“LOOK, A SQUIRREL!” OR DEFLECTION
CYBERWAR AND PROPAGANDA TACTICS
At 18, I used to file nails during a class that most people did not have.
Our notebooks were classified: we had to pierce them with a shoe-sawing needle, put a thick thread through two holes, tie it up and seal with hot brown wax and a special stamp: “Property of the Military Department.” We then numbered the pages. If a page went missing, we were in trouble. At the end of the class, an admin would check the notebooks, and put them in a fireproof vault — like in a bank.
No, I was not a spy — although I was offered to be one: undercover, working as a hard currency prostitute in luxury hotels for foreigners — I declined and never worked for any government. I wrote a novel and a few short stories following “what if” (I worked for the KGB as a spy-prostitute)” — fiction principle — but that’s another story.
I was a language and literature major. I eventually followed up on my education and grew up to be a writer and literary performer in the US.
But… in the USSR we had to do many obligatory things to get (a decent, I must say) education. Like collecting potatoes and carrots and living in a barrack with no heating and running water for a month… And other things.
But who needs potatoes?! Back to the combat propaganda class. I wrote quite a bit about it lately and started to teach seminars about it because some of my classmates and my alma mater graduates from other eras, apparently, made a career in political technology and politics.
It is with disbelief and astonishment that I recognize their tactics and strategies in our daily life, oceans and years away. Here is one:
DEFLECTION tactic (“Look, a squirrel!!!)
EXAMPLE: SHITHOLES AND SEX
- A scandalous statement, incident or word is “dumped” into the collective information space (these days, the social media and fringe media.) Boom!
- Shocking, titillating, almost exciting, always arousing a strong feeling, these “dumps” start trending.
- The mainstream media jumps on it. Ratings. Stories. Bonuses.
4. So does social media. And public.
5. The subject is discussed for days — chewed, gnawed, wrung dry — and eclipses all other events.
6. The government (or anyone, really) carries on with its agenda in the shade. Take a look. Have you heard of Deutsche Bank waiver? Or Rosatom?
Yeah, that’s right. During the past week, the press and social media have been focusing on a phrase “shithole countries” and a sexual encounter between an anonymous 23-year-old woman and a Hollywood actor while silencing:
1. Trump administration waived the fines for Deutsche Bank. Trump owes $130 million dollars to Deutsche Bank. It is also fined for laundering Russian money.
2. The indictment of a businessman who allegedly paid bribes to a Russian government official to win nuclear fuel transportation contracts with a Russian state-owned consortium that Michael Flynn texted during Trump inauguration. Yes, you read it right. The lawyer for this consortium is now a lawyer for Putin’s close ally Aras Agalarov, the sponsor of Trump’s Miss Universe.
All findings on Rosatom by Wendy Siegelman, see more at her Twitter.
See an additional connection: Carter Page, a former Trump advisor, meeting with Uranium One by Grant Stern here:
3. Bonus: Pro-Putin candidates announced seeking Democratic Nominations showing an alarming trend of the Kremlin infiltrating and manipulating the left. Dennis Kucinich, “an asset of Putin” is running for the Democratic Nomination in the Ohio Gubernatorial Race.
And, my friends, this is just a tip of the iceberg. There is offshore drilling, FBI files open for Republicans, the government closure — look it up.
Voila. Simple.
Delay and deflect. Got it?
Oh, and if you are about to say:
“What about the US?! There’s nothing you cite in Soviet propaganda that wasn’t being done here, in the run up to WWI, before the revolutions of 1917–18. “Public Relations” as propaganda, is as American as gun violence, racism and apple pie!” —
please do not bother. This is another tactic called “Whataboutism” and I am going to talk about it in my next article — although, it is not that different, as you have guessed already — yes! look over there! a squirrel… yawn.
If you want to hear about it before my article is up, watch this (he’s funny!):
Visit our page Russian Propaganda Workshops, join, follow, read articles shared and come to a free seminar
or watch videos (coming soon.) You won’t even need to pierce notebooks with needles… I promise.
Read more about RUSSIAN CYBERWAR AND PROPAGANDA here.
*All facts and photos are in public domain and available through Google. Links to the original sources are included.
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