The role of resilience in defending democracy and from miss and disinformation
TAT readers,
My apologies for only bringing you one long essay last week. It’s been a very busy few days around here due to some professional writing and work on my next book, “Conned, the brainwashing of America in the Trump era.” Today’s essay is a topic that is both our most significant national security threat and also, a subject of importance in that upcoming book. Without solutions to dealing with miss and disinformation, there is almost no hope for restoring our republic after the Trump/ MAGA GOP era. Let that sink in, frightening as it is. It’s not just what most call propaganda either. A nation that intends to defend its values, requires a resilient moral spine. That spine is built onto knowing and standing up for what we honestly believe in, not the fake values of those who intend to dismantle it.
The reason for this topic today is that we are well into the midterm election cycle and are awash in miss and disinformation, “fake news,” conspiracy theories, false narratives, deep fakes etc., etc., etc. The Pentagon and all of the other IC/ Intelligence Community entities, as well as law enforcement are clueless about how to manage this acute threat. Research dollars are pouring into big defense contracting firms and have been for years, falsely believing that technology can solve our problems. It cannot and as our headlines tell us, neither fake news or the sales pitches of defense contractors selling snake oil, will either. There are important supporting roles for technology but at this time, it cannot provide anything of significance to easing this threat. In other words, we are largely defenseless from foreign and domestic influence operations if we are to depend on the US government.
The answer is not more technology, but understanding how to build resilience to the miss and disinformation intentionally tearing our nation apart. Many experts call this “inoculating” ourselves against dishonesty, much the same way we inoculate ourselves against the threat of virally spread diseases. In my line of work, such an inoculation is also a subset of my core expertise, Narrative Warfare and also the only way to effectively achieve such an inoculation.
"Narrative Warfare is the battle for control of human beings based on their specific identity. - Cobaugh - 2025
What the heck is resilience?
In its simplest form, resilience is the ability for humans to experience hardship and have the skills, aptitude, mental and physical health, to endure through difficult challenges successfully. This is my own personal definition because many discussions regarding resilience pertain to healthy mental endurance and revolve around maintaining cognitive competence due to cognitive issues such as Alzheimer’s, dementia or some sort of other mental illness or challenge. Resilience applies to nearly everything humans experience throughout their lifetimes.
Every time that we see communities come together after and during a national disaster, we are watching resilience in action. No politics or agendas are present, just a unified community restoring their lives. This is a beautiful and moving display of true American resilience. Until this administration, supporting national disasters wasn’t a partisan issue. Now this administration punishes so-called blue states while supporting the opposite and even they receive far less support. This is an insanely un-American approach to unity. As historians will tell us, the US has come together to always face common enemies. The one glaring exception was when Republicans sided with Russia when they attacked our 2016 elections and have continued ever since. This demonstrates the depth of their brainwashing.
Prominent examples of resilience in US history can be found in long-term battles with enemies both foreign and domestic, as well as natural and human created disasters, such as what Tom Brokaw spoke about in his iconic book, The Greatest Generation. The Greatest Generation or Americans born between 1901 and 1927, endured drought, The Great Depression, WW II, the threat of nuclear war and the growing pains of Americans learning to fight for and improve the access to the civil rights constitutionally guaranteed to every American.
" Tom Brokaw, an NBC Nightly News anchor, gained profound insights into the valor and sacrifices of these individuals during his visits to Normandy Beach for the D-Day anniversary. He coined the term "Greatest Generation" to honor those who endured the Great Depression and fought in the war, highlighting their resilience and dedication to rebuilding post-war America." - Brokaw Honors the Greatest Generation - EBSCO - James Tackach - 2023
It has in many ways, been the same although on differing scales, for every generation of Americans. Though born with our birthright to the highest of human principles, we are still working towards what the Preamble to our Constitution called, “a more perfect union.” Only resilience and a dedication to our radically progressive founding values or what some laughably call, “woke,” have seen us hold our union together throughout the Civil War, survive multiple depressions and recessions, fight wars, fight for and pursue the Civil Rights revolution of the 60’s. The lesson here is that adhering to our founding moral principles, temper our resilience the way that fire tempers steel. When we survive adversity via our extraordinary founding values, we become personally and collectively, more resilient. History doesn’t lie.
