, the entire judgment of society is changed.

In Norway, we are now seeing how this brainwashing spreads from politicians to the population. It comes through the press that too often repeats the language of power instead of exposing it. It comes through commentators who treat the logic of war as realism. It comes through experts who always come to the same conclusion: more weapons, more preparedness, more military escalation, more loyalty to Washington and NATO.

This creates a dangerous cycle. American power logic affects Norwegian decision makers. Norwegian politicians repeat it as if it were Norwegian sense. The press spread the message. People are becoming more fearful. Then politicians point to the fears of the population and use it as evidence that their own policies are needed. This is how power produces its own affirmation.

AI-generated image by Dan-Viggo Bergtun uncannily reminds of a Soviet caricature on Nazi Germany, exposing “brain stuffing”, which we present further down.

We are being manipulated into believing that this development is natural.

But it’s not natural. It is politically created. It is driven by propaganda, fear and interests that profit from Norway moving further away from peace thinking and deeper into war preparedness. The arms industry is not losing out. The great powers are not losing out on this development. Those who lose are ordinary people, the elderly, the sick, the poor, children, young people and veterans who must once again see that human security is pushed aside because the war machine should always be fed first.

As a veteran, I’ve seen this before. In my experience from international veteran work, I have seen how brainwashing for war can really take hold. It won’t let go just because the guns are silenced. It stays in the language, the memories, the bodies and the institutions. I have also worked for veterans in various conflict areas, and I have been a trustee for veterans from many nations and seen just this.

Once a society is taught to think in war, peace becomes harder to imagine. That is why the development in Norway is so dangerous. We risk having a generation that grows up with the language of war as normal politics. Children and young people learn that the world is first and foremost made up of enemies. They teach that security is created with weapons before it is created with trust, diplomacy, international law and social justice. They learn that the future must be built around images of threat, not around hope.

The future of our children is also in danger when an entire society is manipulated into believing that war is rational. The future of our children is in danger when politicians no longer distinguish between analysis and propaganda. The future of our children is in danger when peace is treated as a weakness, while the needs of the arms industry masquerade as national security.

This is the warning: If this brainwashing continues, Norway may change character. We can have a society where welfare is weakened because military spending always comes first. We can have a society where young people grow up in permanent fear. We can have a society where critical voices are suspected as disloyal. We can have a society in which democracy becomes narrower, harder and more controlled, precisely because power can always point to a new threat.

We are no longer just dealing with political errors. We are facing a moral collapse.

Norway must wake up before the brainwashing sets in even deeper. Norwegian politicians must be reminded that reason applies, even when the propaganda shouts loudly. The press must stop being an amplifier of the war message and start being the watchdog of democracy again. The people must refuse to be manipulated into a reality where peace is suspect and rearmament is sacred.

A free people must protect their own judgment. It must require more than slogans. It must require truth, reason and courage. Because once the brainwashing for war takes hold, it’s not just the politics that change. Then the people change. Then our children change. Then the future changes.

And a future built on manipulated fear is no safe future. It is a way into darkness, disguised as responsibility.

Brain stuffing

This caricature by Boris Yefimov perfectly depicts what is being done to the European and Ukrainian population these days.

Above the drawing, there is a quote from one of Hitler’s speeches:

I want that my youth resembled young wild animals.

(The quote is presumably from a conversation between Adolf Hitler and Hermann Rauschning)

In the drawing itself, the brains of the aforementioned “animals” are filled with gunk from a toilet flush tank, operated by Goebbels. The tank is adorned with Hitler’s portrait and the words:

“The Fuhrer is thinking for you”

The caricature is summarised by the text under it:

“Mass indoctrination of the hitlerite thugs”