Difference between revisions of "Red pill or blue pill?"

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== Countermoves ==
 
== Countermoves ==
  
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I don’t think any alternative will be possible until certain realities are faced, not just by fringe figures like ourselves but by much broader swathes of society, and that seems unlikely.
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I don’t think any alternative will be possible until certain realities are faced, not just by fringe figures like ourselves but by much broader swathes of society, and that seems unlikely <ref>The Californian Reality http://nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-1401/msg00064.html </ref>.
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An acquaintance wrote:
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''The flight of capital from the national welfare and developmental states in the 1970s has led to the formation of full-fledged transnational capitalist class, which has been described very well by people like Leslie Sklair and especially William Robinson (of UC Santa Barbara, kudos to him). The so-called “offshore” operations of the TCC ultimately transformed the world economy and now, everywhere is offshore, ie, every country and region offers prime conditions for capital accumulation. The result is the formation of oligarchies. We don’t live in democracies, we live under oligarchies who control tremendous human resources and technological power via finance and other knowledge-intensive means.''
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''The new oligarchies have captured decisive influence over the former national states and mobilized their police, secret service and military forces in their defence. Their reign, though it appears under quite different guises depending on where you are, is extremely sophisticated and it’s supported by almost everyone who gets a piece of the action (the globalizing technocrats and bureacrats, as Sklair puts it). Unlimited global trade is what they’re all about. They’ve been able to use the 2008 crisis to shift capital toward the newly developing regions, and in this way, turbocharge an already accelerated world economy. Instead of human-oriented development, we have a hyper-competititive rush toward infinite accumulation, currently supported by the printing of money on unprecedented scales. Narco-violence, local ganglands, fundamentalism and brutal fascism all flourish around the edges of this juggernaut, but they’re not stopping its development. If you want an image of the TCC in all its banality, look at the unbelievable numbers of unbelievably wealthy-looking yachts in any Carribean or Mediterranean harbor, and probably also in San Francisco or Newport Beach. Runaway industrial development with no heed for tomorrow buys the TCC the only award they can seem to conceive. The endgame of such fun in the sun is the looming prospect of mass extinction due to climate change in the Anthropocene.''
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''Societies are articulated by the relation between knowledge and practice. Neither moaning about the decline of the unions nor withdrawing to some romantic exodus will change anything. To achieve substantial change, large numbers of those who occupy articulatory and directive functions in society (what Gramsci called “organic intellectuals,” whether inside or outside the universities) would have to identify this situation and make it a priority both to combat it and to devise alternatives, complete with the adequate political and instrumental means to achieve them. That means giving up the illusion that the current rule of law and system of political representation constitute adequate means of democratic governance. They don’t. So pressing for substantial change is tantamount to advocating revolution.''
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''For the past few years I have been developing this viewpoint in every context that I occupy. Sadly, I must report that up to now, almost no one has been interested. Left-leaning intellectuals are still preoccupied by individual liberation, minority and sectoral rights claims, the ghosts of working-class struggles, and anarchist longings for direct democracy. All of those have been very important, but none of the current oppositional discourses can marshall the sophistication, depth, durability and power to confront the transnational capitalist class. An alternative is not something that one fabricates on the fly, in a study or an artwork or a hacklab or an affinity group or a church or a social center, even if all of those can be part of it. To make it real would require a large-scale articulation of theory and practice, extending into mainstream institutions even while outstripping and transforming them. Obviously it’s easier said than done, but without saying it you can’t get anywhere. The silence of the intellectuals is the new treason of the clercs.''
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''I think the keyword of systemic change already exists: political ecology. There are many people working in that direction. But the universities, cultural systems, professional association (including unions) and press/media apparatuses are still massively captured by the dream of belonging to the transnational capitalist class, or mired in some vague nostalgia for the klarion calls of yesterday’s struggles. Meanwhile our old nettime nemesis, the Californian Ideology, has made tremendous forward strides.''
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''Just how far will we let it go?''
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== News and watchdogs ==
 
== News and watchdogs ==
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* Lux ex Umbra - monitoring Canadian signals intelligence (SIGINT) activities past and present http://luxexumbra.blogspot.ca/
  
 
== Interesting reads ==
 
== Interesting reads ==

Revision as of 09:55, 26 May 2015

Spent time searching the subject of who your social media friends might be? Ever wonder what the intelligence agencies are up to with fake profiles? Driven mad at people who derail intelligent discussions? It’s simple. In information operations, the goal is to create people who ‘are what they think’ to the advantage of ‘the man behind the curtain’ or a center tower as described in Foucaults panopticon.

