Slashdot Mirror
US Military Commissions Sock Puppet Program
chrb writes "The Guardian and The Telegraph are reporting that US based Ntrepid Corporation has been awarded a $2.76 million contract to develop software aimed at manipulating social media. The project aims to enable military personnel to control multiple 'sock puppets' located at a range of geographically diverse IP addresses, with the aim of spreading pro-US propaganda. The project will not target English speaking web sites (yet) but will be limited to foreign languages, including Arabic, Farsi, Urdu and Pashto. The project will be funded as part of the $200 million Operation Earnest Voice program run by US Central Command."
Now if we could just get internet to all of them...
Oh, wait... that didn't come out right.
Something bad is coming when people are suddenly anxious to tell the truth.
Really, calling propaganda "Operation Earnest Voice"? I think a few braincells just exploded.
Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
Calling the pro-US propaganda "Operation Earnest Voice". I wonder what is being perpetrated under the guise of "Operation Bald Faced Lies"? Seriously, how about doing good deeds and talking about them openly? Mom always said that worked best anyway.
PaulW, IT Consultant
So it's a government social media botnet?
Shouldn't something like this have been kept Secret? Letting everyone know about it kind of defeats the purpose.
Personally I think it's a fantastic idea, clearly indicative of a government that loves and cares for its people.
Cappp...translate this into Farsi when you get a chance please.
"The project will be funded as part of the $200 million Operation Earnest Voice program run by US Central Command."
This word you are using... I do not think it means what you think it means.
Seems to me Mr Burns already did that with slashdot..
This is certainly a better waste^H^H^H^H^H^H use of money than NASA or, I don't know... education?
Pro-USA propaganda is already planted in Iraqi news papers, this is a logical step. It's also despicable. Especially when the same government denounces these tactics when used by "the enemy".
Not with my taxes, please. Dishonourable shits.
Blar.
Every new spending bill or attack on individual rights is prettied up with a name that simultaneously (1) diverts attention away from the true objectives, and (2) implies that only radicals and lunatics would be opposed to it. See "PATRIOT Act" for a prime example.
But let's not lose sight of what the executives in the business of government are really after: money. There's a reason why every year government spends more, borrows more, and rakes even more cash through the power pyramid -- and it's certainly not because "the people asked for it". The bigger and more ubiquitous the business of government, the more lucrative that business is for those who know how to exploit it for personal gain.
A million here, a million there, and pretty soon you're talking about the most expensive, most powerful government AND world empire (with military bases in some 150 countries around the world) that has ever existed.
Another case of the US feeling that it is perfectly acceptable to treat foreigners in a way that would bring outrage if it tried it on its own citizens. Such things started, and were found acceptable: in cases of outright declared war (World Wars, Korea, Vietnam), it is OK to deceive and manipulate enemy civilians. But that has been translated to being OK to do the same to all except strong allies - and it would be a small step to apply it to them. The philosophy has become that war justifies lethal force, and non-war justifies anything except lethal force.
What would the US do if another country started doing the same within the US?
Hey - maybe they have. Maybe all the appalling right-wing bigots are really Chinese sock-puppets intended to discredit the US. I have never met an American who offered those views: all the ones I meet are nice people. Perhaps the bad side of America that I hear of but never see is just a huge cyber sock puppet! Damn!
Consciousness is an illusion caused by an excess of self consciousness.
As distasteful as it is, this is hardly a new thing. Pretty much everyone in history has done this to some degree. The only real "news" is that a new mechanism is going into place, but the machinery has been there all along.
On Wall Street they say "buy low, sell high" On the pad we say, "buy high, sell high" Isn't that somehow better?
In the voice of Pam from "Archer" .... "no one will ever know."
If you can understand an intended meaning to a US operation or program name then it's public persuasion / propaganda.
MKUltra: WTF
Operation Overlord / Neptune: WTF
Operation Iraqi Freedom: propaganda
What users think about this!? ...............
And the negative mods for this post.
Yet you're perfectly happy to pay for a newspaper laden with dishonest advertisements and astroturf articles. What gives?
May the Maths Be with you!
You can opt out of the newspaper market, I certainly have. Can't easily opt out of tax paying.
