Protests and protesters: honorable intent or a product of foreign and domestic malign influence?
It's foreign and domestic, malign influence and the US is defenseless.
Dear TAT readers,
The last few days have been dominated by the headlines of protests on US college campuses and some streets of our cities. Most headlines, with nearly all media, are built around the journalistic standard of, “if it bleeds, it leads.” This simply means that whatever can be sensationalized, will make the headlines. Divisive headlines or those that trigger divisiveness, seems to also be a rule in many newsrooms. These two issues more than any other factors, are undermining the very union, we fought a civil war to save. Now, with the seeds of civil war openly expressed on the MAGA/ GOP side of politics and the need to save America from it on the other, reinforcing the divisive narratives by newsroom editors just may trigger it. Where the hell are their journalism ethics? No, not a rhetorical question.
The threat from divisive and dishonest media, politicians that wield such as weapons of politics and the US and foreign oligarchs who own or have control of such, is very real indeed, dangerously so. Today’s issue regarding campus protests over the war in Gaza, are a direct result of two primary factors. First is that propaganda and malign influence permeate our society and much of the world and secondly, the US national security community is willfully impotent to protect or build what is called resilience in our American citizenry.
Whether either like it or not, this blame is well placed. Today we’ll talk about it here.
First things first regarding campus protests and counter-protests
The narratives sustaining the protests are roughly, 90% false or more easily understood, as propaganda. While that it is in fact honorable to protest in support of saving innocent human lives, it is quite the opposite to wield the terms, “genocide, ethnic cleansing and occupation” as bludgeons to get your way. These are all patently false, as any middle school history book and dictionary would tell anyone reading them. That these protesters, mostly students and professors, driven by decades of false narratives about Israel and the now called, “Palestinian” people, believe or use these terms, fully undermines any credibility they may have had.
Still, the truth is that they fully believe the dishonesty and are doing what they believe to be right. We all have a duty to speak truth, or no problem will ever be solved.
Gaza cannot be genocide since that two million Palestinians, Muslim and Christian are Israeli citizens, some even serving in the IDF in Gaza. And there is zero proof of intent or commitment to any such thing. A simple dictionary will easily dismiss the ridiculousness of using this word on protest signs.
Gaza has not been occupied since 2005 and Hamas has been both government and terrorist organization since, stealing aid, building civilians into their war strategy as human shields and viciously abusing all Palestinians.
I have written some 21 in-depth reports revolving around the war in Gaza, its participants and those to blame since it began. Rather than rehashing those facts, I’ll just leave the links to those essays below, for anyone with interest. Like all TAT essays, the embedded links are to the most credible of sources.
Israel - by Paul Cobaugh - Truth About Threats
Let's unpack the complex, barbaric attack on Israel and those to blame. (truthaboutthreats.com)
Short Friday notes after yesterday's long report on Israel (truthaboutthreats.com)
A quick Sunday update regarding the Israeli/Palestinian conflict in Gaza (truthaboutthreats.com)
Three things about the war in Gaza that we all must understand. (truthaboutthreats.com)
5th in the series, Israel and Hamas updates. (truthaboutthreats.com)
Has all media, good and bad, forgotten how to report with facts and context? (truthaboutthreats.com)
A short catch-up on Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, Russia and China's hand in Hamas' barbarism for their own selfish purposes. 7th in the series (truthaboutthreats.com)
Friday updates - by Paul Cobaugh - Truth About Threats
What the hell is wrong with almost all media reporting on the conflict in Gaza and ignoring the brutality in Ukraine and other nations? (truthaboutthreats.com)
“If it bleeds, it leads” - by Paul Cobaugh (truthaboutthreats.com)
Mid-week, national security, news round-up (truthaboutthreats.com)
When we blame countries and terrorist groups for war, don’t forget to blame corporations and Wall Street too! (truthaboutthreats.com)
Cost - Benefit Analysis, the war in Gaza - by Paul Cobaugh (truthaboutthreats.com)
The road to hell, is paved with good intentions. (truthaboutthreats.com)
I derive no satisfaction from this, "I told you so." (truthaboutthreats.com)
Mainstream news outlets are borderline antisemitic in their reporting about the war in Gaza. (truthaboutthreats.com)
Freedom of the Press is our right but we should expect truth, not agendas that kill human beings. (truthaboutthreats.com)
Are Journalism ethics really a thing? - by Paul Cobaugh (truthaboutthreats.com)
Tehran's attack on Israel, through a wider lens (truthaboutthreats.com)
Gaza protests are emblematic of willful tunnel vision... on all sides. (truthaboutthreats.com)
Like most American politics these days, people use words and terms with any definition that they make up to dishonestly sway voters their way. Even newsrooms that claim to be reputable, are subservient to advertising dollars and investors. This because all too apparent with a day or so of the barbarian, Iran and Russian sponsored, October 7th attack by Hamas on Israelis. The horrors inflicted were medieval. Shortly afterwards, even some of my formerly most trusted entities like Reuters and the BBC because in my professional opinion, Hamas propagandists. To this day I refuse to read either. Their reporting was so dishonest as to be borderline antisemitic.
