Not long ago I read about a social study experiment related to Groupthink. The object of the experiment was to ascertain the level to which people could be influenced by the apparent consensus on any given issue or action of a larger group to agree with or do something they would not have done otherwise.
The experiment was similar to this scenario: Let's say that we have ten subjects (people) who are going to participate in the experiment. Nine of them are told that when they get to the group session they should report having seen the exact opposite of what they actually saw. One of the participants (the tenth person) doesn't know the other nine have been given these instructions.
So, let's say that this is the experiment: You are told to sit in front of a TV screen and watch a short scene. You see a duck pond... As you start watching the scene, a white duck is coming "your way" as he crosses the pond. Once he reaches the shore, you see another duck, this one is black. Once the black duck reaches the shore, the scene ends and the TV is turned off. All ten participants saw the exact same thing.
All ten participants are then put together in a room and the moderator ask them to describe what they saw, with the guy unaware of the "special instructions" last. When the first one says "I saw a duck pond, and then I immediately noticed the black duck crossing it, coming towards me. After the black duck arrived on the shore, I noticed the white duck coming in the same direction. Within a few seconds after the white duck finally arrived, the scene ended and the TV was turned off."
The tenth guy, when he heard this report from the first one, seemed a little perplexed (as if he thought, "Wait a minute; the white duck crossed first!"). But as the second, and third, and all the rest reported the exact same thing, by the time the moderator got to the tenth guy he proceeded the recount the scene exactly as the others, even though he knew (or thought he knew) the sequence of events was wrong.
The main reason I'm starting this discussion with that example is to highlight the importance of psychology and cognitive infiltration, and how vulnerable we all are to being manipulated by disinformation artists (professionals).
The purpose of this essay is to argue that now more than ever we are being subjected to an astonishing level of mind-numbing propaganda being peddled by the ruling elite, and that its effects are more powerful than anything we've ever seen in history.
On December 12th, 2013, The New York Times reported on the recommendations by the presidential advisory committee reviewing the operations of the NSA: Obama Panel Said to Urge N.S.A. Curbs
A presidential advisory committee charged with examining the operations of the National Security Agency has concluded that a program to collect data on every phone call made in the United States should continue, though under broad new restraints that would be intended to increase privacy protections, according to officials with knowledge of the report’s contents.
The emphasis is mine
As expected by many, there will be no real curtailment of the NSA (unconstitutional and illegal) spying and data collection.
Let's examine the panel members:
...Among its members are Richard A. Clarke, who served in the Clinton administration and both Bush administrations and has become an expert on digital conflict; Michael J. Morell, a former deputy director of the C.I.A.; and Cass R. Sunstein, a Harvard Law School professor who served in the Obama White House and is married to Samantha Power, the ambassador to the United Nations.
Two leading legal academics are also members: Peter Swire, an expert in privacy law, and Geoffrey R. Stone, a constitutional law expert and a former dean of the University of Chicago Law School, where Mr. Obama once taught.
The emphasis is mine
I'm going to focus my attention on Cass R. Sunstein, of whom I wrote about back in August: NSA Review Panel Member Advocated Infiltrating Social Media To 'Increase Faith In Government'
Here's what Glenn Greenwald wrote about Mr. Sunstein back in 2010:
Cass Sunstein has long been one of Barack Obama’s closest confidants. Often mentioned as a likely Obama nominee to the Supreme Court, Sunstein is currently Obama’s head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs where, among other things, he is responsible for “overseeing policies relating to privacy, information quality, and statistical programs.” In 2008, while at Harvard Law School, Sunstein co-wrote a truly pernicious paper proposing that the U.S. Government employ teams of covert agents and pseudo-”independent” advocates to “cognitively infiltrate” online groups and websites — as well as other activist groups — which advocate views that Sunstein deems “false conspiracy theories” about the Government. This would be designed to increase citizens’ faith in government officials and undermine the credibility of conspiracists.
The emphasis is mine
And following up on my opening regarding the psychology of propaganda, let's examine the theory of availability cascade, developed by Sunstein:
An availability cascade is a self-reinforcing cycle that explains the development of certain kinds of collective beliefs. A novel idea or insight, usually one that seems to explain a complex process in a simple or straightforward manner, gains rapid currency in the popular discourse by its very simplicity and by its apparent insightfulness. Its rising popularity triggers a chain reaction within the social network: individuals adopt the new insight because other people within the network have adopted it, and on its face it seems plausible. The reason for this increased use and popularity of the new idea involves both the availability of the previously obscure term or idea, and the need of individuals using the term or idea to appear to be current with the stated beliefs and ideas of others, regardless of whether they in fact fully believe in the idea that they are expressing. Their need for social acceptance, and the apparent sophistication of the new insight, overwhelm their critical thinking.
Now, let's examine one final point as it relates to the mechanism that could be used to implement the ideas he proposes in
his paper:
He also proposes that the Government make secret payments to so-called “independent” credible voices to bolster the Government’s messaging (on the ground that those who don’t believe government sources will be more inclined to listen to those who appear independent while secretly acting on behalf of the Government). This program would target those advocating false “conspiracy theories,” which they define to mean: “an attempt to explain an event or practice by reference to the machinations of powerful people, who have also managed to conceal their role.”
