Samantha Power's husband, Cass Sunstein, has argued for the government to conduct "cognitive infiltration" operations against the anti-establishment opinions he broadly defined as "conspiracy theories."
Cass Sunstein has called for US govt to groom seemingly independent agents to conduct "cognitive infiltration" against vaguely defined "conspiracy" networks:

"govt can supply these independent experts with information and perhaps prod them into action from behind the scenes..."
Sunstein: "Government agents (and their allies) might enter chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups and attempt to undermine percolating conspiracy theories by raising doubts about their factual premises, causal logic or implications for political action."
Sunstein: "Once corrective info is introduced, large numbers of people can be shifted to different views. If govt is able to have credibility, or to act through credible agents, it might well be successful in dislodging beliefs that are held only because no one contradicts them."
Source: "Conspiracy Theories," by Cass Sunstein & Adrian Vermeule, 2010.

It seems obvious the US government is implementing many of Sunstein's creepiest recommendations & applying them with a broad brush to media that threatens its critical imperatives.
papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf….

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Max Blumenthal

Max Blumenthal Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @MaxBlumenthal

2 Oct
In an act of pure masochism, I watched Showtime’s The Comey Rule.

It was a piece of Resistance kitsch wrapped in trashy Cold War propaganda, adapted from an FBI agent’s script, and full of factual errors, lies and omissions designed to make liberals even dumber than they are. Image
Here’s a scene from The Comey Rule that never took place: Two accused Russian SVR agents become Internet Research Agency operatives and destroy Hillary’s campaign via Twitter and Facebook. It’s completely made-up, but presented as a factual re-enactment.
There was no evidence Internet Research Agency ads had any impact on the 2016 election anyway. According to Facebook, 56% of them appeared after the election and most did not relate to the candidates.
Read 11 tweets
2 Oct
This week, ex-staffers of UC Global testified in the London trial of Julian Assange that they spied on the @wikileaks founder on behalf of US intelligence, their boss proposed poisoning Assange and robbing his lawyer – whose office was invaded soon after. shadowproof.com/2020/09/30/uc-…
The witness statements in London track validate my report from May, which relied on UC Global testimony to a Madrid court and internal company communications to show how US intelligence oversaw a criminal campaign against Assange fronted by Sheldon Adelson thegrayzone.com/2020/05/14/ame…
The Assange trial featured revelations of murder, torture, assassination plots, robberies & spying on the defendant, his lawyers, friends & journalists.

Did Western media ignore all this because the US gov't seeking Assange's extradition was responsible? thegrayzone.com/2020/09/18/mai…
Read 4 tweets
13 Sep
I just read @RichardMNephew's "The Art of Sanctions."

Nephew, ex-Obama State Dept sanctions coordinator, clinically & chillingly details how pain is the essence of the US global sanctions regime.

Unfortunately, he hasn't been honest about the contents of his own book. Thread:
Nephew claimed he never wrote that sanctions are designed to hurt ordinary people.

Yet here he describes sanctions against Iran that he personally designed and which wrecked the country's economy & currency, caused mass unemployment and inflation, as a "tremendous success"
Nephew pats himself & the Obama admin on the back for tripling the price of chicken "during important Iranian holiday periods" and preventing Iranians from repairing their cars.

At the same time, the US expanded imports of communications tech to Iran to foment social unrest.
Read 10 tweets
11 Sep
Some excepts from my book, The Management of Savagery, on the 9/11 attacks.

This one covers the Saudi government’s operational role in the attacks and the CIA’s concealment of knowledge about Saudi operatives al-Hazmi & Midhar’s involvement in the plot. versobooks.com/books/3154-the…
As the GW Bush administration ignored a briefing about Al Qaeda’s intention to attack inside the US, a ratings-hungry US corporate media spent the summer of 2001 reporting on a non-existent Sharknado. And Wolfowitz gave a speech in 6/01 on “missed signals” ahead of Pearl Harbor.
This was how America’s top drive time host, Howard Stern, conveyed the 9/11 attacks to the public in real time. It was a genocidal tirade that channeled the Islamophobia & imperialist military rampage to come. cc: @paulkrugman
Read 4 tweets
9 Sep
The 2018-2022 strategic plan of @pierre Omidyar's @luminategroup lists "counter[ing]" Russia and China & "provid[ing] critical support" to groups in "countries in transition" as top priorities.

That's code for supplementing US regime change operations. luminategroup.com/storage/334/Lu… ImageImage
As reported below, an attack on @TheGrayzoneNews by the US State Department-funded @CodaStory was republished by its listed partner site: @pierre Omidyar's @rapplerdotcom.

This shows Omidyar's regime change information ecosystem in action. thegrayzone.com/2020/08/18/us-…
.@RealAlexRubi & I reported in detail on Omidyar's growing media empire and the array of connections he has forged with the US national security state. The billionaire's role in supplementing USAID/State Dept regime change ops is scarcely ever scrutinized. thegrayzone.com/2019/02/18/eba…
Read 4 tweets
7 Sep
I investigated the campaign to suppress "Planet of the Humans" and found the network of professional activists behind it is backed by the same "green" billionaires, Wall Street investors, and non-profit industrial complex skewered in the film. thegrayzone.com/2020/09/07/gre…
The most provocative critique in Planet of the Humans was of professional "climate justice" activists as de facto PR agents for the renewables industry & Wall Street investor class focused on a $40-50 trillion profit center. My investigation bore this out: thegrayzone.com/2020/09/07/gre…
"Cleantech" tycoon Tom Dinwoodie signed @joshfoxfilm's letter demanding POTH be retracted. Dinwoodie owns scores of solar patents, reaped $1.2 billion in govt subsidies under Obama & sponsors a think tank partnered w/big banks. He also co-produced Fox's latest performance.
Read 11 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!