I'm going to be writing a diary about the latest article by Glenn Greenwald, "How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations," but in the meantime, I'd like to post this commentary addressing an issue that keeps coming up in comment threads that deal with the topic of government/corporate propaganda and cognitive infiltration. What motivated me to write this commentary is having read (most of) the comment thread of the diary by Richard Lyon about Greenwald's article, and having noticed (familiar) pro-establishment talking points being repeated over and over (in what seems to be a propagandist approach).
First of all, no serious person would claim that having a vast spy network covering the entire country, building detailed dossiers on millions of people, and targeting social justice activists and groups, employing infiltration, disruption, and maligning tactics, is nothing to worry about, or is not an important issue.
And thus I'll start by deconstructing the talking points. (1) The Left is so ineffective that there is no reason for these spy networks to engage in disruption tactics. (2) The fact that the government would spy on certain groups of people is old news, and not really a big deal. (3) Spending time trying to understand exactly how the spy networks are cognitively infiltrating blogs is counter-productive and only leads to witch hunts. (4) We should not be surprised that these infiltration efforts are going on since even businesses do it. (5) It doesn't matter if there are professional disinformation artists among us since we can all evaluate every post or diary on its merit, and if the argument is weak, offensive, or disingenuous, the community can quickly spot it and act accordingly. (6) There is something wrong with the author (paranoid, CT, delusional, etc.).
The recurring theme in those arguments is that these infiltration actions by the gov't/corporate spy network are not really a big deal; the "nothing to see here, move along" meme.
Now, if in reality these issues are very important as it relates to our rights and system of government, why would some people spend such an extraordinary amount of time and effort repeating these talking points over and over and over?
As I always say, it is very unlikely that all those engaging in that type of behavior are disinformation artists, or trolls, or political hacks. But that's the way propaganda works, by spreading memes via the use of very advanced and sophisticated psychological manipulation techniques. A handful of highly-trained and effective disinformation artists can create havoc in any environment in which people are not aware they are being targeted.
Here's why we are being lied to, spied on, and infiltrated... I'll start with a couple of quotes that accurately describe the actual system we live under:
The United States has experienced fundamental changes that are dramatically detrimental to democracy. Voters’ ability to define political discourse has been so diminished that even decisive election results like Barack Obama’s in 2012 have little impact. That’s because powerful interests — freed to, in effect, buy elections, unhindered by downsized and diffused media that must rely on revenue from campaign ads — now set the rules of engagement. Those interests so dominate politics that the squabbling of Democrats and Republicans, liberals and conservatives, is a sideshow to the great theater of plutocracy and plunder. This is not democracy. This is dollarocracy.
‘Dollarocracy’: How Special Interests Undermine Our Democracy
by John Nichols and Robert W. McChesney - November 8, 2013
[The emphasis is mine]
Corporations write our legislation. They control our systems of information. They manage the political theater of electoral politics and impose our educational curriculum. They have turned the judiciary into one of their wholly owned subsidiaries. They have decimated labor unions and other independent mass organizations, as well as having bought off the Democratic Party, which once defended the rights of workers. With the evisceration of piecemeal and incremental reform—the primary role of liberal, democratic institutions—we are left defenseless against corporate power.
~Snip~
A handful of corporate oligarchs around the globe have everything—wealth, power and privilege—and the rest of us struggle as part of a vast underclass, increasingly impoverished and ruthlessly repressed. There is one set of laws and regulations for us; there is another set of laws and regulations for a power elite that functions as a global mafia.
truthdig: Rise Up or Die
by Chris Hedges - May 19, 2013
[The emphasis is mine]
And of course, there is the latest Moyers & Company broadcast about "
The Deep State Hiding in Plain Sight," by Mike Lofgren.
Now, that's the true nature of the system, and explains a lot of the social, environmental, and governmental dysfunction we are experiencing. Basically once corporate cartels captured our system of government, the system became predatory.
Activists and social justice groups endeavor in first, understanding the intricacies of the state within the state, the shadow government, the "Deep State." They work on exposing the lies, the manipulation, the propaganda. And they work against injustices that result from the predation of the system.
And a lot of that work often times interferes with the agendas (and/or profits) of the power establishment, both the political establishment, and the corporate cartels.
And so, for the corrupt political establishment, it benefit them to do everything they can to convince people that the system is on the up and up, legitimate, while in reality much of it is "political theater," as Hedges points out.
The same for the corporate cartels... It is to their benefit to not be revealed the extent to which they control our government institutions.
That's why you've seen a national security apparatus merge government and corporations, and then using its power to protect its self-serving interests.
This situation explains why the ruling class allocates so many resources to the spreading of false narratives and propaganda, and why those individuals and organizations that focus on shinning a light on this corrupt arrangement are so vehemently attacked, discredited, subjected to character assassination campaigns, cognitive infiltration. And why internet blogs are the target of very advanced spy-ops.
I will follow up with another diary based on Greenwald's article with well-resourced material about how corporations and the government are employing mass amount of resources on the spreading of false narratives and propaganda.
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Market For The People |Ray Pensador | Email List | Twitter | Facebook
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. [Image credit: Jacob Bøtter from Copenhagen, Denmark]