Bits and pieces from history

It doesn't take long or a lot of work to find dots and snippets of the recent past that give us glimpses of what was to come.

  • In 2005 the BBC reports that the US military is planning to win the hearts of young people in the Middle East by publishing a new comic in order to "achieve long-term peace and stability in the Middle East" [1] and reveals in 2006 US plans to 'fight the net': A newly declassified document gives a fascinating glimpse into the US military's plans for "information operations" - from psychological operations, to attacks on hostile computer networks [2].
  • The Raw Story reports in 2007 that CENTCOM sent emails to "bloggers who are posting inaccurate or untrue information, as well as bloggers who are posting incomplete information" [3].
  • More alarming seems to be the article from the Register on wargame simulations: Sentient world: war games on the grandest scale informing us that the US DOD is developing a parallel to Planet Earth, with billions of individual "nodes" to reflect every man, woman, and child this side of the dividing line between reality and artificial reality to see how long you can go without food or water, or how you will respond to televised propaganda [4].
  • 2009 is the year the US Air Force releases ‘Counter-Blog’ marching orders to its airmen as part of an Air Force push to "counter the people out there in the blogosphere who have negative opinions about the U.S. government and the Air Force" [5].
  • The tension was tangible through linguistic patterns in the IRC channels of the anonymous hives in 2011. An anonymous operation was starting up [6]. Photos and messages kept appearing on atrocities commited by Ghadafi. Do-gooders jumped in, farts saw an opportunity for leadership. But all was not what it seemed as we'd learn later. Human rights investigations reported NATO bombing the Great Man-Made River [7], RT reported on the plundering of Libya by Goldman Sachs [8] and two weeks later again, with the numbers [9]. O aye, and many more lies behind the West's war on Libya [10]. It is not as if the anonymous operation made any real difference, but still the old adage goes, fool me once shame on you, fool me twice ...

Covert operations

The larger context of the above bits and pieces is that of covert operations, a practice as old as warfare, the oldest occupation of mankind. Many events in history have been changed because of covert missions by military or by secret organizations led by a government.

“History isn’t like that. History unravels gently, like an old sweater. It has been patched and darned many times, reknitted to suit different people, shoved in a box under the sink of censorship to be cut up for the dusters of propaganda, yet it always – eventually – manages to spring back into its old familar shape. History has a habit of changing the people who think they are changing it. History always has a few tricks up its frayed sleeve. It’s been around a long time.” ~ Terry Pratchett, Mort

Discoveries and experiences are being shared, conspiracies disclosed [11], injustices revealed, the dead named, and sometimes governments change as a result of that. More likely, when a government changes it is caused by covert operations.

Alphabet soup

Signals Intelligence (SIGINT)

Intelligence-gathering by interception of signals, between people (COMINT) or from electronic signals not directly used in communication (ELINT).

Communications Intelligence (COMINT)

Covers all electronic communications in the US and the world "to ensure national security". The NSA at Ft Meade, Maryland has had the most advanced computers in the world since the 60s. Technology is developed and implemented in secret.

Electronic Intelligence (ELINT)

ELINT is divided into Technical ELINT (TechELINT) and Operational ELINT (OpELINT):

  • Technical ELINT obtains signal structure, emission characteristics, modes of operation, emitter functions, and weapons systems associations of such emitters as radars, beacons, jammers, and navigational signals for determining its capabilities and role in a larger system as part of electronic warfare.
  • Operational ELINT focuses on locating specific ELINT targets and determining operational patterns of the systems named Electronic Order of Battle (EOB) for supporting military operational planners and tactical military commanders on the battlefield.

Foreign Instrumentation Signals Intelligence (FISINT)

TELINT (Telemetry Intelligence), later named FISINT (Foreign Instrumentation Signals Intelligence) used for intercepting, processing, and analysis of foreign telemetry is closely related to TechELINT and conducted by DoD.

