Thread by @peterwsinger

Some thoughts on yet another right wing online/media mob going after military service member:

1) Always important to identify the players and their history. Today's episode is brought Breitbart's Pentagon reporter, elevating the fellow who helped bring you Pizzagate and multiple other conspiracy theories, as well as has repeatedly elevated Russian info ops

2) We covered this sad player and the tactics in #LikeWar book.

Frankly, it is boring to me to see people still playing this game, as if we don't see through it now. What worked in 2016 doesn't now. Sorry.

3) And, as in all the old ops, part of the SOP is to identify and then try to leverage a new narrative you see trending, as a means to tap into that trend, but then elevate for your own purpose. Something everyone does from ISIS to Russia to politicians to ad firms. Still bored.

4) Culture/generational differences are a long standing cleavage to go after for any entity (a politician, a foreign government, a huckster attention seeker, etc.) seeking both to divide target and elevate themselves. Still bored, same old SOP.

5) Obviously, a generational debate is now playing out in US culture+politics. Everything from attitudes on LGBT to race etc. So here again, each of these are cleavage point that both foreign adversaries and domestic hucksters are going after.

6) So it is all the same, right? Wrong. Because there is a twist. The US military that both draws from and represents the nation is also going through that change, and thus becoming part of it too, both as a target and a leverage point.

For the foreign threat actors, this is no different, they've always seen it that way. Think Russian ops dating back to 1960s tumult in US. But for the new domestic actors, it requires a change in their own narrative/tactics.

7) That is, the change, and what is throwing so many people is the political flip in the narrative. For the last 2 generations, it was more often far left wing attacking+mocking the military (think Vietnam activists etc). Now, suddenly, it is the right wing.

Whether it is these online mobs going after service members like this Pizzagater/Breitbart stuff to Ted Cruz attacking young Army soldier right, for thanking her two moms for inspiring her, Trump's former NSC official Gorka calling pregnant USAF officer "disgusting" etc etc.

Whatever it is, in each episode, the US military member becomes a target, but they are really just a point of leverage to a larger goal that attacker has to tap into cultural debate/division and elevate themselves.

But, what makes it so hard for all to wrap their heads around is that now that attack on the military member is coming from the side of the political spectrum that for multiple generations has made a crucial part of their brand/identity to be "pro military."

IE, it is hard to imagine Reagan-era Republican proudly insulting a serving military member as part of a conscious tactic of self-elevation.

But it is not that era anymore.

8) That aspect is also what makes this all so troubling/confusing for the military members/leaders, as the part of our culture/media that just a few years back went to epic levels of adoration ( ...and a Toby Keith song plays in the background) is now seeking out ways to ding it.

While, in turn, the left media/culture/politics still hasn't made any kind of reverse pivot. IE, suddenly, they get hit by the right now, but you don't see AOC or Bernie or Huffpost etc wrapping themselves in military garb/culture

9) So what does this all mean?
A) the US military needs to expect more of these attacks on individual service members, unfortunately, from the same old foreign threat actors, but also a new set of domestic hucksters, and now politicians and media figures

B) as part that, it needs to develop better ways to identify these building attacks as they and support those targeted service members

C) institutions and networks beyond need to find ways to both support those targeted service members and also dissuade those domestic actors playing this game for their own gain

This is particularly the case for media on the military beat + defense analysts/writers: Understand the game and your own potential role in it.

And recognize that those who play this game are not your friends or even your peers. Do not do their work for them.