What is wrong with propaganda if you're telling the truth? Slashdot folks seem to be assuming that the word "propaganda" means that one is intentionally deceiving others. This is not necessarily true. Propaganda can involve deception, but not necessarily.
Well, it's easier to opt out of newspaper buying than tax paying.
Although I try as hard as possible to avoid both.
Of couse, because we want people demanding democracy to be ignored as US sock puppets so that favoured Tyrants can stay in power - WTF??
Then again, if they don't hurry up with this,
the world will soon be one big happy family of democracies,
holding hands and singing hosanna - and the Military will have no justifiable reason to exist.
Yes, I can see why they might want this urgently - not so stupid after all,
just self interested and a bit evil.
What exactly is so 'earnest' about creating multiple fake identities and using them to spread propaganda in order manipulate public opinion?
Wasnt there some ideas floating around that they already were manipulating social media, maybe this is just to make us think this kind of thing doesnt already exist?
You know, there's a much easier way to get these people to stop hating us: Stop occupying their lands and killing their brethren.
Keep your eyes to the sky.
Well, people are always saying they want the government "run like a business". Well, friend, "business" has been doing this sockpuppet thing for years. Go look at the web site for "New Media Strategies", the company that provides sock puppets for the Koch Brothers, among others. That's their entire business model - providing sock puppets for businesses.
You are welcome on my lawn.
And you wonder why the country has no money when they waste it on stuff like this. This is why people hate the US. It is the height of hubris to think that we have the right to go and tell other people what values they have to have. It is the height of hubris to think that the entire world should share in those values and that they should have to share in those. And people wonder why the US keeps getting attacked.
And here I was getting excited that the military was supporting the arts.
Ever get those "Well, that's what happens when terrorists fire rockets at civilians" posts whenever someone criticizes the Israeli military for massacring civilians? Yep, that's the good old propaganda machine firing up its sockpuppets.
I'd like to believe that all of the credulous posts (those like "Well, we should keep them incarcerated forever just in case they ARE terrorists!") are also coming from the propaganda machines, but some people really seem to be that stupid.
This is true. You can look back in the old testament and find propaganda about Israel's enemies and the terrible things they apparently did, though there is no archaeological evidence to back the claims. Same for some of the ancient egyptian inscriptions. This is just adding a new level of sophistication.
An American would not spell "dishonorable" the way you did.
I really think this whole idea may be misunderstood. I think we should give the US military some credit for trying to preserve world peace.
And bully for the good old US of A, the bastion of democracy and goodness, for coming up with it!
I, and all of my attractive, intelligent and clever friends agree with this! You should agree as well!
Pro-USA propaganda is already planted in Iraqi news papers, this is a logical step. It's also despicable. Especially when the same government denounces these tactics when used by "the enemy".
Not with my taxes, please. Dishonourable shits.
Ever heard of Voice of America ? Same thing, different media. These aren't subliminal messages, it's propaganda created to directly counter propaganda of those who would seek to continue doing harm in any form, not necessarily just against the United States but also against the interest of humanity - think Gadhaffi for a current example. Having a problem with this is just Naiveté on your part.
the GSM get their tiny (ie; selfish, stingy, eugenatic, fake math) .5
billion remaining population, & the money/weapons/vaccine/deception/fake
'weather' alchemist/genetically altered nazi mutant goon exchangers, get
us? yikes
the 'fog' is lifting? more chariots will be needed?
ALL (uninfactdead) MOMMYS......
...you should probably ignore all of those friend requests you are suddenly getting.
There is nothing dishonorable at all with the U.S.A. spreading pro-USA propaganda.
Dark Reflection
They have a system http://www.designation-systems.net/usmilav/codenames.html for some names.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Operation Iraqi Freedom: propaganda
I can't believe people write anti-American rubbish like this. You should be ashamed of yourself. Operation Iraqi Freedom was responsible for the liberation of millions and millions of Iraqi barrels of oil. Those barrels of oil were languishing, captive, until the US and UK and a few other assorted countries came to their rescue. How many were freed wasn't exactly counted - Haliburton and co pumped and filled, but accidentally forgot to record how many they pumped etc for a while. But it was millions and millions.
Job well done, I say. Freedom for all Iraqi barrels of oil.
