Monday, February 8, 2010

Musings on provacators , cognative or otherwise

Now if anyone is involved in any sort of group , you will have those that will disagree with what is being said, sometimes its just an honest disagreement , other times, it is by design and intent.
Cass Sunstein is President Obama’s Harvard Law School friend, and recently appointed Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs and has stated the following as a tactic:We suggest a distinctive tactic for breaking up the hard core of extremists who supply conspiracy theories: cognitive infiltration of extremist groups, whereby government agents or their allies (acting either virtually or in real space, and either openly or anonymously) will undermine the crippled epistemology of believers by planting doubts about the theories and stylized facts that circulate within such groups, thereby introducing beneficial cognitive diversity. this taken from the American pendulum blog site which has its own post on this subject here:http://www.americanpendulum.com/2010/01/cass-sunstein-seeks-cognitive-provocateurs/

Basically for those of us familiar with what the topic is , Internet trolls , be they group or government affiliated , that show up and try to make groups appear as they are not , as the article states they are easy to root out because they almost always say things counter to whats being said , alienating those in the groups , trying to waste time , change a stated goal , or just basically bring discredit on the group. no matter how often the group leadership trys to explain , or guide them back into the fold so to speak, usually what happens is , they are cut loose , made ineffective and leave with rants that , the group is usurping their constitutional rights to free speech , and are a plant themselves luring in unsuspecting patriots.
The thing they do fail to realize , is just because they have freedom of speech , the right to make anyone listen let alone agree with them or believe them , is not .

Some of the more complicated tactics i have seen involve not 1 but any number of provocateurs feeding off each other , sounding like a bunch of minah birds all agreeing with one another ,in an attempt to draw support , for what they are saying, sometimes it may work sometimes not , it depends entirely on how knowledgeable and how firmly others believe in what they themselves are there for. translated into goal , or mission solidarity and faith.
Now i have talked about the Internet aspect of this , because it tends to reach the most people the fastest, and it is complete as anonymous as anything could be , this also happens in person , withing groups , so a watchful eye , is always advised , and just as provocateurs are easy to spot online with a few well placed questions , they are also easy to find in person , they just may be alittle more cautious since the aspect of anyominity is stripped away.
So with all this in mind , i remember this one thing , "DON'T FEED THE TROLLS" eliminate them as soon as they are rooted out , you wont be sorry , what do you think?

3 comments:

Elias Alias said...

Followed your link to Cass Sunstein's piece. Excellent find. Thank's for sharing this important document. I'll spread it around.
Salute!
Elias
http://www.themontanamessenger.com/
http://www.thementalmilitia.com/forums/

Anonymous said...

Excellent discussion of "agents provocateur"

..particularly as it pertained to "agents" all within the same group PRETENDING TO HAVE a ...cough... discussion amongst themselves.

It is in fact, "propaganda" designed to lead the non-posting reader around to a pre-deetermined conclusion/"point of view"

The BEST WAY to defeat/expose this type of behavior is to stick to HISTORICAL INSTANCES where the "ruling elite" have been caught in lies they can't wigg;e out of

In other words, concentrate ONLY on items that have an underlying factual/evidentiary basis

Regards,
Peter Potamus

Anonymous said...

I agree. Their lowly existence is to provide provocative, hostile or annoying messages. Trolls have an exaggerated self importance and use a persecution defense when asked to cease screaming censorship and 1st amendment rights. Whack them ASAP before it gets out of hand. I have one that is stalking and smearing me over a ban. Unbelievable.
~Bonfire