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Psychological Operations

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Re: Psychological Operations

#121

Post by anigbrowl »

boston_clone wrote: post #5

Former PsyOp guy here with OEF experience, now working in cybersecurity. Please feel welcome to ask me (almost!) anything, and I'll do my best to respond. edit - this TTP FM [0] (warning, PDF ahead) seems to be freely available, and gives a comprehensive overview of what PsyOp actually does in the modern US Army. Perhaps most relevant for today is propaganda analysis and the SCAME method, a multi-faceted approach to…

What do you consider the best NON-FM/TA reference? So many DOD publications seem to be 10% 'military objectives' and 90% 'how to navigate the world's largest bureaucracy.' I tend to find things like monographs from the military's educational institutions a lot more valuable, but then they're narrowly focused which leads to a very fragmented way of looking at things.

Re: Psychological Operations

#122

Post by Ajef »

boston_clone wrote: post #51
acapybara wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"US Army Psyop" is a subset of a subset of US government agencies. https://www.federalregister.gov/agencies https://www.dni.gov/index.php/what-we-do/members-of-the-ic

AFAIK, US Army Psyop does not belong to or is considered an "intelligence element" of the Army. We were often reminded that we don't do intelligence work, but rather information work / warfare.

Being a civilian, what does this distinction mean/imply?

[Edit] wording For -> Being.

Re: Psychological Operations

#123

Post by mike_d »

Kretinsky wrote: post #83
boston_clone wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How much warfare is currently happening on social media sites, nationally operated or otherwise? Plenty. Likely more than you or even I realize. That said... > Are sites like 4chan, facebook, reddit or twitter very influenced by governmental PsyOp operations, national or foreign? Foreign gov't, certainly. Ours? As honestly as I can claim, I never knew of any Psyop folks conducting operations on those sites, nor did…

> US citizens are eternally out of scope for Army psychological operations When did you quit the force? Targeting US citizens has been allowed for almost 10 years, now. Source: https://www.businessinsider.com/us-domestic-propaganda-offic...

That is a load of FUD someone fed you. All that really changed was that US funded media like Voice of America wasn't explicitly blocked in the US.

VoA produces pro-US view point media in 46 languages. The most extreme thing they do is air a ton of classes on learning English and broadcast into other countries that don't want it.

Re: Psychological Operations

#124

Post by mike_d »

boston_clone wrote: post #94
Sebb767 wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Foreign gov't, certainly. Ours? As honestly as I can claim, I never knew of any Psyop folks conducting operations on those sites, nor did I ever hear of any directives for Psyop folks to use those platforms as viable mediums. Wouldn't operating there also target a lot of non-US citizens? How would you actually go for non-US people that frequent English forums? Also, that the US completely leaves the field to the ot…

Honestly, my hypothesis (as I have no discrete data) is that sites like reddit, twitter, HN, tumbler, etc. already have CIA / NSA / "DoD" people both on staff and as participatory users, likely volunteer moderators / admins as well. When you start to think about how many other foreign countries are doing the exact same thing , well, you start wanting to use social media a lot less.

I know quite a few people who work at alphabet soup agencies and US based social media sites are strictly off limits. The exceptions are law enforcement (FBI, USSS, etc) actions where someone is dealing in child abuse material or terrorist recruiting.

Also ask yourself... why? Foreign intelligence resources are much better spent on foreign networks like VK, WeChat, and TikTok.

Re: Psychological Operations

#126

Post by anigbrowl »

IAmGraydon wrote: post #66
boston_clone wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I were still enlisted, I could get in legitimate trouble - like, UCMJ action with hard labor, docked pay, then dishonorable discharge - for the things I've simply read. I wouldn't admit to that if I were still attached. But to your question - could you share a tweet in particular, or a theme before I answer? I'm not entirely sure what you're describing. Most of his tweets seemed from the hip, unpolished, and frank…

As an example, in the month before Jan 6, he made regular posts showing pictures of people in other countries rioting which he claimed they were doing because they were so upset about America’s “stolen election”. He continually used terminology centered around fighting and rising up around these posts. I remember how utterly contrived it seemed to me, like the posts were intended to spur a certain idea in the minds o…

This isn't the only psyops person in that orbit, but probably one of the most influential. I do find it ironically amusing that his 38-slide powerpoint is not notably worse than many official military slide decks. https://thedispatch.com/p/who-is-phil-waldron-and-why-did-th...

Re: Psychological Operations

#127

Post by faeriechangling »

User23 wrote: post #92
boston_clone wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> How much warfare is currently happening on social media sites, nationally operated or otherwise? Plenty. Likely more than you or even I realize. That said... > Are sites like 4chan, facebook, reddit or twitter very influenced by governmental PsyOp operations, national or foreign? Foreign gov't, certainly. Ours? As honestly as I can claim, I never knew of any Psyop folks conducting operations on those sites, nor did…

> Personally, in-group / out-group mentality is the easiest to manufacture and exploit, and serves as a fantastic emotional distraction from other areas. Well somebody is running massive psyops on the American public then.

Some example tweets from Russian troll farms around the time of the 2018 measles outbreak https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6137759/

pro-vax:

#VaccinateUS You can’t fix stupidity. Let them die from measles, and I’m for #vaccination!

#vaccines cause autism—Bye, you are not my friend anymore. And try to think with your brain next #VaccinateUS

anti-vax:

Dont get #vaccines. Iluminati are behind it. #VaccinateUS

Did you know there was a secret government database of #vaccine-damaged children? #VaccinateUS

I wonder what sort of bad actors were behind the divisiveness we saw over COVID. It's absurd how quickly that became such a partisan political issue when it was so self-evident that making it a partisan issue would kill people. It seems you can make any issue into a partisan issue these days, you just need to convince some suckers to believe the other side made it a partisan issue, and they'll make it into a partisan issue.

Re: Psychological Operations

#128

Post by 99_00 »

faeriechangling wrote: post #127
User23 wrote: post #92

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Personally, in-group / out-group mentality is the easiest to manufacture and exploit, and serves as a fantastic emotional distraction from other areas. Well somebody is running massive psyops on the American public then.

Some example tweets from Russian troll farms around the time of the 2018 measles outbreak https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6137759/ pro-vax: #VaccinateUS You can’t fix stupidity. Let them die from measles, and I’m for #vaccination! #vaccines cause autism—Bye, you are not my friend anymore. And try to think with your brain next #VaccinateUS anti-vax: Dont get #vaccines. Iluminati are behind it. #VaccinateU…

If Russia was able to create division, why are they so bad at it when it matters - now.

Those examples seem low quality.

The election interference from 2016 is laughable.

https://i2.cdn.turner.com/money/dam/assets/171101163247-russ...

Re: Psychological Operations

#130

Post by vasuki »

boston_clone wrote: post #5

Former PsyOp guy here with OEF experience, now working in cybersecurity. Please feel welcome to ask me (almost!) anything, and I'll do my best to respond. edit - this TTP FM [0] (warning, PDF ahead) seems to be freely available, and gives a comprehensive overview of what PsyOp actually does in the modern US Army. Perhaps most relevant for today is propaganda analysis and the SCAME method, a multi-faceted approach to…

Do you have any go-to public tools for fact-checking or any internal tools that you might have had access to in the past?

More generally speaking, how do you defend yourself against PsyOp in this age with heavily degraded trust in the government and judiciary system in the west particularly?

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