PSYOP

The Success of Russian Psyops: Why Some Americans Have Been Suckered

PSYOPS SOLDIERS STRATEGICALLY INFLUENCE AND DECEIVE

Psychological Operations (PSYOPS) Soldiers benefit the Army’s missions by using unconventional techniques. Their intelligence, interpersonal skills, cultural sensitivity, and foreign language proficiency help sway opinions and actions of foreign governments, groups, and individuals.

Psychological warfare requires adaptability, resilience, and problem solving to be successful. To become a PSYOPS Soldier, you’ll be thoroughly tested and trained on your critical thinking skills, and your mental and physical toughness, in order to prepare you for work in the field.

MISSION OF PSYOP

1-5. The mission of PSYOP is to influence the behavior of foreign target audiences (TAs) to support U.S. national objectives. PSYOP accomplishes this by conveying selected information and/or advising on actions that influence the emotions, motives, objective reasoning, and ultimately the behavior of foreign audiences. Behavioral change is at the root of the PSYOP mission. Although concerned with the mental processes of the TA, it is observable modification of TA behavior that determines the mission success of PSYOP. It is this link between influence and behavior that distinguishes PSYOP from other capabilities and activities of information operations (IO) and sets it apart as a unique core capability.

FM 3-05.30

MCRP 3-40.6

April 2005

Examples of Russian Propaganda Used In Their Operation

Did you or someone you know help them with their Op?

“What we’ve done has been amazing by any standard. We rebuilt the United States military.”

“We also built the greatest economy in the history of the world…Powered by these policies, we built the greatest economy in the history of the world.”

Russian propaganda increased after 2016 U.S. election -Senate committee

The report by the Republican-controlled committee reaffirmed findings by the U.S. intelligence community and Mueller that the Kremlin pursued an influence operation through social media and other means aimed at throwing the 2016 U.S. presidential election to Trump over his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.

In doing so, the Senate report contradicted allegations by Trump’s personal attorney Rudolph Giuliani and others that Ukraine colluded with Democrats to undermine Trump’s campaign, as well as charges by the White House and Trump allies – including Representative Devin Nunes – that Russia actually aided Clinton’s candidacy.

“We also got tax cuts, the largest tax cut and reform in the history of our country, by far.”

The Slide of Our Political State

Fascism in America: It’s Happening Here, According to Professor’s New Book

cnn Opinion: Putin’s former admirers are thinking twice

America’s right wing has long been enamored with fascists abroad

In Italy and Germany, the fascist leadership cult coalesced around Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler as the voice and will of the nation mobilized into one unitary being. As the linchpin at the heart of fascism’s fusion of nation and state, the leader personally took on sacred dimensions, becoming the definitive source of truth and the legal authority superseding any precedent. Expressed in diatribe, film, and highly controlled civic discourse, Hitler—as the personification of the nation’s will and spiritual essence—was the defining fountain of transcendent truth that defied any empirical validation, becoming, as historian Frederico Finchelstein observed, the very incarnation of truth itself. Unverifiable, unfalsifiable, the leader’s vision of reality formed the alternate world of mythic fascist “truth.” This leadership concept was further expressed by the Nazis’ Führerprinzip, the philosophy that the will of the leader, embodying the national will, superseded all written law.

This Is American Fascism

A more simplified definition of fascism, would be a sort of formula like: racism + anti-intellectualism + anti-liberalism/anti-socialism + xenophobia + ethnocentrism + nationalism + queerphobia + misogyny = fascism.

The moment has come where Trump supporters have been revealed as not being believers in democracy or freedom but white supremacy and dictatorship. They were never patriots, they were white nationalists. Their conspiracies and violence replaced truth and justice. ‘The American Way’ was paved by white supremacy and enslaved black people. While fascists today might not wear hoods or swastikas, opting instead for red hats and confederate flags, their attempt to overthrow the US government this past week could have ended very differently.

Even if Donald Trump disappears from the stage forever, this isn’t over. More than a hundred congressional leaders have contested a fair and democratic election with falsehoods and conspiracy theories. They blame the deep state, communists, socialists, liberals, antifascists, big tech, queer people, the global elite, and protestors who advocate for black lives for their state of alienation under late capitalism.

Fascism and conspiratorial thinking have seeped into the minds of millions of Americans. If we compare Mussolini’s March on Rome and Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch to Donald Trump’s Insurrection we should be reminded that the former examples were only the beginning of years of street violence. We can’t address this problem until we call it by its name: fascism.