25 Ways Disinfo Agents Suppress The Truth
What if I told you that a lot of the “trolling” that goes on on the internet is not done by a bunch of random kids sitting in their Mom’s basement, and that it’s done by highly trained disinformation agents hired to keep you and the rest of the general public distracted from seeing the truth?
How about those news anchors on TV who attain celebrity status because they seem so intelligent, they’re handsome, righteous, and seem to say all the right things at the right times – are they naturally that way or are they there to do your thinking for you?
Well, after reading the following article by H. Michael Sweeney entitled: 25 Ways To Suppress Truth: The Rules of Disinformation you may need to rethink your beliefs:
1. Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. Regardless of what you know, don’t discuss it — especially if you are a public figure, news anchor, etc. If it’s not reported, it didn’t happen, and you never have to deal with the issues.
2. Become incredulous and indignant. Avoid discussing key issues and instead focus on side issues which can be used show the topic as being critical of some otherwise sacrosanct group or theme. This is also known as the ‘How dare you!’ gambit.
3. Create rumor mongers. Avoid discussing issues by describing all charges, regardless of venue or evidence, as mere rumors and wild accusations. Other derogatory terms mutually exclusive of truth may work as well. This method which works especially well with a silent press, because the only way the public can learn of the facts are through such ‘arguable rumors’. If you can associate the material with the Internet, use this fact to certify it a ‘wild rumor’ from a ‘bunch of kids on the Internet’ which can have no basis in fact.
4. Use a straw man. Find or create a seeming element of your opponent’s argument which you can easily knock down to make yourself look good and the opponent to look bad. Either make up an issue you may safely imply exists based on your interpretation of the opponent/opponent arguments/situation, or select the weakest aspect of the weakest charges. Amplify their significance and destroy them in a way which appears to debunk all the charges, real and fabricated alike, while actually avoiding discussion of the real issues.
5. Sidetrack opponents with name calling and ridicule. This is also known as the primary ‘attack the messenger’ ploy, though other methods qualify as variants of that approach. Associate opponents with unpopular titles such as ‘kooks’, ‘right-wing’, ‘liberal’, ‘left-wing’, ‘terrorists’, ‘conspiracy buffs’, ‘radicals’, ‘militia’, ‘racists’, ‘religious fanatics’, ‘sexual deviates’, and so forth. This makes others shrink from support out of fear of gaining the same label, and you avoid dealing with issues.
You can read the rest of the article here.
Yeah, I know, things are not what they appear to be sometimes. Ok, most of the time.
By Paul Short on 18/07/2012
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