Is It Art?

Russia’s Propaganda Trolls become a power in cyberspace:

With the exposure of the Internet Research Center, it also appears that Russia is drawing on disinformation techniques used during the Soviet Union. One Russian propaganda scholar has referred to it as less of an information war as much as a war on information (“A Russian TV Insider Describes a Modern Propaganda Machine“). 

Regardless of the view, such activities have been successful in helping to oust governments or influence public behavior. This should be very telling, especially considering ongoing efforts between the two governments to try to gain mutual understanding on cyber security issues. One area that highlights this challenge is how security should be addressed in cyberspace.

Yes, but is it art?  If it is not art, how really effective is it?

Also, is the above an example of how writing about propaganda is (always) itself propaganda?

Thought

Thought is not necessarily thinking.

Final Solutions

Final solutions are for failures.

'Drain Bamage'

Rarefied air causes brain damage.

Narcissists

Sentiment may regard the removal of the human animal from nature as a positive development. Narcissists are always sentimental.

Maybe?

If alienation is a normal response to civilization and society, is it still alienation?

FBI Uncovers Al-Qaeda Plot To Just Sit Back And Enjoy Collapse Of United States

FBI Uncovers Al-Qaeda Plot To Just Sit Back And Enjoy Collapse Of United States:

Praise Allah, for soon every American city shall be plagued with disaster and hardship,” al-Zawahiri said in the video, which includes several minutes of footage of young, masked al-Qaeda militants casually sipping beverages as they thumb through the latest issues of Time and U.S. News And World Report. “The infidels have brought this pain and destruction upon themselves through their arrogance and callousness. Soon, the United States will watch in horror as its bridges crumble, its desperate citizens suffer in want of medicine and paying employment, and its once vast riches are reduced to naught. The righteous warriors among our ranks must now unite, get comfortable, and look on from afar at the calamity unfolding in the West.”

“We vow that we will not cease sitting around and laughing it up until America is reduced to rubble,” he continued.

We have met the enemy, and it is us.

2 Questions:

• Why is The Onion now a source of real commentary?
• Why is no one else saying the obvious?

Foul Mouth

A foul mouth may hide a keen mind.

Camouflage

Apathy can be used as a camouflage for insecurity, but then again, maybe they just don't care.

TOR's funding

How leading Tor developers and advocates tried to smear me after I reported their US Government ties.  The author's critics don't seem to have much of a substantial case other than everyone's a whore, so it's OK if they are as well!

Who would’ve thought that many of the people we’ve entrusted with protecting our online privacy have the same values as sleazy K Street lobbyists.

They're self-described "libertarians", so sleazy isn't really all that surprising...

See also 81% of Tor users can be de-anonymised by analysing router information, research indicates.

 Guess who the 19% are?

Seems TOR is best avoided.  Don't believe the hype.

Camouflage

The insecure personality sometimes uses apathy as camouflage.

Socialized Group-Think

Socialized group-think is the result of applied behaviorism. A conspiracy is hardly needed where everyone involved have been preselected according to the requirement for all to think the same way.

What have you done for me lately?

i. Recent success provides excellent cover for past failures.
ii. Future failures lesson the significance of past sucesses.
iii.  What have you done for me lately?

Connections

Connections pave the way for success; ability enables one to keep it.

“Borrowing to attend an American college may be hazardous to your dreams.”

From The trigger warning we need: “College is a scam meant to perpetuate the 1 percent” by Thomas Frank:

 Yes! Elite university students must be warned about “classism”! Not on course syllabi or the cover of a book as though it’s comsymp lit or something. No, they need to see it in big red letters inscribed on those elite universities themselves — stamped on every tuition bill and financial aid form and diploma they produce, spelled out in the quadrangle pavement, flashing from a neon sign above every dormitory so no one can miss it:

“Warning: This place exists to enforce class distinctions.”

[...]

 This power over admission to the bourgeoisie is the reason why tuition goes up constantly even as the university successfully transforms professors into low-wage freelancers (the subject of last week’s column)—because what those professors teach doesn’t matter. This is also why people who fake their college degrees often lead long and successful corporate lives without being detected—because the stuff you actually learn to get a liberal arts degree isn’t important in the corporate world. Only the diploma itself has real meaning in the marketplace, and only the marketplace has real meaning in America. This is a situation that clearly requires highly visible warnings, and lots of them.

 Buyer beware.  If you can't pay for college without a loan, then get a trade, save your money and go (or not).  Otherwise you risk being an indentured servant to a bank.