Meet the KGB Spies Who Invented Fake News

Discussion in 'Music, TV, Movies & other Media' started by Durandal, Dec 2, 2018.

  1. Durandal

    Durandal Well-Known Member Donor

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    Fake News is also known as активные мероприятия (active measures). It infects the target society, spreads and destroys it from inside, like a virus. The internet is a dreadful new vector for it, given how rapidly it can spread and how fake news can be so well dressed up to appear like the real thing. The agents and kooks don't need a printing press or a TV or radio station in this century.



    In Episode 1 of Operation InfeKtion, we reveal how one of the biggest fake news stories ever concocted — the 1984 AIDS-is-a-biological-weapon hoax — went viral in the pre-Internet era. Meet the KGB cons who invented it, and the “truth squad” that quashed it. For a bit.
     
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  2. Lil Mike

    Lil Mike Well-Known Member

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    As I recall, "AIDS-is-a-biological-weapon" was a popular conspiracy theory among the left. It probably still is among some lefties.
     
  3. Durandal

    Durandal Well-Known Member Donor

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    Episode 2 brings us to 2016...



    Operation InfeKtion, Episode 2: The Pizzagate Playbook -- same tactics, new technologies. How the seven rules of Soviet disinformation are being used to create today’s fake news stories. Pizza anyone?

    Thanks for demonstrating the effectiveness of these "active measures" on the American right.
     
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  4. Durandal

    Durandal Well-Known Member Donor

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    From episode 2, the 7 rules of fake news (paraphrased and summarized):

    Rule 1: Find the cracks to exploit to cause division.

    Rule 2: The Big Lie. Create a lie so outrageous, no one could possibly believe it was made up, and also so outrageous that believing it will be very damning.

    Rule 3: Wrap the lie around a kernel of truth, so that the disinformation is eventually accepted.

    Rule 4: Conceal your hand (obscure the source).

    Rule 5: Find a useful idiot who will push the story into the target population. You know who you are...

    Rule 6: Deny everything. Just have to outlast people's attention span.

    Rule 7: Play the long game. These operations have a cumulative effect over a long period of time and end up having major impacts. Erosion.
     
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  5. Durandal

    Durandal Well-Known Member Donor

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    How Disinformation Is Taking Over the World



    Episode 3, Operation InfeKtion: Governments from Pakistan to Mexico to Washington are woefully unequipped to combat disinformation warfare. Eastern European countries living in Russia’s shadow can teach us how to start fighting back, but only if our politicians decide to stop profiting from these tactics and fight them instead.

    Read the story here: www.nytimes.com/disinformation

    There are more episodes. Not sure how many in all. I've just discovered this series and am watching it for the first time.
     
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  6. Lil Mike

    Lil Mike Well-Known Member

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    How so?
     
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  7. Steady Pie

    Steady Pie Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    He's posted 4 of the 6 comments in the thread.

    "Rule 5: Find a useful idiot who will push the story into the target population. You know who you are..."

    Indeed.
     
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  8. Antiduopolist

    Antiduopolist Well-Known Member

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    Why do so many liberals hate the Constitution so much? :disbelief:
     
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  9. JET3534

    JET3534 Well-Known Member

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    It constrains big government and liberals love big government. Also, they view the Constitution as something written by and for old white people.
     
  10. Durandal

    Durandal Well-Known Member Donor

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    What would you say has compelled you to respond to this thread, and to do so in the way you did?
     
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  11. Pisa

    Pisa Well-Known Member

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  12. Eleuthera

    Eleuthera Well-Known Member Donor

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    LOL, blame the Russians.

    William Casey observed in 1981 that when everything the American people believe is false, we will know the success of our misinformation efforts.

    You're stepping on the CIA's toes, claiming the Russians started misinformation. Our boys have been misinforming with fake news at least as long as the Russians.
     
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  13. Aleksander Ulyanov

    Aleksander Ulyanov Well-Known Member

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    So the KGB invented lying?

    And how much of this very thing here is "fake"? The one guy says that the objective is to "undermine national unity" But can't that be a way to say that anyone who has any objections to anything the government does is a Russian spy?

    This is nothing new. There is a whole art and science to determining if something is true or not. It's called JOURNALISM, I bellieve
     
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  14. Antiduopolist

    Antiduopolist Well-Known Member

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    Really, Fake News is as old as humanity.

    But Hideous Hillary was not coronated - Her Time!!! - so Russia!!! :eek:
     
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  15. Aleksander Ulyanov

    Aleksander Ulyanov Well-Known Member

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  16. Lil Mike

    Lil Mike Well-Known Member

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    Does asking a question in response to my question mean you have no intention of answering my question?
     