"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America. - Preamble to the United States Constitution
When it comes to the role of resilience in combatting miss and disinformation, this critical but largely overlooked element is for all intents and purposes, overlooked by national security leaders putting all of their eggs into the one basket called, technology. The past couple of decades, those selling technology exclusively as the answer to all of our problems, have failed to produce anything of value when it comes to protecting Americans from our epidemic of false narratives, overtly dishonest propaganda and fake patriotism. Rather than admit that technology is not the solution they promised, the national security community continues to promise miracles they cannot perform. This leaves us largely unprotected.
There is no substitute though, for the hard work required to cultivate your own cognitive resilience, that is oriented towards protecting you and yours from our current scourge of dishonest media. In our political arena, the preponderance of propaganda comes from the political right, although there are a handful of serious issues on the left as well. This pits fake values vs our true values and creates conflict between Americans. Today’s GOP has been in lay terms, “conned” by the staggering invasiveness and steady stream of propaganda infecting every nook and cranny of our society. Whether we call it fake news, false narratives, conspiracy theories, lying, propaganda etc., makes no difference. The agenda of all of these terms are the same, to sell us what is good for them, regardless of what happens to us. For the rest of this essay, I will mostly use the term, “propaganda” for simplicity.
Now that we understand resilience, its critical role in our nation’s survival and how much it informs how we see the world, it is now important to talk about how we can all contribute to rebuilding resilience in the American people. Once we begin to rebuild the true values of our republic, it will take little to see our historical resilience once again blooming like flowers in Springtime. The fake-patriotism, Oligarchical dominance and White Christian Nationalist values will begin to recede as easily and naturally as does a simple wave upon the shore.
The mechanics of such a transformation are part of the built-in mechanics of being a human being. Those mechanics are part of “who we are” or what is termed our NI or narrative identity. Narrative is about how we see the world around us and is based on our own specific identity. As Americans, our collective national identity lives within nearly all of us in some manner and can be triggered easily, simply by reintroducing Americans to the truth about our national values and history, rather than allowing propagandists to sell us on historical revisionism, such as Holocaust Denial.
These agendas, as we can easily see from our nationally tragic experiences with the FOX News types of media, which have slowly conditioned their audiences over decades, to accept their fake-patriotism, often via historical revisionism and overt lies about what our constitution does or does not say. This is why today’s Republican Party goes to great lengths to hide truth, publish and amplify lies and false narratives, censor truth-tellers, coerce media to do the immoral bidding of an immoral administration and associated Republican Party. Even these thoroughly unethical and anti-American tactics, are no match for resiliency, if someone knows how to operate with Narrative Warfare.
To date, even our national security community has no real understanding of this professional specialty called Narrative Warfare, largely because they have bet all of their success, on the preposterous assumption, that technology can do all and be all. This approach is to me, is criminal negligence and now the survival of our republic hangs in the balance. The solace we can all take in our survival though, is that it is, we the people that can do what is required to reverse the current fascist actions and desires of the Republican Party.
How we save ourselves by rebuilding our resilience
We can take some comfort in the fact that it is relatively easy for all of us to effectively contribute to rebuilding classic American resilience. Those contributions may seem small and insignificant but this is not how Narrative Warfare works. In the case of rebuilding our traditional American resilience, it requires tapping into a pre-existing identity of Americans that recognizes and celebrates our true traditional values. The entire remaining Republican Party that continues to support and vote for GOP fascism dressed up as patriotism, no longer operates on their pre-Trump era version of American identity. This newer layer of identity may be seen as a shield of sorts between their ears, designed to keep out truth. Finding a way to tap into and trigger that old identity hidden behind that shield, is the key to success. Every small contribution from each of us, makes a difference, even if it is only with one voter.
