# Online Covert Operations: Welcome to the Reputation Destroyers



## SifuPhil

I came across an interesting little article this morning that described how the NSA, among other alphabet-soup agencies, employs social "manipulators" to create dissension and ruin reputations among Internet chat-groups, social media sites and forums. They do this by employing various "psy-ops", among which are the posting of incendiary topics and the automatic nay-saying of other points of view.

Beware ... 

*How Covert Agents Infiltrate The Internet*


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## That Guy

That certainly explains recent events  . . .


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## Vivjen

Just when I was coming out from behind the sofa, Phil...


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## SifuPhil

That Guy said:


> That certainly explains recent events  . . .



Great minds think alike ...



Vivjen said:


> Just when I was coming out from behind the sofa, Phil...



I know - I saw it on the video.


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## SifuPhil

Certainly "Who wants pizza?" is the safe-word for that response - it tells the Masters that everything is going according to schedule. 

One thing to think about - if you don't play the game you can't be ensnared.


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## Vivjen

Yes Phil, but you have to have some fun at some time....


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## Warrigal

I'm not intimidated by Big Brother.

I've probably had an ASIO file ever since I started writing letters to Prime Ministers and other parliamentarians.
So what?


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## SifuPhil

Vivjen said:


> Yes Phil, but you have to have some fun at some time....



True, but if you format that fun to _exclude_ online activities you'll be less susceptible to this particular form of persuasion ...


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## That Guy

Diwundrin, I may not always agree with you but must say you are brilliant.


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## SifuPhil

That Guy said:


> Diwundrin, I may not always agree with you but must say you are brilliant.



I'm her ghost-writer - don't tell anyone.


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## Denise1952

Diwundrin said:


> I've just learned that what's taken me 40 years to figure out I could have read in that chart!
> 
> A bit chilling to see it called a 'game'.  What I and others do as a verbal hobby is a game too.  Same game really, but we're amateurs and only play it among ourselves, usually anyway.  .... but if there's a buck in it, .... where do we apply??   It's actually dead easy to whip people into a frenzy over trivialities.  Keeping them calm while still discussing those trivialities is the real trick to it.
> 
> A few of us like to think we're just trying to warn people that not looking closely at what they're told, and wondering why they are being told, leaves them being led up the garden path big time.
> 
> They need to realise that it isn't the people who disagree with them that they should worry about, it's the ones that humour them, that sympathise with them, that boost their egos and become understanding 'buddies' that are the ones who are leading them into their way of thinking.
> Who trusts someone with a different viewpoint?  Who likes 'rude' people?  We throw them off the forum don't we?, too disruptive.  But 'nice' people who are helping out and just saying nice things about what interests us, well they can stick around and if they want us to vote as they do, well that's okay because they're nice so they must be right.
> 
> Sometimes your best friend can be the one who points out bluntly where you are going wrong.
> 
> 
> Speaking of 'That certainly explains recent events  . . ."  yes it  does.  It points up how very vulnerable we are to over-reaction  when our  tenderest buttons are pushed.  Usually the egalitarian self esteem and ego button.  The 'disruption' was ejected to protect the warm gooey comfort zone that just may be the invention of a gubbermint mole.
> There!  All paranoid now??   Gooooood. It'll keep yas on your toes!  :laugh:
> 
> Never doubted that stooges were dropping in and out of forums to push barrows.  Political spammers are rife.  Many set up their own forums to ensnare the unwary with the invitation to 'have their say',  then use it to grind them down and denigrate their viewpoints in order to further impress the already converted on the forum.
> It may have been luck of the draw (or my own bias)  but the majority of maliciously biased politically based forums are  socialist/liberal types. Is there a message in that?  Maybe the right wingers just haven't woken up to the value of 'spin' trolls yet??
> 
> Are we all gonna look at each now and wonder who is a plant?  A few qualify for suspicion.
> Probably American.  I don't think ASIO are that advanced yet, but I'll look for a recruitment letter, sounds like fun.
> So, it's not me, but then I would say that wouldn't I?  :whome:Bwaaahahahaa
> 
> PS, read the comments below the article, the first one is a ripper. :laugh:
> 
> ... never mind here 'tis.





> it's the ones that humour them, that sympathise with them, that boost  their egos and become understanding 'buddies' that are the ones who are  leading them into their way of thinking.
> Who trusts someone with a different viewpoint?  Who likes 'rude' people?   We throw them off the forum don't we?, too disruptive.  But 'nice'  people who are helping out and just saying nice things about what  interests us, well they can stick around and if they want us to vote as  they do, well that's okay because they're nice so they must be right.
> 
> Sometimes your best friend can be the one who points out bluntly where you are going wrong.



This is where I see you fall short of brilliance Di, and I am going to say it here in hopes that you may be helped by it.  You are saying by being brutally honest you can help a person so just want you to know that I don't, for one, just "pat" everyone and say your are ok when their not.

There is a big difference in helping a person with honesty, and ripping them to shreds when it is obvious they have some vulnerabilities.  Oh well, they should get over that right, well not everybody is on our time-schedule.  The shit hit the fan on this forum because of someone who had not a "people-skill" in his ignorant brain.  I say ignorant because ignorance is truly not knowing any better, having not been taught.

Now you might be brilliant in lots of areas, but you fall short on seeing the truth in this situation.  I stand behind whoever took action in "deleting" Justsayin and I'll stand behind anyone that does the same to anyone else that needs to learn some manners.  I don't see many others on this forum that kiss anybody's butt, pretty honest bunch, tell it like it is. So I'm sorry I'm not part of your rooting section.  I respect your right to post what you want, the same as anyone else here.  We all take our chances at offending someone, and for me, I learned a good lesson from Justsayin, and that is "how not to be" so I can thank him for that. Denise


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## That Guy

SifuPhil said:


> I'm her ghost-writer - don't tell anyone.



And . . . THAT certainly explains recent events . . .


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## SifuPhil

That Guy said:


> And . . . THAT certainly explains recent events . . .



Speak into the microphone, please ... and tilt your head a little to the left ...


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## That Guy

SifuPhil said:


> Speak into the microphone, please ... and tilt your head a little to the left ...


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## SifuPhil

That Guy said:


>



LMAO!

That Cat!


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## SeaBreeze




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## Jillaroo

_Am i missing something? i thought we had all moved on from what happened  :why:_


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## SifuPhil

Diwundrin said:


> His statements, or most, about our shortcomings applied to me as much as to anyone yet I wasn't outraged at them being laid bare


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## SeaBreeze

Jillaroo said:


> _Am i missing something? i thought we had all moved on from what happened  :why:_



I thought so too!  Let's just all move on and get over it already!


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## That Guy




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