Thread by @MollyMcKew

Lots to unpack in this Cambridge Analytica download. (And great to see @nytimes leveraging the amazing research @carolecadwalla has done on this story eons before anyone else)

In sum, everyone should probably be pissed off. Why? /1

mobile.nytimes.com/2018/03/17/us/…

First, some details.

1- Veterans of Obama data operations were highly sought after by all sorts of goons who wanted to capture/weaponize that knowledge. (Many hired by Russia-connected oligarchs/banks/political parties etc). Mercenary mindset of this world spread TTPs fast /2

2- a lot of people understood what this was being used for. No one said anything. Creating an arsenal of information weapons. Swell. /3

3- Alexander Nix not only sought to acquire illegally obtained information from Assange, he should to collect his own compromat by hiring ex-spies and entrapping targets (or so he boasted). /4

4- Nix acquired other illegal data from a guy who -- for real -- now calls himself Dr. Spectre. If you haven't read about Kogan before, look him up. motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/… /5

5- how did CA/SCL perfect it's methods? They got their government clients to give them data -- as part of their campaigns to win elections in this places. (Read about how CA/SCL helped destabilize Kenya in the elex, if you haven't already) /6

6- The Mercers -- who wanted to "rewire American politics" via culture wars -- invested to develop these tools of coercive persuasion and mindfuckery. Invested a lot. Certainly, they seemed convinced of their efficacy. Remember Bannon and Conway come from Mercerworld /7

So why be mad? A bunch of people who should have known better aided a bunch of wealthy ideologues and guys who knew that what they were doing was building "weapons" to change perceptions.

These weapons were beta-tested on you, America. /8

They have also been used in a lot of other places where there is a lot less attention to what has happened. The underlying theme is rich people who don't think very much about the citizens they believe they have the right to control /9

I'm tired of people laughing this off, or blaming "uninformed, uneducated, naive Americans" for being persuadable.

These are tools -- weapons -- of persuasion and control. It isn't fair to blame the targets, who had no idea this was happening. /10

P.s. You were a target too.