Our family, friends and neighbors that have been conned with endless assaults on their old identity are not quite as brainwashed as most may assume. Remember the laughably pathetic crowds for Trump’s birthday parade, lousy showings at campaign events and the losses of the candidates that he’s backed, well I do too. The Republican grip on power is vanishing faster than a coherent thought in Trump’s mind. They are terrified and in response are doing everything possible to “rig” the midterms via voter suppression, intimidation, radical gerrymandering etc. This should calm some of the terror Republicans are attempting to wield against us with ICE and putting armed troops into our streets. They are far from invincible and are in fact now… vulnerable.
Most Republicans understand that their crazy is beginning to embarrass and humiliate themselves as GOP policies are now affecting them negatively too. They may be less vocal but the majority will continue to put party over country. There is now a small percentage of GOP voters who have become so disillusioned that they will join our fight to restore our nation. At the moment I would assess that our cause is very far from hopeless and until November, it’s an “all hands on deck” moment. Our tasks in recovering our resilience may be easy, but without overwhelming support from honest Americans, even an easy task may not succeed. This makes this essay a call to action.
The operative question now is, “how do we go about rebuilding our national resilience to threats and evil?
We must not remain safely silent when our local school districts ban books and institute religion in public school classrooms. We don’t have to yell and bludgeon our opponents like our republican neighbors. Quiet unity that represents honest Americans regardless of their political views, sends a powerful message difficult to refute via the normalized verbal and physical violence common to MAGA crowds. The issue is right from wrong and whether actions conform to our constitutional guidelines.
We must especially target the Republicans in public office when they begin repeating the insane conspiracy theories to justify their fascist policies. Again, this is best done on a bipartisan basis. As I have been saying since November of 2024, targeting Republicans in office whether on Facebook, the local news, via their local offices etc. is a powerful threat to their electability. Dragging local media to witness your side’s perspectives while they stutter their way through their dishonesty, makes a huge impact on voters, pro and con. We should all remember our successes in booting these rabid far-right ideologues out of their own townhall meetings in their districts.
Demand answers from all elected Republicans. There is nothing at all American about Republicans showing up in congressional and state legislatures, refusing to answer the simplest of questions that they are obligated by law to answer. If they cannot answer or refuse to answer, ask your community a simple question, “why should anyone vote for them if they refuse to honor their obligation to inform their constituents.
Believe it or not, a 2,500 year old philosopher named Socrates, devised a method for deepening effective dialogue that works very well when engaging a Republican voter on controversial topics. This is called the Socratic Method. It is still taught today, especially in law schools, and is considered an effective method of sorting out underlying beliefs and assumptions. If a student or someone engaged in a Socratic-styled conversation cannot justify and defend their assumptions, they tend to begin doubting their pre-existing assumptions. The advantage of asking questions in a non-threatening manner, often is enough for them to speak freely on what they assume their beliefs to be. Via self-discovery by way of the questions, it is possible for them to even begin to question themselves, seeking an honest answer.
“The Socratic method uses questions to examine the values, principles, and beliefs of students. Through questioning, the participants strive first to identify and then to defend their moral intuitions about the world which undergird their ways of life. Socratic inquiry deals not with producing a recitation of facts... but demands rather that the participants account for themselves, their thoughts, actions, and beliefs... Socratic inquiry aims to reveal the motivations and assumptions upon which students lead their lives.”
Jack Maden
2021
Focus on expressing what those opposing the regime in power believe in, rather than just pointing out what’s wrong with the other side. No one responds well to constantly being verbally punched in the nose, for expressing their beliefs. Over time and with sustained engagement, it can be surprising at how people will find truth, whether they admit it or not. This doesn’t preclude employing honest but controlled anger and frustration. We all have a great deal to be furious about when the administration perpetually violates laws and ignores both our constitution and court orders. Still, we must do what the DNC refuses to do, provide a platform for restoring our values, our constitutional rights and what our vision for the future is.
There are countless Democratic officials doing heroic work narrating what is occurring in congress, but without a platform, how can we ask Americans to chose ours, when it does not even exist?