Is site considered on US soil, or should we start expecting military trolls here soon?
Why is it dishonorable if the stories are true? People do not understand that propaganda does not have to be lies and frankly the best propaganda is the truth.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
One MILLION dollars!!!!
Is this all you're going to do about it? Express your chagrin on the internet?
American citizen.... you suck
but since he was railing about "dishonourable shits" spreading propaganda by pretending to be an American, I thought it would be rather ironic if he was pretending to be an American.
The project will not target English language web sites. That is where the beta testing is done.
There's $200 million that should come directly out of the defense budget.
I know that this kind of shit can be done. I know that it could be useful to "win".
But jesus fraggin' christ... do we have to go there first? Do we have to piss on our own credibility at every turn?
Why are you letting these clowns ruin our country?
Congress will do its best to put a stop to this...
as soon as the cheques from Facebook and News Corp clear.
GLaDOS for President 2016! "Well here we are again. It's always such a pleasure." -- GLaDOS, 2011
But Voice of America is a branded product. You tune into VoA and it tells you you're listening to VoA. It's propaganda, but it's a million miles away from sock-puppeting -- sock puppets don't tell you they're sock puppets.
Got them moderator blues I blieve I walk out the do', With these mod-points I been gettin', I 'most never post no mo'
As distasteful as it is, this is hardly a new thing. Pretty much everyone in history has done this to some degree. The only real "news" is that a new mechanism is going into place, but the machinery has been there all along.
I agree. And yet, when I say that the US population is massively propagandized by its government, I get called a conspiracy theorist. I know the program in question is aimed at only foreigners, but we know how that can go don't we? I once heard that the difference between Soviet and American propaganda was that the Soviet people recognized it for what it was; the Americans, not so much.
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
(But, I must say, it certainly reflects the overall quality of the media and government.)
Ernest : Hey Vern, have ya heard how great that there US of A is? I mean I used ta think they were not all that but now they're gosh darn good neighbors. We should stop over with some cold ones, KnowhutImean?
You bastard. I clicked on that at work.
Think Goatze.
That wasn't very nice.
"What the American public doesn't know is what makes them the American public." -Ray Zalinsky (Tommy Boy)
I, for one, am one of your new sock puppet overlords.
John
Considering the source, I think it's fair to assume that this news has an anti-military slant.
Also, could this be considered "counter propaganda?" A lot of people get a lot of misinformation about the USA, often from official sources. There is no way for the US to defend itself in the government controlled media of those countries.
I like this sort of action a lot better than dropping bombs, or rolling tanks.
VoA? The CIA-controlled pieces of shit that flooded the airwaves with official support messages for the Prague Spring and the Basra Uprising, only to then decry the resulting slaughters of innocents?
The same VoA that was infiltrated by the KGB and the GRU, resulting in the death and imprisonment for dissidents who wrote letters to be published there? The VoA that is now illegally broadcast in the US and territories and on the Internet, in direct violation of laws stating that no military propaganda operations should be directed by the US military at US citizens?
Fuck'em. Seriously.
Also, fuck your propaganda and your mealy-mouthed "interest of humanity" bullshit. It would be in the interest of humanity if you fuckers could find a way to somehow reduce your nuclear arsenal and your military spending to sane levels and just leave everyone else right the fuck alone.
Not that I have anything against the people in the US of A, mind you - it's just that I'm really tired of this born-dead American empire of yours.
Something bad is coming when people are suddenly anxious to tell the truth.
I* don't care if it is fake, please make some of them(persona) with big boobs and probably naked(to make it look more real).
Oh... and make them cute and nerdy. As for the non-English speaking part .. I swear to my last name that /.'ers are strictly non-English speakers(proof: "comments").
* an excited non-English speaker.
Are you sure you have an idea what the term "propaganda" means? For a start, it doesn't imply any commitment to truth...
There is nothing to object to propaganda that is clearly marked as such (see above comments about "Voice of America"), but if it comes in disguise then it is, of course, dishonorable.
$200 million is dirt cheap. If this can prevent, even a very small amount of US military action, it's way more than worth it.
People do not understand that propaganda does not have to be lies and frankly the best propaganda is the truth.
It's hard to see how undermining social media with thousands of fake personalities can result in a very honest and truthful endeavor...
