Have you heard of Glenn Greenwald?
He is a journalist, constitutional lawyer, commentator, and author of three New York Times best-selling books on politics and law has been working with NBC News in publishing a series of articles on how covert government agents infiltrate the Internet to “manipulate, deceive, and destroy reputations.”
He claims that internet trolls are trained government agents and paid by our taxes.
He got this information from documents leaked by National Security Agency (NSA) whistleblower Edward Snowden.
Greenwald’s article, How Covert Agents Infiltrate the Internet to Manipulate, Deceive, and Destroy Reputations, is based on four classified documents produced by the British spy agency GCHQ, and presented to the NSA and three other English speaking agencies reportedly part of “The Five Eyes Alliance.”
Here’s the link of his article:
https://theintercept.com/2014/02/24/jtrig-manipulation/
According to him and these documents, those trolls have two main goals:
- to inject all sorts of false material onto the internet in order to destroy the reputation of its targets;
- to use social sciences and other techniques to manipulate online discourse and activism to generate outcomes it considers desirable.
He says:
“Critically, the “targets” for this deceit and reputation-destruction extend far beyond the customary roster of normal spycraft: hostile nations and their leaders, military agencies, and intelligence services. In fact, the discussion of many of these techniques occurs in the context of using them in lieu of “traditional law enforcement” against people suspected (but not charged or convicted) of ordinary crimes or, more broadly still, “hacktivism”, meaning those who use online protest activity for political ends.”
And while these leaked documents concern the British spy agency, Greenwald is quick to point out that the Obama administration has actually been open and forward about using such techniques in the U.S.:
“Government plans to monitor and influence internet communications, and covertly infiltrate online communities in order to sow dissension and disseminate false information, have long been the source of speculation. Harvard Law Professor Cass Sunstein, a close Obama adviser and the White House’s former head of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs, wrote a controversial paper in 2008 proposing that the US government employ teams of covert agents and pseudo-“independent” advocates to “cognitively infiltrate” online groups and websites, as well as other activist groups.”
This is frightening that our tax dollar is being used for this purpose!
Sunstein also proposed sending covert agents into “chat rooms, online social networks, or even real-space groups” which spread what he views as false and damaging “conspiracy theories” about the government.
Then, he continues:
“Have you ever been on an Internet forum, blog, or Facebook Page where all of a sudden, out of nowhere, several people appear to contradict the main topic being discussed, especially if it is regarding a controversial topic like vaccines?”
Well, it is entirely possible, and even likely, that it is no coincidence, and that it is a well-coordinated attack by “trolls”.
As Greenwald reveals in his recently published article, there are definitely programs in place in government spy agencies to do just that.
This tactic of trained trolls can be used by those outside of government also, and Big Pharma seems to be one business sector that employs this tactic as well, especially targeting publishers who report on the dangers of vaccines.
I have witnessed this so many times!!
On my page and others that I follow as well.
Those people, clearly with no scientific background and knowledge, just come out of nowhere to attack anyone who does not believe in what they believe.
In our case, I have seen very mean and rude comments on people being anti-vaxers. The reason they do that is that they can’t confront us on the science aspect of our claims, so they use other tactics.
Today, the pharmaceutical industry is practically a branch of the government.
The government awards grants from your tax dollars to research new vaccines, the FDA approves them, and then government organizations like the CDC purchase the vaccines with your tax dollars.
The CDC even holds patents and earns royalties on vaccines, which make them a company that is looking for profits by selling those vaccines.
Like I said before, pharmaceutical companies can’t survive in a free market. So, they do everything they can to discredit those who publish the truth about vaccines, which may lead to fewer people wanting to purchase or receive them. In other words, less profit can potentially be made.
According to Brian Shilhavy, author and editor:
“Consider the following comments appearing on a blog post from a pro-Pharma site discussing how to target sites and Facebook Pages who publish the alternative view of vaccines. Advice is given on how to infiltrate and flood discussions about vaccines by pretending to be victims of diseases because they failed to get vaccinated. I am not going to mention the name of the website and give them publicity, but it has already been established that this site is financed by those with clear ties to the pharmaceutical industry. Here are some comments that appeared in a blog post that was trying to convince readers that outbreaks of diseases were due to “anti-vaccinationists”:
Use emotional warfare on anti-vax blogs. Tell emotional stories full of tears and sobbing and unbearable grief and terror, about people in your own family or people you read about, who were sick with or died of terrible diseases. Don’t hold back details about bodily fluids and suchlike: the grosser the better. This stuff has a way of infiltrating the minds of readers and subtly influencing their decisions, in a manner similar to advertising.’