Don’t waste your time on the aggressive and loud deeply MAGA Republicans. We all know the kind. They are fully radicalized and incapable of rescue from their brainwashing. This is a fact fully understood by professionals deeply experienced in radicalization, ideology, extremism and violent extremism. Once a person crosses a certain threshold where they publicly espouse and act on their immoral and un-American beliefs, they rarely recover, no matter how good an effort is made by professionals, to unravel their psychological dedication to an aberrant ideology.
Above all, we must all raise our voices and in unison whenever possible and absolutely not from a partisan position. Nothing will make an ideological opponent dig in more deeply than employing partisan imagery such as “blue wave” or any other partisan flag-waving. Remember, the so-called resistance is devoted to restoring American values, not converting the nation into Democrats. I have long adhered to a personal mantra that says, “do the right thing and the politics will sort themselves out in your favor.”
Finally, don’t mistake my recommendations for carefully building resilience, for weakness. We must remain firmly dedicated to truth, our true national values, being equal before the law and most insistently, fighting back passionately when confronted by the regularly occurring unconstitutional actions by the Trump administration and their GOP enablers.
Displays of patriotism, discussing history via credible sources, our constitutional rights as Americans and telling the great stories throughout our history of those who courageously defended our nation’s founding values. We will get nothing but the opposite from Trump-era Republicans. Let them make a mockery of themselves, by trading in ignorance and arrogance. The more people listen to truth and reason, the more that will actively support our cause.
The recommendations above take time as does all successful Narrative Warfare campaigns. We have scant time left before the midterms and must get moving now. I’m also certain that my fellow Americans are beyond creative and will find more pathways to building resilience among their communities. Those with technology and social media skills, create campaigns to tell the stories of Americans standing up for our nation and its values. Go to Republican elected official’s accounts and use those little emoji’s effectively. In a time when social media is the weapon de jour of authoritarian regimes, beat them at their own game.
Social media data can play a significant role in success. Every time someone dislikes the posts of MAGA republicans, it adds up and makes the opposition either double-down on their nonsense, or makes them reconsider another approach. During this administration, Republicans are taking a beating on social media except within their closed echo chambers like Truth Social. I can assure you that the data-crunching henchmen of GOP influencers, pay strict attention to regular assessments of how well they believe they’re doing. At the moment, those assessments are doing more poorly, by the day.
We don’t win battles or wars by becoming our opponents. The resistance to violent, deadly and unconstitutional ICE operations in our cities have clearly demonstrated that massive, unified and peaceful resistance is a winning strategy. The people of Minneapolis and Portland especially were perfect examples of how much power that “we the people” have. It’s far easier to be fearless, when we are not alone in resistance.
Summary
Although this has been another long essay, I still find it a most important topic in supporting the restoration of our republic. The equation is fairly simple but requires great collective effort from all Americans who simply want our nation back from the clutches of tyranny. The logic trail goes something like the following:
We are a nation of brilliant founding principles that are designed to celebrate “inalienable human rights.”
Those principles have long been the primary strength of we the people.
The Republican Party in the Trump-era exists on fake American values and bizarre conspiracy theories.
Our true values are far stronger and deeper rooted than any of the fake religious and American values used to brainwash republicans via dangerous influence campaigns over the past forty or so years.
Our founding values are the braided steel spine of American resilience.
Successfully rebuilding that spine via stories, engagement and mass protests celebrating those true values by default shores up our resilience.
Throughout our history, that resilience has paid off in sustaining our republic and helping us move towards that promised, “more perfect union.”
Only when we remained silent during over thirty years of FOX News and similar GOP media brainwashing of our families, friends and neighbors, did our resilience fade and lead us to our current Republican threat.
We all hold the power to contribute in large or small methods to rebuild our natural resilience.
We must not fail now, or risk our legacy of liberty being erased from the history of the world.
I believe in you, our values and our future. All that we must do now, is be willing to play our part as courageously as those who have ensured that legacy for two-hundred and fifty years.
Onward my friends, ever onward,
Paul