RFE/RL's mission is to promote democratic values and institutions by reporting the news in countries where a free press is banned by the government or not fully established. Our journalists provide what many people cannot get locally: uncensored news, responsible discussion, and open debate.
Based on the conviction that the first requirement of democracy is a well informed citizenry, and building on over a half-century of surrogate broadcasting:
1. RFE/RL provides objective news, analysis, and discussion of domestic and regional issues crucial to successful democratic and free-market transformations.
2. RFE/RL strengthens civil societies by projecting democratic values.
3. RFE/RL combats ethnic and religious intolerance and promotes mutual understanding among peoples.
4. RFE/RL provides a model for local media, assists in training to enhance media professionalism and independence, and develops partnerships with local media outlets.
5. RFE/RL fosters closer ties between the countries of the region and the world's established democracies.
http://www.rferl.org/info/mission/169.html
The Pentagon spends about $4.7B a year on propoganda http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/02/05/pentagon-spending-billions-pr-sway-world-opinion/, while NPR gets about $3M a year from the US government.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
... why your mom never was put on the candidates list by any party, much less elected, huh?
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
The technical term for the whole process run by the rich to sway decision-makers is "astroturfing," because they're creating an artificial grass-roots effort. Sock puppetry is only one tool in their toolbox.
Nicky Hager's book Secrets and Lies, has terrific detail on how such a campaign is run, documenting the New Zealand timber industry's bought-and-paid-for efforts to run roughshod over the environmentalists in order to log the islands.
John
Not with my taxes, please. Dishonourable shits.
Considering you spell dishonorable with a 'u', I assume it actually isn't with your taxes.
The Bible does record the genocide of the Canaanites at the hand of the diety-led ancient Hebrews. I believe the people of Ai also got wiped out.
Blar.
You make it sound like we have yet to fall down the "slippery slope". On the contrary, we're closer to the bottom, not the top. We've been sliding down the slope into Total Government Control for the past century. Or haven't you noticed that the US government of today absolutely dwarfs the US government of only 50, let alone 100 years ago, in terms of both revenue and power over the people? You DO realize we're talking about the most expensive, most powerful government AND world empire (with military bases in some 150 countries around the world) that has ever existed? Wake up -- you're beyond late with the "slippery slope".
Did someone hack your account? You're making sense!
Blar.
So you're saying that 9/11 was just tit for tat response to the CIA's meddling in Afghanistan?
Come on man. Your argument sucks.
Blar.
have died for democracy and for your right to be speaking your mind.
You sound like a sock puppet.
Now..wouldn't any pro-USA comments on any ME message board or whatever now be suspected of being a sockpuppet?
I guess we now have a new meme: On the internet...
All the men are men
All the women are men
All the kids are FBI agents
And...all the pro-USA guys in foreign forums are CIA agents.
Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.........
operation sockingbird?
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
I think they don't have to bother all that much.
For a start, you can always play the "patriotism", "supporting the troops", "if you have nothing to hide", etc, cards and have idiots chest thump for your side of the story just to not, God forbid, come across as unpatriotic. Groupthink at its finest, really.
Or to quote Hermann Goering, "Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship. ...voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."
You've already seen it happen verbatim in the USA. If you're not for anything from war to no-fly lists to suspending habeas corpus and waterboarding suspects, you're unpatriotic and hating your country. Sound familiar?
And if you get enough idiots doing that group think, it turns out that far from being a part of the checks and balances, a large part of the press just joins in the propaganda. Just to not look unpatriotic to their viewers.
Net result: you don't have to pay 200 million for sock-puppeteers to post crap to every single site and brow-beat everyone who says otherwise. You get idiots doing it for free. Just, you know, to be "patriotic".
Second method, make it a party talking point. There'll be enough fanboys who just have to be, you know, fanboys. Same net effect.
Third, well, if you happen to be the party whose opinions suspiciously are those of the rich, and range from "let's take loans in a war so the rich can buy bigger yachts" to "let's have the poor pay more so the rich can buy bigger yachts", it turns out, those guys don't wait for the government to do their propaganda. They just pay their own lobby groups and "think tanks" and PR agencies and private armies of sockpuppeteers to do it for them.