~Snip~
"Government agents (and their allies) might enter chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups and attempt to undermine percolating conspiracy theories by raising doubts about their factual premises, causal logic or implications for political action."
The emphasis is mine
Let me acknowledge at this point that purportedly, what Cass Sunstein claims to be interested in is undermining "conspiracy theories." I argue that that is a red-herring, but let me try to make the point with additional (and more recent) revelations about this subject...
Corporations are increasingly spying on nonprofit groups they view as potential threats with little fear of retribution, according to a new report by a corporate watchdog group.
The large companies employ former Central Intelligence Agency, National Security Agency, FBI, military and police officers to monitor and in some cases infiltrate groups that have been critical of them, according to the report by Essential Information, which was founded by Ralph Nader in the 1980s.
"Many different types of nonprofits have been targeted with espionage, including environmental, anti-war, public interest, consumer, food safety, pesticide reform, nursing-home reform, gun control, social justice, animal rights and arms control groups," the report said.
-- The Los Angeles Times
Now, for those who may not be familiar with the HBGary incident (revealed in 2011), let's re-examine some of the more
salient points:
Some of the documents taken by Anonymous show HBGary Federal was working on behalf of Bank of America to respond to Wikileaks' planned release of the bank's internal documents. "Potential proactive tactics against WikiLeaks include feeding the fuel between the feuding groups, disinformation, creating messages around actions to sabotage or discredit the opposing organization, and submitting fake documents to WikiLeaks and then calling out the error."
Emails indicate Palantir Technologies, Berico Technologies, and the law firm Hunton & Williams (recommended to Bank of America by the US Justice Department) all cooperated on the project. Other e-mails appear to show the U.S. Chamber of Commerce contracted the firms to spy on and discredit unions and liberal groups.
The emphasis is mine
One of the most important revelations gleaned from the leaked documents is how these cognitive infiltrators planned to use Persona Management (or sockpuppets) software and applications:
"According to an embedded MS Word document found in one of the HBGary emails, it involves creating an army of sockpuppets, with sophisticated "persona management" software that allows a small team of only a few people to appear to be many, while keeping the personas from accidentally cross-contaminating each other. Then, to top it off, the team can actually automate some functions so one persona can appear to be an entire Brooks Brothers riot online.
- ''Persona management entails not just the deconfliction of persona artifacts such as names, email addresses, landing pages, and associated content. It also requires providing the human actors technology that takes the decision process out of the loop when using a specific persona. For this purpose we custom developed either virtual machines or thumb drives for each persona. This allowed the human actor to open a virtual machine or thumb drive with an associated persona and have all the appropriate email accounts, associations, web pages, social media accounts, etc. pre-established and configured with visual cues to remind the actor which persona he/she is using so as not to accidentally cross-contaminate personas during use''.
And all of this is for the purposes of infiltration, data mining, and (here's the one that really worries me) ganging up on bloggers, commenters and otherwise "real" people to smear enemies and distort the truth.
Conclusion
Even though I plan to conduct more in-depth research (and observations) about this topic in collaboration with others, at this point I've come to the conclusion that although these revelations have started to connect the dots as it relates to the corporate (and government) propaganda system being criminally used against the population nationwide, I think this is the tip of the iceberg.
What I've concluded so far is that Cass Sunstein theories have been fully implemented. I've concluded that very advanced psychological research conducted by some of the top minds in the field for the CIA and other national security agencies are being fully shared with private interests and corporations nationwide.
I argue that a veritable army of corporate (and government) spies have infiltrated every aspect of our media landscape, as well as the online world, and that "persona management" is widely used to cognitively infiltrate and manipulate online users (as clearly prescribed by Cass Sustein). .
And I argue that some of the tactics being used by sockpuppets include (as referenced in the leaked documents) "ganging up on bloggers, commenters, and otherwise 'real' people to smear enemies and distort the truth."
And I argue that this situation represents one of the most serious threats to freedom and democracy we face today.
As I promised a fellow Kosack, I will try to write an in-depth report on this issue once a week, sharing my findings with the community. I also welcome input, ideas, and feedback, which can be sent to contact@raypensador.com.
[View WikiLeaks leaked Palantir Technologies presentation in PDF]
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Sockpuppets & Trolls Watch: Their aim is to disrupt, to annoy, to introduce "noise" in order to prevent meaningful discussions of issues. Their tactics include casting aspersions (attack on the reputation or integrity), and ad hominems, where instead of addressing issues, they attack the character of people. They also engage in mockery, and logical fallacies. A good source of information about the tactics used by sockpuppets, trolls and hacks is "The 15 Rules of Web Disruption." Once you familiarize yourself with those tactics, it is pretty easy to spot the potential troll. Once spotted, the best thing is to ignore them. And talking about trolls, visit my "Trolls gone wild! diary to read about how they do their thing, and to see them in action!