Thread by @RYP__

My buddy Mike GoRucking some squids. I don't see the attraction in misery for hire but they have fun. It's a Judeo Christian concept that extended physical misery combined with sleep deprivation and abuse will change one. Major religions are based on 40 days of deprivation.

At age 10 I went to a boys school that became famous for killing kids and bringing one back from the dead. We studied stuff like Latin and voyageur French. James Raffan argues that killing kids or almost killing them to make them tougher is silly. I agree. quillandquire.com/review/deep-wa…

I had fun doing some SEAL and SF training and quickly learned that some enjoy challenge, others not so much. Add some morally ambiguous mental challenges, impossible odds and life threatening situations and I'm your huckleberry. businessinsider.com/robin-sage-is-…

In all this shooty shooty you learn that some people love the challenge of conflict and the finest don't use weapons or violence to win victories. Something that's hard to teach. The future of warfare is not going to be decided by shooting. Something that's even hard to teach.

Afghanistan is a good lesson in what America is good at and what we don't seem to handle well. We don't integrate well during combat. We don't spend a lot of time with the enemy or behind the lines. Something SF and the CIA to a degree are trained to do.

The next few years will see innovation in military/diplomatic/intelligence strategies. Some I am seeing already as we slide proxies into place and use gentle tugs and pulls to maneuver into position. There will always be a need for violence and ground troops..but in DC for now.

I am not kidding. Americans need to be taught and follow the science of violence and pacification. We have been deliberately divided. The hippie thinking of escalation and de-escalation is actually used by Special Forces to start and trim back conflict. beyondintractability.org/essay/conflict…

After a half decade of deliberate abuse to escalate tensions Americans sit on two sides of an imaginary fence. That has to stop. Again stopping violence and hatred is a science. Just ask a green beanie. smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/teach…

I find it interesting to see this science used in war zones but rarely used here. It is taught but the media prefers bipolar events, complexity, and mental evolution just confuses. Here is some solid military thinking you can use at home. warontherocks.com/2016/10/americ…

Our current government could shape the theater for reconciliation. I watched this Africa after nasty wars ended. People who murdered one group putting their hatred aside. I am sure America could do a watered down version of Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration

We dont' use weapons we use words, we don't wear uniforms, we live in angry silos and we tend to be sorted into left and right. It is important to accept that we have a problem...then we can solve it. Also important to punish the instigators. pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020…

Back to Mike and the squids. The easiest way to come together is a shared challenge to solve and building teamwork. Leadership is helping others find that shared goal and turning us away from the zero sum game of attacking each other. Maybe more consequences for dividers.

One approach is "The Great Game" or "Competition Continuum" in which the natural state of competition is managed before it becomes aggression. Boring doctrine or TV shoes like Survivor have been made. Humans like to compete. jcs.mil/Portals/36/Doc…

Even social media is a battlefield. Whats the worst thing you can do online? "political commentary and content was still the top reason people had for choosing to unfollow a friend online."
realsimple.com/work-life/tech…

Social Media...is the battleground. Or is it? There is hope. "To our surprise, the echo chambers did not make people more polarized, but less." It's all about the algorithms. I'm looking at you Zuckerberg.
scientificamerican.com/article/why-so…

Social Media needs you engaged...emotionally charged, ready for a fight and excited...for their advertisers. This is a very simple fix. Give the lab monkeys (us) the actual results and maybe they will be ashamed how manipulated we are. lib.dr.iastate.edu/cgi/viewconten…

Social media is so bad... people...it is a... fucking... mental illness: "emotional states can be transferred to others via emotional contagion, leading people to experience the same emotions without their awareness." pnas.org/content/111/24…

I am repeating myself....but America is being psy-oped and we need to hunt down the few insurgents to stop waves of mass hysteria and emotional contagion. All part of military conflict management and de-escaltion.....or escalation. smallwarsjournal.com/jrnl/art/hosti…