Not that they'd mind it if your taxes went into paying for that, instead of their own money, but the latter is for now more reliable.
Fourth, be the party who lets one asshole gobble up almost all media. He'll sing you all the praises in the world... at least until he or maybe his successor figures out that he can just use that propaganda juggernaut to get himself elected instead of relying on others to get what he wants. See, Berlusconi.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Sure you can! Just head to any US embassy in the world and renounce your citizenship. There are lots of people all over the world that don't pay taxes to the US.
This sounds straight out of the Elron Hubbard playbook for "handling" the media.
This has been going on for at least a decade. I had a floormate in college that used to get drunk and brag about monitoring chatrooms for a private contractor.
Hoist Number One and Number Six.
The project will not target English speaking web sites (yet)
We're not supposed to start yet.
Knowing it exists, will not tell you what is and isn't tainted with propaganda. For this reason, I don't think they are going to lose all that much sleep over the big secret getting out.
Embarrassing? Well maybe a little, but remember this is the same nation that had a pretty damning video of a helicopter attack on civilian targets go public, and there was disturbingly little backlash from the public all things considered.
On Wall Street they say "buy low, sell high" On the pad we say, "buy high, sell high" Isn't that somehow better?
Welcome.
But you have to be rich to do that, and I'm guessing the OP isn't.
The US constituition is founded on the belief that the populace is allowed to bear arms. The government/army has now declared that anonymous accounts are a valuable military asset.
This would seem to indicate that US second amendment rights should apply to anonymous posting.
I await the following legal battle especially given the legislative branches move to prohibit anonymous on line presence.
Nothing new here. This has been done forever on hollywood movies exported all over the globe.
Why, yes, I was impersonating a lapping-dog lackey of the morally corrupt Jihadist mullahs! I congratulate you for your sagacity, citizen! No need to report for voluntary relocation, for now.
Something bad is coming when people are suddenly anxious to tell the truth.
Because people with power commonly do something bad, doesn't make it not bad.
Judging by your spelling, unless you're an ex-pat, it probably isn't your taxes.
Judge by their actions, not their words. Looking at history, the primary goal of government is growth -- expanding their business slowly but surely for the elite few who can exploit it. And it shows. The US government of today absolutely dwarfs the US government of only 50, let alone 100 years ago, both in revenue and power over the people. Every year government spends more, borrows more, and seizes more power over the people -- which will be leveraged as precedent for the next expansion of revenue and/or power.
Let's put it this way. Imagine a government strictly limited in power and revenue (like the US government was supposed to be). A government that simply can't afford to spend money on pork like this -- what's in that for the career politician? What's in that for the elite who benefit personally from big, unaccountable government? Nothing at all.
But now imagine a government that has their hands in every aspect of life, costs trillions of dollars per year, and has so much money passing through it that it's literally impossible to account for it all -- now THAT is a government fit for crooks.
Finally, although government is run like a business in just about every aspect, there is one important distinction: government has the special right to employ coercion (meaning physical force) as their business model. Hence there is no penalty for failure -- in fact, failure in government is typically rewarded with yet even more revenue. For the career politician, can this possibly get any better?
Agreed, 110%, & it's called "std. disinformation protocol" (to confuse or convince people that "believe everything they read" because it's written):
"Well, people are always saying they want the government "run like a business". Well, friend, "business" has been doing this sockpuppet thing for years. Go look at the web site for "New Media Strategies", the company that provides sock puppets for the Koch Brothers, among others. That's their entire business model - providing sock puppets for businesses." - by PopeRatzo (965947) * on Friday March 18, @08:57AM (#35528528) Homepage
Per my subject-line above, here's the words of someone you all probably know & respect here, "2nd'ing your motion" in that regard:
(So given that - Do you think that "fake accounts" and "spam" or "technically unjustified mod downs" & the like in trolling posts of others that may "threaten the 'powers-that-be'" etc./et al doesn't happen on /. as it does every place else? Guess again, per the above...).
In the end/bottom-line here:
I suppose these people have been lying to each other, & themselves, as well as their public constituency SO LONG, they've forgotten the power of truth (where you win & do NOT have to "lie" in order to excel - that is, unless you're pulling SO MUCH BULLSHIT that you HAVE to lie! That's the price you pay, & it only "compounds it with interest" once your caught...).
