If you are old enough to remember margarine, then you don’t need anyone to tell you what brainwashing is. It was everywhere. Everyone used it.
No one discussed how toxic it was. No one discussed anything relative to the world that existed beyond advertising and consumerism.
As deeply brainwashed as we are today, at least, there is a conversation that suggests that there might be something nefarious going on behind the curtain. For a long time there was no such discussion.