Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Truth as an "Object of Government" as PsyWars Escalate


Truth has now become an object of government as the production and status of facts is problematized in an escalating psychological war that was professionalized by Edward Bernays, among others, and ratcheted up by a renewed Cold War. See my post here: http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2018/03/war-against-digital-commons-circulates.html

Today the psychological warfare over public opinion has achieved arms-race-fervor, as illustrated in this article here:
Wayne Madsen (2018, March 26). The Dawn of Psychographic Outcome-based Warfare https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/03/26/dawn-psychographic-outcome-based-warfare.html

Somewhere deep in the bowels of the Israeli intelligence-surveillance-military complex – perhaps, in a dozen or more highly-secured computer systems laboratories in Tel Aviv, Herzliya, Ramat Gan, and Petach Tikva – the idea was first stumbled upon. Borrowing from the psychographic tools developed by online marketing firms and coupling them with age-old propaganda methods and more-modern psychological warfare techniques used by military and intelligence services, it was determined that elections can be manipulated, not at the ballot box, but by influencing the voters. Welcome to the world of psychographic outcome-based warfare or “POW.” It is no longer vogue to interfere with vote counting. Instead, psychographic warfare experts have decided that it is much more advantageous to influence the voters before they cast their votes. This form of information warfare was initiated in 2006 after the development of the Megaphone Desktop Tool, a software program designed to respond to what was considered anti-Israeli content on the web.

I cannot attest to the truth-status of Madsen's specific allegations, but I have no doubt at all that the strategy he describes as POW is being deployed by nations and organizations with the infrastructures to enable it.

Yesterday, I argued that critical thinking and complete source transparency together represent the best option for the governance of truth in an era of escalating psychological operations.

However, these options require governments to mandate legal reforms. New laws are needed that enforce complete transparency in spending aimed at shaping public opinion. There should be no exceptions. Transparency should be required of front organizations, often set up as NGOs, that hide their funding sources. Sourcing should be required in advertising, infomercials and marketing of all forms.

If an organization engages in public persuasion, then its funding sources should be disclosed.

Moreover, laws are needed to limit political spending, in addition to branding founding sources. For example, see discussion here:
Center for Law and Democracy (2012) Regulation of Paid Political Spending. Available http://www.law-democracy.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/Elections-and-Broadcasting-Final.pdf
Additionally, critical thinking skills should be incorporated in educational curriculum, beginning with kindergarten, fostering an inquisitive ethos that is promoted all the way up the educational ladder.

Transparency and critical thinking will help combat the escalating psywar, whose strategies and tactical deployments can be traced back to Edward Bernays' Propaganda.

Censorship as a strategy for governing truth is the option our established mainstream media and politicians seem to prefer, but this strategy aims to homogenize and control and will likely police boundaries in ways that benefit those whose purses own and fund global media incorporated.


RELATED POSTS


Majia's Blog: Engineering Consent Through Propaganda
majiasblog.blogspot.com/2013/04/engineering-consent-through-propaganda.html

Apr 14, 2013 - Edward Bernays is responsible for encouraging 'leaders' to manage the public through public relations, rather than leveling with them about real conditions. See the Century of the Self here and read Bernay's book, Propaganda, here. Bernays' encouraged the titans of industry and presidents to engineer ...

Majia's Blog: Fake News and Naked Subjects
majiasblog.blogspot.com/2014/10/fake-news-and-naked-subjects.html

Oct 29, 2014 - Majia here: One has to wonder whether fake news releases are in fact the norm, rather than the exception when the FBI and other "intelligence" agencies are involved. In "The Century of the Self," Adam Curtis, compellingly describes how the nephew of Sigmund Freud, Edward Bernays, adapted ...

Majia's Blog: Censorship as Security: "Facebook Boosts AI to Block ...
majiasblog.blogspot.com/2017/06/censorship-as-security-facebook-boosts.html

Jun 16, 2017 - The same can be said for the authorities and narratives produced by the mainstream media apparatus, as anyone who has read Edward Bernays' work knows. The Washington Post has a page online that was excerpted from the CIA's Report on Project Mockingbird. The page indicates that the news media ...

Majia's Blog: The Crisis of the Digital Commons and Algorithmic Truths
majiasblog.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-crisis-of-digital-commons-and.html
Oct 4, 2017 - The Crisis of the Digital Commons and Algorithmic Truths* Majia H. Nadesan October 4, 2017. Allegations of election interference by “Russian” and other special interests have problematized the legitimacy of the democratic process in the US. An internal review conducted by Facebook concluded that ...

Majia's Blog: The New Red Scare and the Move to Censor Dissent
majiasblog.blogspot.com/2018/03/the-new-red-scare-and-move-to-censor.html
Mar 7, 2018 - See my previous posts for more discussion: The Crisis of the Digital Commonshttp://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-crisis-of-digital-commons-and.html. Russian Propaganda and Digital Democracy http://majiasblog.blogspot.com/2017/11/russian-propaganda-and-digital-democracy.html ...

Majia's Blog: Fascism in Poland?
majiasblog.blogspot.com/2018/02/fascism-in-poland.html
Feb 23, 2018 - Starting in March, publicly invoking Polish complicity in Nazi atrocities will be a punishable offense. Israel has likened the provision to “Holocaust denial,” and the United States says it is an attack on “academic inquiry.” In no small fashion, the law has thrust Poland into a bitter debate over the nature of its ...

Majia's Blog: Russian Propaganda and Digital Democracy
majiasblog.blogspot.com/2017/11/russian-propaganda-and-digital-democracy.html
Nov 2, 2017 - Russian Propaganda and Digital Democracy. It is clear from a deluge of news reports that Russian propagandists sought to exploit pre-existing schisms in American society around issues of race, immigration, gun rights, and identity politics. It is not clear whether this effort had impact on the election, ...
 

2 comments:

  1. When fukers are back talking about "Axis of Evil," in murica, we know it is time for regime change. https://www.washingtonpost.com/amphtml/news/josh-rogin/wp/2018/03/28/for-john-bolton-russia-is-part-of-a-new-axis-of-evil/?tid=ss_tw&utm_term=.95d93a509365&__twitter_impression=true

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  2. The more democratic our republic becomes the better our society is. Propaganda as opposed to real news and information promotes authoritarianism. For many decades now the majority of Americans have been fed propaganda by an opaque government. For example, we have been told over and over again about the objectivity and excellence of the DOJ and the FBI and yet now we can see that both are terribly corrupt. Recently an internal memo was sent to all FBI agents that they are to take action when they receive information regarding a potential violent event. Really! Most would have thought such a memo unnecessary, but the Parkland School event has shown otherwise. For a year and a half one of the House committees has been seeking various documents from the DOJ/FBI without any luck though Congress has a definite right to that information. Its demand is being treated as a request instead of an order. It is only when things have gone far off rail that this kind of news reaches MSM and then only one of the major networks. This is elitism which is the worst enemy of democracy. How can people be good citizens if they are left in the dark? Of course that is the point, to bypass the masses so the right sorts can make the decisions that matter. Even the supposed decision makers are really just front persons whose strings are pulled from behind the curtain. To even mention this is to be labelled a conspiracy theorist.

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