Hyper-partisan politicians harvesting potential voters for our November election, immediately began shaping facts into dishonest narratives which were pounced on by media hungry for ad dollars and to please their big dollars investors and stockholders. This created even more confusion and chaos, where influence peddlers swooped in without resistance and set in motion, and reinforced the false narratives about Palestinians that are firmly embedded into so many Americans.
Within weeks, campus protestors were exclusively digesting either far right or Hamas/ Iranian/ Russian propaganda, which was all too often, also enabled by Chinese nation-state influencers. US and Western media, played right into their hands for the sole purpose of chasing revenue, tossing journalism ethics aside in the process. This situation still exists and with such deeply entrenched narratives, the only result will be more conflict such as we’ve witnessed over the past few days across the country and in fact, the world. At the end of the day, the only people and organizations benefiting were media moguls and adversaries like Iran, Hamas, Russia, Hezbollah and yes, Xi’s China.
Meanwhile, US and western national security communities are sitting around with their hands in their pockets, going to conferences to wring their hands in unison. Staffs waste time in ad nauseum meetings and but a trickle of near worthless effort is the output. This is called, paralysis-by-analysis. Again, I have written often on the willful impotency of our national security community when it comes to what I term as, ethical influence. If you care to know more or refresh, the links to the most important are below. The links that matters the most to today’s topic, are:
Combat ineffective, the rusted, broken hulk of US Influence Operations (truthaboutthreats.com)
The US National Security Community has left us a critical vulnerability in US national security. (truthaboutthreats.com)
The US always fights the "last war," instead of the one we're in. (truthaboutthreats.com)
The US National Security community is incapable of managing mis/ disinformation threats (truthaboutthreats.com)
We can't protect ourselves from mis/ disinformation, until we understand influence (truthaboutthreats.com)
The bottom line is that the US and western security communities have through arrogance, intransigence and nepotistic defense contracting, have made us dangerously vulnerable as a nation, to being manipulated to the point of self-destruction. In my opinion, failures come dangerously close the very serious charge within the US government of, waste, fraud and abuse.
Now off we go to the summary…
Getting back to the protests, now that we have the background established.
So, let’s get something straight, Russia and most Arab states, especially Gulf states have supported anti-Israel movements directly for decades. One method of support has been to give terrorist movements like the Muslim Brotherhood, the PLO, Hamas and more, status via diplomatic, propaganda, financing and arms methodology.
A decade or so ago, Iran began solidifying their control over the Hamas, Hezbollah and other extremist hordes. Everything was designed to commit genocide against Israel. There is no disputing this as that it has been exposed in official charters and covenants. Hamas is not only a terrorist group but an evil, corrupt terrorist organization that serves as the government in Gaza and which preys on the Palestinians in Gaza, as badly as they do to Israelis… regularly.