APK
P.S.=> These people "in power"... they really haven't "changed their style" since the days of Mr. Desmond Fitzgerald & crew took the reins... & sad part is, it's getting OLD & no longer working vs. a more informed & saavy public... apk
No, all the anti-USA guys on foreign forums are CIA agents. Otherwise, how do you attract potential anti-USA suitors?
"I went on a diet, swore off drinking and heavy eating. And in fourteen days, I had lost exactly two weeks. Joe E. Lewis
Sure. Any complete work of propaganda needs its glory moments. Importantly, though, the causes of those genocides can't be recalled exactly, they've been whitewashed into glory—heck, the parties listed may not even be responsible.
Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
"The diety-led Hebrews" - does this mean that Abraham was a really skinny guy? Or just that he had some books to sell "Smash Idols to Lose 60 Mina in 30 Days"?
New mod option wanted: -1 DrunkenRambling
You're assuming we have any credibility with the people of Afghanistan. That's your first mistake.
!#@%*)anks for hanging up the phone, dear.
This is what we railed against with the godless Communists. Now with the neo-conservatives, they are bringing their business practices into the government and law enforcement realms. Look at Abu Grab, the recent Psy-Op's scandel from Afganistan. etc.
Actually they could pick up some tips from the law enforment departments that have been trying to trap people online by posing as underaged children that want to go have sex with them. I think we are veering away from some basic core principals that used to make the world look up to us. Hell used to make us look up to us.
This is right below a story about Microsoft investing a huge amount of resources to stop spam...
It's only people with vested interests pretending to be more people than they are who don't.
Porquoi?
This is a time-old tactic that goes back to the founding of this country (the Founders published tracts and newspapers, etc.)
Besides, even if you find it distasteful, our enemies use of the same tactic necessitates that we use it as well.
Yea, if you don't like money being stolen from you, just leave! Go learn a new language, find a new country that doesn't behave as egregiously as the US, jump through all their licensing and labor restrictions and other various protectionist schemes to get a job... what a fine solution!
Would be no different than if a mafia set up shop in your neighborhood and upon complaining about it, someone else gave the advice to leave for some other neighborhood infested with their own local mafia. It isn't a solution at all, and even if it were, it doesn't address the initial problem raised. Taking peoples money and then devoting it to learning how to lie well to foreign people is not right.
actually newspapers are complicit, working hand in hand with the government and the people, often voluntarily and of their own accord. so yes, they are killing innocent people. and yes, they publish false evidence, all day, every day, 24/7/365. and yes, they do represent you on the world stage.
...the idiots who thought it was a good idea. The Internet is nothing if not an effective filter for truth. It may take time, and it may not always work perfectly, but in general, bullshit gets tagged as such. It shouldn't take long before the Facebook account of "Uncle Samhed, from Kabul" is identified as a CIA mouthpiece. Every time.
(Pablo from Spain) You, most US citizens, are against this. But as with many other Big Government actions against your preferences, you can't or won't do much. It is like that here in Spain too. Actions like this unchallenged bring lies and public manipulation to the scene. Once lying is part of the legal business it will be done outside and inside. And for those that say "it should not be publicized to be effective", think that other systems not publicized might perfectly be on operation. And that the mission of this publicity might be to make the public accept lies and manipulation as the way power can deal with the public, the little people.
Sure, but if they decide you're renouncing your citizenship to avoid paying taxes, then you can't.
There were two major newspapers in the USSR, which were called "The Truth" ("Pravda" - I think this one is still around) and "The News." Russians used to say "There is no truth in the news, and no news in the truth."
Having said this, propaganda is easy to believe when life is working out for you. When you are dirt poor and only have left shoes because the factory that makes right shoes is broken down, you stop believing the bullshit. In the modern US, people are realizing that the lack of healthcare, poor education systems, etc, are causing America to lose its standing as a great place to live (for everyone here). So, while I love this country, I am less apt to believe a politician that says "This is the greatest country on Earth." I have never believed the jackasses that say we have the best healthcare system in the world.
There is more to science than physics!
www.iomalfunction.blogspot.com
I guess we now have a new meme:
On the internet...
