Black America is the target of a psychological operation ("psyOp") designed to divide it for the political purposes of voter surpression. It is evident and identifiable to those who understand the use of narrative to persuade and influence human behavior.
A 🧵 (with citations)
A 🧵 (with citations)
What is a psyOp?
Psychological operations...are intended to “convey selected information and indicators to ... audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of...organizations, groups, and individuals. ...
Psychological operations...are intended to “convey selected information and indicators to ... audiences to influence their emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of...organizations, groups, and individuals. ...
The purpose of psychological operations is to induce or reinforce foreign attitudes and behavior favorable to the originator’s objectives.”
fas.org/blogs/secrecy/…
fas.org/blogs/secrecy/…
Essentially, it's propaganda directed at a targeted audience in order to get that audience to act in a certain way. The military and the government uses psyOps, but psyOps can also be used by political operatives to improve their chance at winning an election.
The psyOp directed at the Black community in America today merges the reparations movement with the Great Replacement Theory. Specifically, some actor(s) has repackaged White Nationalist thought for consumption by the Black community with reparations as the pot of gold as a goal.
It's not the first time either. The "sovereign citizen" ideology from White Identity groups was picked up by Black groups in the 90s.
splcenter.org/fighting-hate/…
splcenter.org/fighting-hate/…
Today, there are various reparations movement groups, American Descendants of Slavery (#ados) Foundational Black Americans (#fba) Black First (#b1) Freedman (#Freedmen) are pushing the case for reparations for slavery, which is understandably attractive to the Black community
But what indicates a psyOp is the manner in which this is accomplished, and the goals it seeks to achieve.
According to the Psychological Operations Leaders Planning Guide prepared by the US Army in November 2005 (fas.org/irp/doddir/arm…) there are multiple "appeals" that can be used to influence a target audience. 
"The following is a list of appeals commonly used in PSYOP:
• Legitimacy.
• Inevitability.
• In group - out group.
• Bandwagon.
• Nostalgia.
• Self-preservation (self-interest)."
• Legitimacy.
• Inevitability.
• In group - out group.
• Bandwagon.
• Nostalgia.
• Self-preservation (self-interest)."
The present messaging from many reparations movement proponents checks nearly each and every box
"Legitimacy appeals use law, tradition, historical continuity, or support of the people."
"Inevitability appeals most often rely on the emotion of fear,particularly fear of death, injury, or some other type of harm." Here "replacement theory" is used.
"An in-group–out-group appeal seeks to divide a (target audience) or separate two... It creates an enemy of the out group... and it encourages the TA to rebel against or avoid the out group, thereby becoming the in group. ...
This appeal frequently points out major differences between TAs or factions of a TA. If PSYOP cannot effectively portray the out group in a negative manner, the appeal will fail."
Bandwagon appeals play upon the Target Audience’s need to belong or conform to group standards. The 2 main types of bandwagon appeal are an appeal to companionship and an appeal to conformity. “Peer pressure” is an example of the conformity type of bandwagon appeal."
"Nostalgia appeals refer to how things were done in the past. This appeal can be used to encourage or discourage a particular behavior. In a positive light, it refers to the “good old days” and encourages the TA to behave in a manner that will return to those times. ..."
Symbols are important in a psyOp, anyone who has come in contact with these groups particularly on social media, will immediately know them by the changing but repeated use of profile pictures...
This is to both confirm identity to the members of these groups, but also to reinforce the messaging to gain members. Many of these accounts are single purpose accounts focused only on amplifying the message. Normal accounts tweet about stuff, politics, sports, pop culture ...
But not many of these accounts. All reparations, all code, all the time. Repeated over and over.
Even for those interested in Black issues, activists traditionally raise police brutality, discrimination or other ills of the world. A good example is anti-crt legislation. For a group derived from slavery you'd think such legislation would be anathema. Nope.
So what's the goal? Simple old fashioned voter suppression. If the psyOp can convince enough of the audience that elections don't matter, either because everyone is an enemy or no one has picked up the "single issue", it may influence the outcome of an election.
This isn't new...it happened in Trinidad and Tobago. There was a whole movement to effect political change by convincing Black Trinidadians to not vote, ironically named "DO SO"...
The current psyOp is philosophically similar. If I can convince a group to effect political change by making it a single issue voter, I've essentially eliminated a political threat.
The why is evident. The "who" is funding it must be explored.
The why is evident. The "who" is funding it must be explored.
More here:
https://twitter.com/silentpartner80/status/1542858248474312709?t=6vOxBrsBcqjRq-NXKRwowA&s=19
Update: Why and how could a xenophobic movement find interest in an unrelated xenophobic movement?
https://twitter.com/stephenhjohnson/status/1544410483373006849?t=DkT9EVAu8H5SW0yNAooTVA&s=19
Update: it can and should never be overlooked the similarities between what is happening now and the famous
#crystal1johnson account that was proven to be a Russian bot, h/t @DFHobbs.
#crystal1johnson account that was proven to be a Russian bot, h/t @DFHobbs.
https://twitter.com/DFHobbs/status/1544469914181726208?t=BUJnWLWDO8lx5LwaP0jm9Q&s=19
Insightful commentary on the "Code"..
https://twitter.com/Richard17583111/status/1546594267660951553?t=16KpuDAU1Bvmdm9Eq3_Cjw&s=19
As the what comes into focus, the "who" remains an open question. But at least one right winger has publicly acknowledged the effort.
https://twitter.com/lawindsor/status/1457837943201189895?t=S-BaSjUqBJ-cvV2_L5z_TQ&s=19
Example.
Continuing mapping the rabbithole, recently #ados adherents, emboldened by a lawsuit against Harvard, have threatened defamation suits against those who tie them to #fba. But never forget, Yvette declared herself their mother...
youtube.com/clip/Ugkxl8RS5…
youtube.com/clip/Ugkxl8RS5…
Update...shoutout to @JoyAnnReid who raised awareness to this issue in December 2019.
https://twitter.com/BmbEmpower/status/1560695979107565569?t=qrEmlslhaw4WpxPloVLmzg&s=19
Update, Black Panther and Young Lord @Deoliver47 updates her original piece, this time focusing on #fba
https://twitter.com/Deoliver47/status/1562780154719399936?t=k_azIzcxpWgZt0axRg7OPw&s=19
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