The general public, including writers, can’t fathom anything less crude for mind-control than the affirmations in the Brave New World, or the microchip in Interface. A little bit more subtle is the method in Snow Crash, but not much.
The general public, including writers, cannot perceive, cannot conceive, cannot believe in the idea that mind-control is much more subtle, and it is going on all the time.
Or maybe how it is done in reality would not sell books? That is possible too.
Who is controlling your mind and to what end? What do they want that they are doing it… and they have been doing it for about seven thousand years… maybe even more.