@PacificGreen  
Good point.

@PacificGreen  
I already did, but I don’t think I wanna read through up to 154 comments just to find out.

@PacificGreen  
Maybe skimming the thread could help you figure it out.

@PacificGreen  
I have no idea…

Why are people arguing over villains and show’s writing on a pic about a bubble popping on Celestia’s horn?

@Blissey1  
ok  

@TexasUberAlles  
@Somber Star  
for the love of god could you ducks stop all this quacking already

@Somber Star  
Just FYI, your amazing “five seconds of research” method turned up a definition written by a New Age hipster political party. Feel free to actually vet your sources from now on.

@TexasUberAlles  
“Mind control (also known as brainwashing, reeducation, coercive persuasion, thought control, or thought reform) is a theoretical indoctrination process which results in “an impairment of autonomy, an inability to think independently, and a disruption of beliefs and affiliations.”
 
First response from Googling “mind control definition”. Feel free to shut up now.

@The Frowning Pony  
I’m waiting on the printer to churn out new badges for Fiesta Equestria! and have nothing better to do right now; I have no idea what their excuse is.

How are you reta peeople still going? What fuels you? Is there some sexual release from claiming the last word in an inane discussion like this I’m not aware of?

@Somber Star  
I suppose that given that you’re trying to redefine “mind control” according your own personal definition, it’s at least consistent of you to try to redefine “art” as well. Have fun with that definition that only you and you alone use.

@TexasUberAlles  
The operative words here are direct and intended. Art usually fails to fill at least one of those categories. Likewise with trolling. Nice try though, it’s starting to look like you’re thinking now.

@Somber Star  
all something has to do to fit under that term is have a direct and intended influence on a person’s mind  
That definition is so broad I don’t think it even meets the definition of “definition”. By your standard, art is mind control.

@Background Pony #9A61  
So?
 
 
@TexasUberAlles  
Um, no they wouldn’t. Engaging in such activity is clearly more dangerous than using an over-arching term for it. Although I don’t see why I would not be more specific. Emotional manipulation, brainwashing, indoctrination, training, drugs, meditation, induced lucid dreaming, hypnosis (assuming that’s real), magic (stage illusions), therapy, and probably several more things I haven’t thought of can all be considered forms of non-magical and non-psychic mind control. I mean really, all something has to do to fit under that term is have a direct and intended influence on a person’s mind.

@Somber Star  
I’ve never heard anyone refer to “mind control” as anything other than fantastical psychic powers.

If you were takling to someone IRL about an abusive partner using “mind control” on their victim or a manipulative parent “mind controlling” their kid through guilt tripping and emotional manipulation, I’m guessing they would probably either throw you a side-eye and think of you as a nutter, or just start backing away until they could reach the door. There’s a difference between persuasion or intimidation and ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL.

@Background Pony #9A61  
Like I said, in the given context, “mind control” is an umbrella term under which the aforementioned specified terms, including conventional manipulation, collectively fall.

Mind control isn’t the same as psychological manipulation.
 
Mind control does not actually exist in the real world. There is no magical force by which anyone is able to forcibly alter the workings of someone else’s mental processes. It’s impossible to just….reach into someone’s head and push buttons.
 
Post-hypnotic suggestion or subliminal messaging is the closest comparison you could really make, but even then, that’s extremely limited and doesn’t necessarily work on everyone anyway.

@Cyborg_pony  
Oh hey, I can use animated GIFs too! Now if you’ll excuse me, I have grownups to disagree with.
 
@Somber Star  
I guess we just disagree about the use of the term “mind control” in a magic fantasy land setting, then; when you’re talking about a world where “reform spells” exist and a Bug Wife can turn somepony with a mind as strong as Captain Shining Armor into a green-eyed magic sockpuppet, I expect the term to involve actual direct magic or psionic control of a person even if they’re fighting back against it, rather than the kind of garden variety emotional manipulation that can be found at any real world family reunion.
 
had only built up a small village of maybe 100 or so ponies  
She never actually showed any ambition to do much more than that, though; she said she hoped her message spread across Equestria, but she seemed perfectly content to just sit there in the mountains and let willing converts come to her, with no expressed intent to expand by force. Even when the Mane Six had wrecked her creepy little social experiment, she was just furious at them for having ruined the thing she had going, not for interrupting any plans of conquest.
 
no longer has the stick  
It was a stick she found in the desert, presumably she can find another one and dupe people with that one as well. Equestria has kind of a lousy track record when it comes to warning other parts of the country about serious threats.

@TexasUberAlles  

 

@TexasUberAlles  

 
I’m sorry, is that not a form of mind control to you? Because I include those, guilt trips, emotional sabotage, manipulation, and all other such tricks alongside more easily recognizable magic and hypnosis as forms of mind control.
 

 
I don’t agree. The Princess Tetrarchy are all at least as charismatic as she is, and she only had one pony she trusted even slightly, and he had no power and wasn’t allowed inside her house. Also, Starlight was (presumably) loose years before the Map found her, and had only built up a small village of maybe 100 or so ponies. She has to start from scratch now, and she no longer has the stick she can pretend is a special artifact.

@Somber Star  
Brainwashing and domineering aren’t really “mind control” so much as forceful persuasion. It only requires her power to establish in the first place by ganking cutie marks; after that she can persuade any number of loyal lieutenants to carry out her policies in her personal absence. Josef Stalin was a scary mofo, but he didn’t personally commit all the atrocities for which he was personally responsible; he dominated people into doing so on his behalf.

@PonyPon  
She uses more mundane methods (as in, not magic), but what she does is still technically mind control. The problem with any community she founds is that by its nature, it will require her presence and power in order to be maintained.

@Somber Star  
All those examples were mind control.
 
Glimmer goes deeper than that.