‘Go in there and “agree with them” and then say things that appear thoroughly delusional, overtly nuts, blatantly and obviously wrong even to nincompoops, etc. Occasional spelling and grammar errors are also useful but don’t over-do. The point of this exercise is to create an impression that drives away undecideds who may come in to check out these sites. It helps to do this as a group effort and begin gradually, so the sites appear to be “going downhill slowly.”
This is unbelievable! I can’t imagine that people would actually do this! It is just evil!
And then:
“But it is useful to have an email address that can’t be traced back, for certain legitimate and ethical uses, just as it is useful to have a mailbox at say the UPS store.”
As you can see from this advice, trying to reason or debate on the merits or lack of merits regarding vaccines does not work, so they have to resort to manipulative and deceptive tactics.
Here is a comment showing how they also try to outnumber those who are not trolls:
“Post that kind of schizophrenic word-salad on the anti-vax sites in large quantities, under various pseudonyms, and clog up the sites with it until it appears that a large fraction of the members is downright wacko. This will seriously turn off undecideds who check out those sites. P2’s comment is an excellent template for this tactic, but you can easily make up your own by inserting random words into sentences and then going on digressive riffs about the random words. Be sure to Capitalize occasional Nouns and Verbs as well.
Really: listen up folks, the way to fight this crap is NOT by “patiently explaining” to people who are already way past being persuaded that the Earth isn’t flat. You may as well be talking to rocks (healing crystals?:-). The way to fight it is by sabotaging the anti-vaxers with crazy stuff that drives away undecideds. The way to fight it is with emotional narratives that undermine the ones that the anti-vaxers are pushing.”
They actually have to strategize against us, because they do not have anything else! At the end of the day, they are worried, concerned, because they are losing big bucks!
And then, they recommend this:
“The way to do it is to set up a fictitious email address. Speaking from experience working on research on extremist groups:
Start by setting one up on your existing broadband provider: AT&T, Comcast, and the rest of ’em give you five or more email addresses of your choice. Create a totally fictitious name and then an address that reflects that name e.g. John Doe and JDoe1234@.
Next, get an address on a free service provider such as Yahoo or Hotmail or whatever. Since most of these ask for your “other” email address as proof of identity, give them the one on your broadband provider. They will send a confirmation email to that address giving you your starting password.
Third, after about a week of using your new fictitious address in various places that let you sign up for comments, you can be sure it’s working, so then go in and delete the address you created on your broadband service. Typically they deactivate the address immediately and then take a month to free up that slot for re-use. This step ensures that your Yahoo or Hotmail address becomes un-traceable back to your broadband provider.
Fourth, wait a month for the original fictitious name to completely purge from your broadband provider.
Fifth: Now you’re home free to get onto the anti-vax boards and any other objectionable boards you want to go after and make all manner of noise to make them look ridiculous and drive away the undecideds. Yeee-hawww, round ’em up!
Speaking of rounding ’em up, you now have an untraceable email address …
That said, the option of simply going forth and making noise on anti-vax boards makes it all worthwhile. Every undecided you scare away from those boards is one more family that will probably get their kids vaccinated.”
I am always amused by those trolls. As you start interacting with them, you quickly realize they have no idea what they are talking about.
They just “laugh” at your posts or comments and find all kinds of absurd ways to discredit you.
They never bring anything substantial to the conversation.
I have witnessed this on my page so many times. The interesting thing is that when you ignore them, they silently go away because they can’t argue with science, especially when it comes to vaccines.
They keep using the same old pro-vax arguments that have been debunked so many times that it becomes ridiculous and pathetic.
Like I said several times, they are clearly losing the war and are now resorting to the rudeness tactics ever.
Philippians 4:13
“I can do all this through him who gives me strength.”
God bless y’all 😊
Dr. Serge