All the men are men
All the women are men
All the kids are FBI agents
And...all the pro-USA guys in foreign forums are low pay grade USAF personnel.
FTFY.
There wasn't much backlash because the public didn't see what was wrong. If you watch the videos, you can see why they fired when they did. Had they turned out to all be insurgents no one would have given a shit (although shooting missiles at a building when a dude was walking along outside was questionable for sure). On the other hand, if they had destroyed the local market because a guy with an RPG ran into it, you may have had a bit of outrage on your hand. One could argue that "Collateral Murder" was more "Collateral Accidental Tragedy." The wikileaks people did a terrible job by making the incident out to be murder. Same thing with media pundits that said things like 'the pilots acted like they were racking up points in a video game" - untrue. All they said was 'through the windshield, nice shot' or something like that. I was expecting "Yeah, get some! You kill those fucking towelheads! yee haw!!!" There could have been outrage over bad rules of engagement, or many other things, but when you say "there was murder, they were psychotic!" and neither is true, most viewers just switch off.
There is more to science than physics!
www.iomalfunction.blogspot.com
Dibs on next week.
I'll add to this: good luck finding a country with good quality of life and lower taxes!
There is more to science than physics!
www.iomalfunction.blogspot.com
No. He either was God, or he rode a bicycle.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
Republicans are on a tear to eliminate social programs.
Lordy, this program is all about social (media) programs. Cut it, cut it, cut it.
Bachmann, you are a self-described cutter. Cut it. Come on, cut, cut, cut.
Maybe once we see Glen Beck crying about this on Fox the patriot citizenry will kill this outrageous social program.
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Performance must be inherent in every aspect of the system. It is not an afterthought, but always thought. - me
No you can't.
The IRS can and will block you from giving up citizenship if they 'believe' you're doing it to get out of paying taxes. If you then fail to pay taxes to the US anyway, they'll use various treaties to get your assets seized and you extradited back to the US.
Shouldn't these be called "Socket Puppets"?
Don't hit me, I can't help myself..
Your question assumes that these accounts are going to deal exclusively with facts and not opinions. Were that the case the sock puppets would be unnecessary as facts would be easily verifiable by the reader. Sock puppets are used to create false consensus in matters of opinion by drowning out dissenting voices. It's absolutely dishonorable and the practice has no place in free society.
how to avoid godwins law?
just who(else)is a fauxking puppet? what does it 'smell' like? fear? deception? agenda (military_industrial.gov sponsorship) setting/modifying. all stuff that really matters?
Hello users of Slashdot.org
America is really cool isn't it? Freedom, and Eagles and Stuff Like that.
Hail America!
S. Puppet.
The technical term for the whole process run by the rich to sway decision-makers is "astroturfing," because they're creating an artificial grass-roots effort.
Your spell checker is borken - its called asstroturfing.
It only works in a society where freedom is outsourced to asstrotufing companies where the rich and powerful own you and your asstrotufing ass and you post their rants as though they are your own in exchange for money. Asstroturfing function is to leave a trail of deceived victims behind, and the law sez its ok to deceive and lie for money.
It will be a terrible amount of horrible fun going along to one of these job interviews. The line managers who contracted you are sniggering to the bone when they realized what kind of idiot you were and how useful it would be to them. I bet they never had so much fun since hosting a tampon party.
the disturbing part was the doublespeak, cover-up, and "losing" of the footage after the fact when asked for it by AFP in its investigation of what happened to its reporters. bad things happen in war. there are also bad apples in any force. the controversy (which never materialized in the US despite its merits) centers upon the premise of going to war to "liberate" people (a process which necessitates the goodwill and cooperation of the occupied people) and then undermining that goodwill and cooperation by shielding US forces from accountability, a policy that has permeated our actions in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Shortly, if we had admitted what had happened and retrained, reassigned, or prosecuted the individual military members acting outside their rules of engagement / international law then there would have been no controversy. (i would think the person cavalierly and unnecessarily driving over the bodies of those killed would be in the prosecuted category and those acting exhilarated would be in the retrain/reassign category.)