Iran is a primary Holocaust denier and is committed to the genocide of Israel. Like Hamas, they are nearly as oppressive to their own citizens as they officially declare, regarding Israelis. Iran is a subservient attack dog for Putin and agent of influence for Xi in China. A democratic and strong Israel is a threat to Iran, who is Putin’s attack dog and Putin, is Xi’s agent of his quest for world domination. Below are links supporting this statement in detail.
One method for Iran to attack Israel is via public pressure based on Israel fighting the terrorist army that the theocratic terrorists in Tehran trained, equipped and supply. Iran stirs up trouble in western democracies to take pressure off of their terrorist army of Hamas. They’ve spent billions building both Hamas and Hezbollah and don’t wish to lose them altogether. Iranian propaganda stirs up protests in the US and other western nations in a bid to achieve their strategic fascist goals. Meanwhile, the majority of Palestinians and Israelis have long been focused on peace and a two-state solution.
The long-standing false narratives about Israel and the Palestinian people may have a grain of truth but are adamantly dishonest. Yet they persist because our national security community, including NATO’s is clueless about what to do about adversarial propaganda. They’ve been holding expensive conferences, paying useless contractors and doing nothing of consequence, for at least four decades. In other words, Iranian, Chinese and the Russians, are in full control of the narrative environment.
Narrative its centricity to ethical influence operations and by those who know how, is the only answer. There are only a handful, with a couple of fingers left over, of those in the national security community who understand it well and no one asks their opinion. Instead, the national security community hands out countless contracts to imposters who put the name “narrative” into their program title, in order to dishonestly acquire big defense contracts.
The most well-conditioned audiences for propaganda are those where the seeds of false narratives are planted a generation or more before being used. Professionals in my world, then water, fertilize and exploit these narratives when they need to. To my knowledge, no one operating in the US national security community at this moment, knows how or even bothered to plant the seeds.
Now that we know why the protesters say and protest with fake narratives, let’s stop a minute to review their rights. Peaceful protest is our birthright as Americans. Whether we do it honestly depends on how we’ve been influenced, our entire lives. This is about our NI or Narrative Identity. In lay terms, all of our prior influence has constructed an identity that subconsciously responds to “triggers.” Audiences conditioned by Iranian, Russian and extremist false narratives and supporting propaganda, will always respond if properly triggered. This is a very complex subject, to for the purpose of this article, please accept the science and art about narrative.
Protesters, often wearing or displaying terrorist identifiers such and Hezbollah, Hamas and Iranian symbology, have been so triggered and honestly believe that they are supporting humanity. They are wrong about the content, but their intent is grounded in the way their identity perceives good. We watched the same thing occur on January 6th where people believing in the fake patriotism of the MAGA movement and largely orchestrated by thirty years of FOX conditioning, launched a massive armed insurrection against our very Capital.
Protesters have a right to advocate for their beliefs, right, wrong or otherwise. I respect this, especially having lived through the sixties as an intentional observer. Today’s protests are child’s play next to the sixties but in an environment where our national security refuses to do what they get paid for and haven’t for decades, the threat is much larger. It is the same reason that democracy has diminished so precipitously since the end of the Cold War.
If we do not fix our national security, we won’t just continue to sprint for the cliff’s edge, we will sprint right over the cliff riding the false security, built of our arrogance, ignorance and intransigence. This is why I write often about the role of influence in our lives. The US Government is not the cavalry, we are. We must build within our republic, the resilience necessary to sew up the rift in the fabric of our union. This is the precise reason for my first and second edition of my just released book, is Modern Day Minutemen and Women, a voter guide (to influence).
If nothing else, peaceful protest is our birthright, until it crosses a threshold. Campus protesters apparently crossed it and were removed. Both are the right answers. Those demonizing either side, are contributing to the national schism. The same goes for counter-protests. Our job as citizens, is to demand truth in our media feeds. That’s how we get our republic back. I like to say and often do… “If you believe your side is always right, you’re wrong.”
I may pop up with a short TAT over the weekend or… I may just do chores around the house. We’ll see. I hope that all of you choose to do as you like as well.
Warmest regards,
Paul