I just had a brainfart, and wondered how many warblogs are actually written by employees of the Office Of Strategic Mind Control as sub rosa propaganda tools.
Has my natural predilection for paranoia gone over the top this time? Are the American propaganda machines really that clever? Are they just the bumbling-halfwits-that-always-seem-to-get-away-with-it, Gilligan-stylee? Or something else entirely, something less reassuring to believe?
You tell me.
Join the conversation! 9 Comments
Comments are closed.
New idea for a movie :- ‘Warblogs: Attack of the Clones’.
😉
Would that be like Google-bombing once removed, creating the bombers?
In any case, it’s not paranoia to think what you’re thinking. The US armed forces would have many casual bloggers even if the forces didn’t try to organize and promote anything. With a little bit of organization and encouragement disguised as enforcement of standard policy and as fun computing workshops, they could have a significant unified effect on the content and popularity of blogs: you should link to these sites, you must never link to these sites, you shoul promote your country, you should promote your fellow bloggers in service, you should defend your country online as you do offline, etc.
But I don’t follow any warblogs. Do people actually in the services frequently run them, or are warbloggers all armchair soldiers? Is Sergeant Stroker an actual sergeant in something or does he just dress up as if he’s one of the Village People?
American PsyOps is excellent. Probably the best in the world, now that their Soviet counterparts (who were much, much better) are out of the way.
But I would be pretty surprised if warblogs were part of a directed propaganda campaign. After all, much better returns could be had, both in the weblog/internet community and out, by manipulating conventional media and then letting all the webloggers out there spread the meme through incessant linking.
After all, manipulating the American media is the bread and butter of American propaganda, and you can bet your ass that after the media fiasco around the ’68 Tet Offensive that the US military has gotten *much* better at manipulating things.
While the US military does seem to be composed of “bumbling-halfwits-that-always-seem-to-get-away-with-it,” it didn’t get to be the most powerful fighting force ever fielded by mankind by being completely inept. The leadership can be shortsighted, but the actual operating units are very, very good.
Why are the “warbloggers” so prolific? Because quick opinion and reaction to mass media news is relatively easy to produce, and appeals to a broader audience than more obscure or original material. You can type a lot faster if you don’t have to think too much about what you’re saying!
You’re right. All of the warbloggers have to be run by the American machine. My proof: who the hell would really want to write a warblog?
Yes, they are. And we know you, now. You know our secret.
Be afraid. Be very afraid!
Bwahahahahahahahha!
Eeek!
“Who’d really want to write a warblog?” you ask. Certainly, the technology exists to generate one without a second’s thought. As can be demonstrated from a cursory glance at the usually suspect.
you give us waaaayyy to much credit. after 9-11, the bush team put together some public announcements to be aired in arab countries. they were meant to sway their opinion to our side. the end result was that most arab people said “but bin laden is a holy man.. so he couldn’t have done this”. the announcements were canned.