Human intelligence (HUMINT)

Any information that can be gathered from any human sources. The National Clandestine Service (NCS) is the branch of the CIA responsible for the collection of HUMINT.

Domestic Intelligence (DOMINT)

The NSA has a permanent national security anti-terrorist surveillance network in place. This surveillance network seems hidden from the public, save for the leaks.

Leaks

Communications Privacy Folly

In reply to a request for comments on Mexico law revisions – Warrantless Real-time Cell phone Geolocation Data Surveillance, Cryptome comments - This is the short version of why there can be no solution to preventing communication systems abuse [12].

Psychological warfare

‘Psychological Operations: Planned operations to convey selected information and indicators to foreign audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign governments, organizations, groups, and individuals. The purpose of psychological operations is to induce or reinforce foreign attitudes and behavior favorable to the originator’s objectives. Also called PSYOP. See also consolidation psychological operations; overt peacetime psychological operations programs; perception management. ‘ US Department of Defense [13]

Shock doctrine

Propaganda

Propaganda is "any form of communication in support of national objectives designed to influence the opinions, emotions, attitudes, or behavior of any group in order to benefit the sponsor, either directly or indirectly". Governments have always tried to control their citizens. Those in authority want control of the people’s hearts, minds and allegiances, and block or censor dissident voices. Probably every conflict is fought on at least two grounds: the battlefield and the minds of the people via propaganda. The “good guys” and the “bad guys” can often both be guilty of misleading their people with distortions, exaggerations, subjectivity, inaccuracy and even fabrications, in order to receive support and a sense of legitimacy. The good guise and the bad guise. Black and white. A fight for supremacy, for government. The king is dead, long live the king. We can learn how their game is played for how to deal with (counteract) these propaganda wars [14].

Rewriting history

Most (if not all) of the techniques used in rewriting history (revisionism) are for deception or denial and vary from using forged documents (the fog) as genuine sources (or inventing reasons to distrust genuine documents), to exploiting opinions by taking them out of their historical context.

Disinformation

Unlike traditional propaganda techniques designed to engage emotional support, disinformation is designed to manipulate the audience at the rational level by either discrediting conflicting information or supporting false conclusions.

Sleeper effect

Countermoves

I don’t think any alternative will be possible until certain realities are faced, not just by fringe figures like ourselves but by much broader swathes of society, and that seems unlikely [15].

News and watchdogs

Interesting reads

Fallacies

Sleeper Effect

Documentaries

Counterintelligence

Psychological warfare

References

  1. ↑ US army to produce Mid-East comic http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4396351.stm
  2. ↑ US plans to 'fight the net' revealed http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4655196.stm
  3. ↑ Raw obtains CENTCOM email to bloggers http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/Raw_obtains_CENTCOM_email_to_bloggers_1016.html
  4. ↑ Sentient world: war games on the grandest scale http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/23/sentient_worlds/
  5. ↑ Air Force Releases ‘Counter-Blog’ Marching Orders http://www.wired.com/2009/01/usaf-blog-respo/
  6. ↑ International Lulz: Anonymous Aids Rebellions in Tunisia, Algeria and Libya https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110520/15384614363/international-lulz-anonymous-aids-rebellions-tunisia-algeria-libya.shtml
  7. ↑ NATO bombs the Great Man-Made River http://humanrightsinvestigations.org/2011/07/27/great-man-made-river-nato-bombs/
  8. ↑ Goldman Sachs Rips Off Libya, Donald Trump Admits Screwing Gaddafi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvIPUHVI3Cg#t=21
  9. ↑ Bankers raping and pillaging Libya. Goldman Sachs and Colonel Gaddafi https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sfY-OR_olQ
  10. ↑ The lies behind the West's war on Libya http://www.pambazuka.net/en/category.php/features/72575
  11. ↑ 25 Most Top Secret Military Operations In History https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dWiRtkzaAQ
  12. ↑ Communications Privacy Folly http://cryptome.org/2012/06/comms-folly.htm
  13. ↑ The information warfare site http://www.iwar.org.uk/psyops/
  14. ↑ The Semantics of “Good” & “Evil” http://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/robert-anton-wilson-the-semantics-of-good-evil
  15. ↑ The Californian Reality http://nettime.org/Lists-Archives/nettime-l-1401/msg00064.html
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