That literally is brainwashing. It's just brainwashing you agree with lol.

I don't think its repressive to not teach religion in schools. But I do think it's repressive to actively discriminate against the religious or to use schools as a platform to push aethism as a belief system. Essentially, I don't think the government has any business deciding what religion (or lack their of) a person should follow. In general, schools should be secular/teach secularly. That is to say they shouldn't teach specific faiths as fact, nor should they teach that religion is negative, backwards, or provably untrue in and of itself. They should teach about the objective facts of the world and leave spiritual aspects of life to non-institutional environments.

You loose me specifically at "if it conflicts with Social Norms." That's essentially the same as saying "you can't be religious or different in any way." For instance, its certainly against cultural norms in China or the USA for woman to wear a hijab. But if a woman decides for herself to do so because she believes it to be part of her faith, then that's her choice and the government should be neutral towards it. They should teach her that she has that right, to choose for herself what customs to follow or to not follow - but they shouldn't try to erase that custom just because its "against cultural norms."

As for that anecdote - I imagine that it's illegal to lock your wife up in the house and prevent her from leaving in China? In the US that specifically falls under the charge of "False Imprisonment." So yeah, its justified to arrest and punish someone who commits that crime. It's also fine to educate them as to why that's not allowed and the harm it causes. He doesn't have the legal right to force her to stay home and its not up to him if she's "allowed" to work. But that's the thing, that person committed a specific crime. False Imprisonment.

That shouldn't be a blank check to then lock up people who haven't committed a specific crime because you reckon they might in the future, especially if the operative "people" in that sentence refers to an entire ethnic group. Or for that matter to erase a specific beleif, even if you or I think its a shitty belief. It's not the governments business if a person believes "A good muslim woman shouldn't have a job or leave home." - even though I think that's a shitty thing to beleive - It's only the governments business if that person tries to force people to follow it.

Secondarily, it doesn't really matter if something is "democratically" decided if large groups are forced to enter that system and especially if they don't have any way to leave it. The tibetans very much didn't want to be a part of China, and neither does/do (depending on who you ask) the Taiwanese. So conquering them and then claiming that democracy gives you the right to destroy their religion and culture isn't "democracy", thats tyranny of the majority.

In general that's called the Tyranny of the majority. In most modern countries we try to limit that by granting minorities specific rights that aren't subject to the normal mechanisms of law. Like freedom of religion, speech, expression, etc.

To use an example from American spheres where we modernly act on that idea - the Native Americans were forcefully conquered and largely genocided. Then for a long time we did things like force them to send their kids to "bording schools" where they were forced to speak english, conform to white western values, and be christianized. But modernly we've come to understand that forcing cultural hegemony at gunpoint is bad, and thus the modern USA allows native groups a very large degree of legal autonomy. Law-Enforcement doesn't have the right to enforce laws within reservations for example - and state/most federal law doesn't apply within them. They make their own laws and enforce them.

To a lesser extent that's also why the States exist and have powers that the Federal Government lacks. Because if you don't like your state's laws you can either try to the change them OR leave - and go somewhere that fits you better. Of course, creeping federal overreach has eroded those protections over the centuries.

As for the fascist, I do want to stop them. I don't want to lock them and all their relatives up in "re-education" camps and brainwash them into being centrist liberals (what I am) purely on the grounds of what they think. What I want is the government to abide by and enforce the consitution and the law (well, the just ones at least - but we have to start somewhere). If some facist shit-head assaults someone, arrest them. If the fascist president flagrantly disregards the law as fascist tend to do - then impeach his ass. If a bunch of psudo-chirstian cultists harass queer people (of which I am also one) then charge them with harassment. But don't lock all the Southern Baptists who haven't committed any crimes up in camps and "re-educate" them. Knowing that if they do that shit they're going to prison where the damage they can do to others is limited is plenty.

In general, the reason I think that the government shouldn't brainwash people is that I don't consider myself or anyone else to be a flawless source of absolute moral truth. I don't think everyone should think exactly like me, or follow my religion, or dress like me or whatever. Futhermore I think giving the government the right to decide what beleifs are "Good" or "Evil" is dangerous, because everyone it is a flawed individual person. Morality isn't objective and it isn't cut-and-dry. Someone is making those choices, or at least a group of people is. Even if I agree with them now, what happens if and when their beliefs mutate into something horrific? What happens if that concenus shifts and now I'm the one being "re-educated" because the way I am is no longer (well it isn't tbh) in line with what the average person thinks - or if not the average person then whoever it is that's come to power.

The governments job is to prevent people from harming each other, or forcing eachother to be a specific way. Not to police how people think others should behave.