[Jotapay]

The government is so concerned about the masses of people who think the government is expletive deleted untruthful that the government is now planning on infiltrating citizen forums and groups to attempt to discredit them.

This Rawstory article focuses mainly on 911 truthers, but deals with conspiracy theories in general and the hoards of people who don't believe the government any more. The comments are about 95% outraged at the government, LOL.

http://rawstory.com/2010/01/obama-staff ... 11-groups/

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'I')n a 2008 academic paper, President Barack Obama's appointee to head the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs advocated "cognitive infiltration" of groups that advocate "conspiracy theories" like the ones surrounding 9/11.

Cass Sunstein, a Harvard law professor, co-wrote an academic article entitled "Conspiracy Theories: Causes and Cures," in which he argued that the government should stealthily infiltrate groups that pose alternative theories on historical events via "chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups and attempt to undermine" those groups.

[Jotapay]

Comments:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'H')ere's how it goes:

1) C.I.A. overthrows Mossadegh in Iran, installs Shah in power, they lie to us about it.
2) C.I.A. overthrows Allende in Chile, Pinochet comes to power, our government lies about it.
3) Gulf of Tonkin incident is faked, we go to war in Vietnam on false pretenses.
4) We funnel arms from Iran through Israel to Nicaraguan Contras, then lie about doing it.
5) G.W. Bush lies about WMD in Iraq, we go to war on false pretenses.
6) Bush lies about when decision was made to invade Iraq.
7) Bush lies about spying on Americans.
Bush lies about torture.
9) Bush lies about his relationship with Ken Lay.
10) Bush promises to fire any government employee involved in the outing of Valerie Plame.
11) Large segments of public question government's version of events of 9/11/01.
12) Harvard professor suggests government infilitrate people who don't like being lied to.

Reducto ad absurdum.

[Dreamtwister]

This is new and exciting. It's also completely unpredictible.

[mcgowanjm]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 't')he hoards of people who don't believe the government any more.

[rangerone314]

This reminds me of what companies do on websites that review their products... where employees post comments favoring the product to skew the reviews.

Also reminds me of companies that mess with their wikipedia entries to erase dealings and news which are unfavorable.

Not surprising that a Corporatocracy would use the methods of the Corporation.

[dukey]

The government lies about everything. It's amazing there are people dumb enough out there to believe the official 911 story, even tho half the commissions basically came out and said it was a cover up.

[pablonite]

It really isn't that suprising and you can't argue with this:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'C')ass Sunstein, a Harvard law professor, co-wrote an academic article entitled "Conspiracy Theories: Causes and Cures,"

our primary claim is that conspiracy theories typically stem not from irrationality or mental illness of any kind but from a 'crippled epistemology,' in the form of a sharply limited number of (relevant) informational sources.

By "crippled epistemology" Sunstein means that people who believe in conspiracy theories have a limited number of sources of information that they trust. Therefore, Sunstein argued in the article, it would not work to simply refute the conspiracy theories in public -- the very sources that conspiracy theorists believe would have to be infiltrated.

[hardtootell-2]

I believe! I believe!

Can we take those electrode probes out now?

[gollum]

Nobody likes a snitch!

[pablonite]

It's bigger than that anyway...

Buildaburgers unite...
http://en.fondsk.ru/article.php?id=2697
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'T')he proper question to ask is: Why does the corporate/state media insist on using the word conspiracy to pour derision on anyone who questions the prevailing orthodoxy? The answer is immediately obvious: the word conspiracy has been distorted to mean not its dictionary definition but any and all who challenge the reasons supplied by our political masters as to why things happen.

Thus language is mutilated to serve the objectives of the corporate class and it’s aided by the real conspiracy nuts who see everything as a conspiracy, sometimes stretching back centuries and involving secret cabals of one kind or another. Connecting the left to this crew serves to degrade our argument and surely this is the objective.

Arrayed against us, the people, is a vast apparatus of control and manipulation that embraces governmental, ‘non’-governmental, private foundations, the media, state and corporate, ‘entertainment’ in all it’s wondrous forms, think tanks, institutes, foundations, academia, formal and informal bodies, both national and transnational, associations, ngos and ‘ngos’, charities and ‘charities’, all of which are heavily subsidized by the state and / or corporations. Who needs ‘The Illuminati’ when we have all this arrayed against us?

[Sixstrings]

So which poster on the forum is the CIA plant?

[mattduke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'A')s President and Commander in Chief, it is my duty to the American people to report that renewed hostile actions against United States ships on the high seas in the Gulf of Tonkin have today required me to order the military forces of the United States to take action in reply.

[timmac]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Sixstrings', 'S')o which poster on the forum is the CIA plant?

[mattduke]

My question, "what's a real-space group"? Haha.

[mattduke]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'S')unstein's article, published in the Journal of Political Philosphy in 2008 and recently uncovered by blogger Marc Estrin, states that "our primary claim is that conspiracy theories typically stem not from irrationality or mental illness of any kind but from a 'crippled epistemology,' in the form of a sharply limited number of (relevant) informational sources."

[culicomorpha]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pablonite', 'T')his is the playbook and everyone should be aware of it:

Twenty-Five Rules of Disinformation
http://www.whale.to/m/disin.html
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'B')uilt upon Thirteen Techniques for Truth Suppression by David Martin, the following may be useful to the initiate in the world of dealing with veiled and half-truth, lies, and suppression of truth when serious crimes are studied in public forums...

[Jotapay]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('culicomorpha', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pablonite', 'T')his is the playbook and everyone should be aware of it:

Twenty-Five Rules of Disinformation
http://www.whale.to/m/disin.html
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'B')uilt upon Thirteen Techniques for Truth Suppression by David Martin, the following may be useful to the initiate in the world of dealing with veiled and half-truth, lies, and suppression of truth when serious crimes are studied in public forums...

[pablonite]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('culicomorpha', 'I') see some of these patterns on some of the threads here, and many of them at some of the other sites I occassionally visit.

[culicomorpha]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('pablonite', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('culicomorpha', 'I') see some of these patterns on some of the threads here, and many of them at some of the other sites I occassionally visit.

[culicomorpha]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Jotapay', 'I')'ve always thought Mos used these tactics. I don't know if it's just his personality, but his way of jumping into threads he doesn't like, disrupting them with illogical discussion, and then vanishing, is very similar to the tactics listed above.