Instead, we got lies and cover-up. It took the release of that video to give the lie to the propaganda spin developed after the fact. (Which is why the mix in of the military spokesperson claiming that "extraordinary care" was taken to avoid civilian casualties and desecration of the dead and wounded was particularly effective in the collateral murder video: it juxtaposes the fact against the spin, inducing cognitive dissonance.)
The actual reason Americans didn't backlash against these actions is that it is less painful to confront the idea that our "heroes" aren't all above board all the time. it would require action. it would require dissent against the government, something that our political culture does not reward. one has only to look at the outcome of the financial crisis to see that it pays to break the law and punishes to blow the whistle on illegal activity or on government complacency in the face of such law breaking.
"If still these truths be held to be
Self evident."
-Edna St. Vincent Millay
The actual reason Americans didn't backlash against these actions is that it is less painful to confront the idea that our "heroes" aren't all above board all the time. it would require action. it would require dissent against the government, something that our political culture does not reward. one has only to look at the outcome of the financial crisis to see that it pays to break the law and punishes to blow the whistle on illegal activity or on government complacency in the face of such law breaking.
oops. should read, "...it is painful..."
"If still these truths be held to be
Self evident."
-Edna St. Vincent Millay
You do not understand that most people have no idea what is fact and what is opinion.
For instance do vaccinations cause autism?
How many people died because of 3 mile island?
Should we worry about the radiation from japan that is now getting to the west coast?
Best of all why are you posting this Anonymously?
Maybe you are a sock puppet with our own agenda. Actually pretty unlikely but still it is a tool to influence people. It is a much less violent tool than bombs and bullets so I am not all that bothered by it.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
I see you've met the UK's sock puppets then...
- Holy crap, I've got MOD points! Who thought that was a good idea.
"And yet, when I say that the US population is massively propagandized by its government, I get called a conspiracy theorist."
Didn't something this already happen? I know Cheney leaked scary fake stuff to the NY Times and then in the following days pointed to the NY Times article as evidence that there was stuff we should be scared of.
So, hypothetically, if our military puts out some fake facts in a foreign country and they are believed by certain foreigners and then our ambassador there (or even--dare I say it--our spy there), believes the false intel and reports it back to people in our civilian government, we could end up providing false information to our own decision-makers.
Nice chunk of change to modify an Eggdrop IRC bot. Of course, the entire scheme will backfire and the story will unfold on WikiLeaks.
No one ever had to evacuate a city because the solar panels broke!
I fear when fingermen come knocking with a black bag that has my name on it...
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
Heh, maybe he's from one of the "fifty-first" states. :)
This is step one in the creation of artificial inanity.
Those who fail to understand communication protocols, are doomed to repeat them over port 80.
Now all "dictatorships" (read: countries unfriendly to US) everywhere can teach everyone to dismiss everything on US-based social networking sites as US propaganda.
And only idiots will disagree.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
Good Observation. Can a rule-set that includes this and other similar observations coupled to a Gaussian Filter be made to successfully flag Sock Puppetry?
The best bumper sticker I ever saw said "You can't convince people you are killing them for their own good." Your points are all fair, but I still honestly think that most Americans could have watched the entire thing from start to finish unedited and saw nothing wrong. I definitely saw things in there that were wrong, but I didn't think that *everything* wikileaks tried to point out was wrong.
There is more to science than physics!
www.iomalfunction.blogspot.com
I agree. USCENTCOM is willing to spend $200 million on projects like these even when military pay could possibly be frozen next month.
I take home more of my pay here in Finland than I would in the U.S. I'd pay lower rates if I moved to Switzerland, too. This is what makes me a little nervous to move back to the US: I feel like I get much less for my money there. Maybe I'm just in a bizarre tax situation (or looking at the wrong state...perhaps I need to move to WA), but I make a decent wage (certainly not high, but not low for a single person, either) so it doesn't make much sense to me. Did I mention that I'm covered by health insurance here, too?
Right. And the fact that you don't know what is and isn't propaganda means everything said anywhere will now be immediately suspect. Though to be fair, it may already have been.
So the US is involved in terrorism, big surprise...
This sort of behavior is only effective if it is done without public knowledge. Clearly that is no longer the case. Now that this information is at the forefront (thank you Anonymous) the collective people know this is taking place. As a tax payer I'd be furious that my tax dollars are being spend on this sort of trash.