Thread by @WaywardRabbler

How to Research Western "Soft Power" Media Influence

A 🪡

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Western governments, corporations, and NGOs devote a lot of resources to "research," "experts," and narrative control.

Of course, other governments do it too, but at this point others are pretty clearly labeled, and those governments being bad is drilled into our minds.

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In some instances, someone may seem like a "#glowie" [fed] but it is impossible to prove.

However, ours is not a subtle age, and the Western soft power machine considers themselves the "good guys," so they commonly don't even obscure their activities; they boast of them

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Instead of seeming paranoid, you can prove who is funding some of the worst hacks in traditional and social media. It often only takes a few clicks.

So many people presenting themselves as neutral and benevolent are actually funded by Western corporations and governments

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I will demonstrate this through some of the best examples I've came along researching for my own work.

Note: I will be using screencaps instead of tweets, both so I don't get blocked, ruining the thread, and so I don't get accused of promoting harassment.

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Sometimes it is easy. See a tweet, go to bio, and right there is @VOANews. Of course, foreign equivalents are labeled which is a dispute about VoA etc now. If you hadn't heard of it, type it into google, the sidebar tells you right away

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More commonly, people work for places with multiple sources of funding. @AtlanticCouncil is notorious enough on its own, but that doesn't make it any less valuable to know who funds it.

Note she _lists_ her job as "Disinfo/Influence Operations" at @DFRLab

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If you suspect perhaps this @DFRLab has a different purpose than just honesty, after searching for that name, go to the @AtlanticCouncil main website and go to the "Donate" page and see a "Donor Honor Roll" showing the gamut of Anglo-American power:

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Just on that first page we see huge donations from the #US and #UK governments, a billionaire, major US corporations in finance, communications, and commerce, and prominent Western #NGO's. All the power centers repped. But there's so much more!

atlanticcouncil.org/in-depth-resea…

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You should assume the smallest donors are mostly just tools or buying access.

Still, as they say "it's a big club and you ain't in it." Funny the entire Western ruling cabal supports the @AtlanticCouncil.

Take special note of "Americans for a Free #Syria..."

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Some make it easy, like #Transparency, where there is a funding link at the bottom of the page, which proceeds to tell you that they receive funding from every major Western-aligned government and #GeorgeSoro's #OpenSocietiesFoundations

transparency.org/en/the-organis…

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They include this gem about having a policy against accepting money which impacts their behavior. Of course, if you're sort of person that would believe that about million $ donations to an organization that ranks governments, this is all of no benefit to you

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This is the most useful with orgs you've never heard of though. @OCMediaorg is hilarious in its shamelessness, and does not hide it, getting 75% of its budget from people it says they get accused of working for:

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@OCMediaorg is the jewel of this thread, getting 40% of funding from @NEDemocracy and another 25% from @georgesoros' @OpenSociety while complaining about being accused of that exact thing.

#NED, of course, is "The second #CIA."

countercurrents.org/2022/05/the-na…

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This absolutely cursed take on #Syria required me to search this awful woman for more than what was in her attached bio, and wouldn't you know it, she's funded heavily by the #Dutch government and Western conflict zone groups:

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Sometimes the hacks in the media also work at for-profit competitors of the people they are criticizing, and it is treated as somehow making them more credible.

For example, I skewered this @ForeignPolicy for my article about the #Sahel

foreignpolicy.com/2023/01/25/rus…

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The author, a Colin Clarke, spends the whole article criticizing #WagnerPMC, yet he is associated with the #SoufanGroup, itself a #PMC that has operated in theaters where the US has failed in all the ways he says #Wagner will. He's just upset they are not getting a client.

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As I said at the beginning, we live in a very unsubtle age. By simple willingness to use a search engine, you can rapidly see into the cabal trying to control the world and your brain. This is key for understanding the economic interests that shape global events.

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Of course, it doesn't mean everything such people say is wrong. A huge part of effective propaganda is facts being mostly true, especially when they are used to promote garbage arguments, which of course always promote Western military and economic power.

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Still, once again, "It's a big club and you ain't in it."

Organizations like the @AtlanticCouncil want you to freak out about the existence of things like @PressTV, when the entire "mainstream" is completely controlled by Western governments and financial interests.

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You could trust the "experts" but I hope that this will encourage you to "do your own research" on who pays such people. Because they aren't even hiding it: they're proud to work for the US State Department and Goldman Sachs.

-30-

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