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  17. APACHERAT

    APACHERAT Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    [​IMG]
     
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  18. fullmetaljack

    fullmetaljack Well-Known Member

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    Why ?
     
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  19. scarlet witch

    scarlet witch Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    The world have been subjected to American misinformation for decades.... now others are doing it too (and not just Russian btw).... it suddenly becomes a problem

    (sarcasm alert) omg yes... we need to stop this totally new phenomenon invented by the Russians called fake news :lol:
     
  20. Pisa

    Pisa Well-Known Member

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    State funded, systematic, organized disinformation, destined to change worldviews and mentalities worldwide, is hardly misinformation...or fake news.

    Having lived in one of the former so-called communist countries in the Soviet sphere of influence, I know the difference. I recognize state propaganda in a blink of an eye.

    I take Soviet disinformation personally, because it hurt my people greatly. Well, both my peoples...
     
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  21. scarlet witch

    scarlet witch Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Yeeeessss.... CIA misinformation, where do you think everyone else got it from, Russia just turned out to be better at it.... same goes for election meddling, the US have done this for many many years...

    Americans can spot election meddling because they’ve been doing it for years
    https://www.theguardian.com/comment...dling-doing-years-vladimir-putin-donald-trump


    Stop being so naive... there aren't any good guys out there
     
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  22. LogNDog

    LogNDog Well-Known Member

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    By the title I thought you were talking about CNN. I don't think Russia is going to make much of a splash in the US with the oceans of fake news that we get from domestic sources. Of course if one is a Democrat that voted for Clinton they would think that Russia changed the whole 2 billion dollar election with a 1.5 million dollar election scheme on Facebook.
     
  23. LogNDog

    LogNDog Well-Known Member

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  24. LogNDog

    LogNDog Well-Known Member

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    Rule 1: Find the cracks to exploit to cause division.

    Democrats that will push any narrative to win and will stop at nothing to remove the legally elected president.

    Rule 2: The Big Lie. Create a lie so outrageous, no one could possibly believe it was made up, and also so outrageous that believing it will be very damning.

    Pee pee tapes and dossier provided the Russian intel sources paid for by Clinton.

    Rule 3: Wrap the lie around a kernel of truth, so that the disinformation is eventually accepted.

    Trump is orange.

    Rule 4: Conceal your hand (obscure the source).

    Launch a special counsel with a false narrative and extremely questionable sources to get a FISA warrant sealed in FISA court.

    Rule 5: Find a useful idiot who will push the story into the target population. You know who you are...

    Democrats and Comey (disgruntled FIB director that was fired for good cause)

    Rule 6: Deny everything. Just have to outlast people's attention span.

    Schumer, Schiff, Pelosi, NYT, CNN, MSNBC, CBS, NPR

    Rule 7: Play the long game. These operations have a cumulative effect over a long period of time and end up having major impacts. Erosion.

    Make false allegations and fake news while attacking the president for two years while waiting for Mueller to get done investigating pee pee tapes and collusion that don't exist from aforementioned dossier paid for by Clinton and supplied by a Russian intel agent to another intel agent in the UK.

    Yep, that's about right.
     
    Last edited: Dec 4, 2018
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  25. Pisa

    Pisa Well-Known Member

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    In a democratic society, where newspapers are privately owned and information is easily available, sources of news can be tracked, journalists can be held responsible for fake news, and biased opinions are easy to spot. While misinformation is common - for National Security, or cover-up of failures, for instance - it also contains the seeds of its own demise in societies where transparency and separation of powers make it possible to get to the truth. Western journalists are not routinely killed, jailed, blackmailed or threatened for publishing uncomfortable truths and opinions.

    State sponsored - or sanctioned - propaganda, on the other hand, doesn't allow for freedom of information. Journalists are the first to feel the regime's wrath in the unlikely event they write something remotely resembling the truth.

    There was a time when food was scarce where I lived, people had to stand for hours in incredibly long lines to buy a loaf of bread. There was no trace of ice cream or chocolate cakes in cafeterias, only cabbage pies and some repulsive unidentified stuff. Was there any valiant journalist taking photos of the long lines and slamming the regime's lack of interest in the well being of their own citizens, you ask? Nope. The state owned newspapers praised the benefits of healthy diets. The new Homo Communistus had to be strong and healthy on a diet of practically nothing at all, said state sponsored propaganda...

    I'd rather have CIA misinformation and American meddling than praises for healthy diets in state owned newspapers in a starving Soviet style society, if you don't mind. I'm not naive, I'm pragmatic - or so I like to believe :D

    Come to think of it, we prayed then for American meddling...
     
    Last edited: Dec 4, 2018
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