I’ve read many discussions in which certain ideas are denounced as CIA sabotage. I find myself torn between the two camps that form whenever this happens, usually because I have no idea what a CIA psyop actually looks like and have no reference for what a Marxist solution to, say, the question of what anti-colonial society actually looks like. It’s not an easy question, and it’s made all the more murky with the knowledge that plants and saboteurs absolutely exist.

Is there an ascribed methodology to identifying CIA propaganda?

  • @Leninismydad
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    81 year ago

    The “American Council of Bolsheviks” lmao I joke but in the west they are two type of intelligence tactics I have noted, I call them ridiculousness and covert.

    Ridiculousness is a common tactic used through intelligence history even in non-western countries, you make the opposition look ridiculous, extreme and outlandish, cooky, like nut jobs, you see a lot of this in the US and the UK in particular, you get weird conspiratorial groups with cringy messages and outfits and stupid songs and it makes people run away fast I’m the opposite direction (Check out the Million Mask March events post Occupy in the US for some funny shit.)

    Covert, covert is meticulous and professional incursions into organization to slowly shift or dismantle operational capacity, sow discord and division and render ineffective an organization against the ideal or narrative the operation has. This one is basically impossible to discover, these are professionals who are trained for years in clandestine shit. Really the only way to fight this is a strong centralised method of leadership and strict codes and rules. But even then, it’s always going to be a risk in any organization or movement opposing capitalism. The more experience you get, the easier it gets to spot, but even the best orgs have been infiltrated and turned into ops.

    I don’t envy western comrades at all when it comes to organizing serious Marxist politics. That’s why I’d suggest focusing on labour organising and stay away from red flags and hammer/sickle stuff in real organizing. You’ll still be infiltrated, but not as much.

    • @Mzuark
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      31 year ago

      Ridiculousness is particuarly devious I feel because it makes it impossible to have serious conversations about something in a public space.