Greatest swindle ever or mind control?

Well I working on trying to figure out how and why so many folks can look at these pictures, have objects pointed out to them time and time again, and come up with the same tired explanation: It's a rock.
I therefore am considering three ideas about this:
1. There are an incredible number of liars out there who see the buildings, the tunnels, the plants and so forth and deny it.
2. People are incredibly guillible, falling for the flimsy hoax that Mars was never inhabited, a hoax based upon a few (?) square miles of real estate.
3. Some form of mind control is at work on the general public that a few have escaped. Maybe too many people just are not conditioned to think for themselves.

So what do you believers think? Have people been brainwashed, or are there just an incredible number of liars out there?

You missed the another option:

4. These are just rocks, but some people, for whatever reasons, wish to see more in them than there is.

What you just said is not scientific. Science requires careful study of facts, testing, hypotheses, revisions, repeated evidence and so on. Blanket dismissals are NOT scientific and have no place in science.
These photos should be studied by expert teams of archaeologists, biologists, anthropologists, botanists, microbiologists, architects and mechanical engineers, and the results released to the public. I have the botanist part. I have enough expertise that I can definitely show that there is plant life on that planet. I also show obvious artifacts in the hope of inspiring others to help show the public the truth.

What is wrong with people?

Hi AoM, I think we have to wait for manned expeditions to proof this kind of things - we just dont consider such unbelievable(?) things having only rather bad (on this behalf) digital images. One of my favs is this (Opportunity - Victoria Crater):

The structures on the opposite rim looks like some sort of carvings for me but
unfortunatly the rover cams have quite bad megapixel count and no telezoom (telezoom equipment have been canceled on the MSL as well but at least it has better resolution)

You are right that repressive ideological control is exercised by normal everyday communications between individuals and through media. It's not so much a conspiracy as it is a (frightening) natural desire to gain social respect by avoiding thinking and saying "stupid" things. Of course, the problem is that people are inherently ignorant of most things they are capable of thinking about, so for this reason there is fear of looking stupid and hence the tendency to avoid saying things deemed stupid by others.

Just something as simple as the label "conspiracy theorists" works as a prod to dissuade many people from entertaining or exploring thoughts or ideas that remotely smell like they could be attacked as being a "conspiracy theory." It is not some form of mind-control in the sense of UFOs or government using special brain-wave controllers to directly manipulate nerve cells. It's just a culture of self-discipline that spreads among individuals.

You could call it "anti-conspiracy repression culture" or just "the tyranny of subjective realism."

Sane people would just look at pictures and discuss reasons why they think it is possible that those could be buildings or natural occurring rock formations. There's really no need to go accusing each other of paranoia, hoax, lies, etc.

Science is basically supposed to be an open discussion of facts and reason where interpersonal emotional manipulation is avoided.