I've changed my mind about "Disinfo Agents"

Years ago I used to write threads and posts seeking to expose "disinfo agents". Here is one such example of a thread of mine: Pseudoskeptics and Disinformants on ATS.

I've completely changed my mind. A part of the reason why I have changed my mind is because I have been called shill, disinfo-agent, agent provocateur and whatnot so many times that meanwhile its just a childish deflection to me. Another reason is that Ive noticed how its almost always applied to someone who disagrees with another. The person calling "disinfo agent" will almost never suspect that of person that agrees with them.

And thats kind of dumb, isnt it? It makes the real disinfo-agents job easy. All he has to do is write stuff most people agree with, gain a lot of friends and then he can inject his disinfo. Seeing someone who has a very different view than you do as a "disinfo agent" really is kind of dumb. A good disinfo agent would first make himself likable before spreading disinfo.

A lot of people on sites like these are anti-establishment. For many, anti-establishment is like a belief-system that is never questioned. In this belief-system, any mystery is necessarily nefarious, and any authority must automatically be evil. But what is often completely overlooked is that...

...some of the anti-PTB agendas are anti-PTB because they want to be PTB themselves

This means that a lot of anti-establishment views also have come with a hidden agenda. Its not only the Establishment that has an agenda but also all the folks who are not part of the Establishment yet but would love to be.

There are a lot of competing factions in the world. I dont subscribe to the idea that there is only ONE power pulling all the strings. There are a lot of competing powers. And they like to weaken and smear each other in the News and on the Internet. Many of them pretend to speak in the name of common people like us.

Obama is now in power. Before that, the Dems waged a perpetual smear-campaign against the Reps and Bush, churning out anti-establishment message after message. Now they ARE the Establishment and its the "Tea Party" who pretends to be anti-Establishment, churning out message after message against the Dems and "TPTB". Anti-Establishment today, Establishment tommorow.

What is to say that if you achieve in bringing down "TPTB" that the next Ruling Elite will be better than the current one? What is to say that the people who want to expose the ruling Elite dont only want to do so in order to replace them?

Who is and who is not a "disinfo agent" depends on what agenda you happen to be following.

The ptb have already won. William cooper said it best, they have won as the people have no idea what they are going up against. How can you take the ptb on, without knowing what they have at there disposal.

The ptb have already won.

There is no such thing as "The" PTB. There are many, in competition. And if we get lucky we have the lesser evil to run stuff.

Disinfo Agent is one of the nicest things I have been called on ATS. Along with "People Like You" I have been called a socialist, communist, terrorist sympathizer, raghead lover, tulip walker [I actually like this one] Facists,
pinko, douchebag, jerk, progressivewhore, bastard, moron, dumbass, numbnutz, bit**, idiot,Azzwipe, loser, schmuck, dork, dingleberry, putz, turd, poofter, git, punk and twit. Most in a regular thread but some in U2Us as well.

Nice collection eh? And still I keep coming back for more. Thickskin.....oh yeah!

Namecalling an denigration of the person you disagree with, especially in political "discussions" seems to me to have gotten much worse across the board.

I once received a point deduction and redflag for calling someone a "mook" ......pretty tame by todays standards.

Skyfloating...if I could flag your thread 400 times, I would..yes

in my opinion, the first person to cry disinfo agent simply means they are losing an argument based in logic and substance, so they need to try and minimize the other side.

hell, just today, I was trying to hammer someone whom kept calling someone whom disagreed with him a disinfo agent...all because they were not in agreement.

its intellectually lazy, and it shows more the mindset of the person screaming it than it does of the person they are calling that.
Its good to be skeptical of a person's agenda to a point...but not to where you simply breakdown in logic and rationality and resort to trying to dismiss the person all together as some sort of plant.

and your one million percent right...a "disinfo agent" is definately not the person challenging and opposing your viewpoint...it is the one agreeing with you loudly, building up cred, and then bringing it into a totally crazy and transparently stupid area to remove the rational thinking people from that side...turning it into a bag of fruits and nuts.

Originally posted by whaaa
Namecalling an denigration of the person you disagree with, especially in political "discussions" seems to me to have gotten much worse across the board.

Thats quite a collection of insults you have there.

I guess having any position on anything at all and you're subject to insults

I cant hear/see "disinfo agent" anymore, its the most overused and ridiculous word on the Board. And thats coming from someone who once used the word himself.

Originally posted by Skyfloating
I cant hear/see "disinfo agent" anymore, its the most overused and ridiculous word on the Board. And thats coming from someone who once used the word himself.

Ya...but thats just because your a sheeple!!!

Now there is a problem with disinfo agents; many are actually existing here on ATS. But it's our job to filter them.

Saturn above mentioned the first cry Disinfo is the one who is lost the argument. Now, this would be true if there would be any debate. I've encountered with this in the last few days where some people are called me a loser, or a moron and tried to discredit me because I had a different opinion as I'm from another part of the world and not from the U.S.

Discrediting is one of the disinfo agent's act and many are doing this here on ATS when someone is actually publishing valuable information. How is it working?

- You post a valuable information.
- The disinfo agent is claiming he can't access the link, provide another one (While it's definitely working. It's happened in the pyramid thread for example around Page 5 or 6.).
- You post another link
- The disinfo agent is calling you loser and saying it's not a credible site, because??? There is no reason, he is just saying it's not credible at all (Of course these claimings never has a true background as disinfo agents are never providing any links, just saying... sorry it's a hoax or it has no credibility.).
- You post another link, to continue the debate and prove your point...
- The disinfo agent is positing around 2-4 wall of texts to push your info to the background. This is a well known element.
- You're trying to explain who you're or you're actually involved in the project (As there are many here on ATS whose are involved in some projects).
- The disinfo agent is coming to discredit you and calling you loser or moron. If it's not working, he is starting to call you as racist (It's already happened in few threads), then when it's not working at all, finally comes the grammar excuse.
- You try to be patient and try to explain everything again...
- The disinfo agent is come to mock you to achieve you a ban.

And I can continue this with few personal experience...

You know I wouldn't call people as disinfo agents IF they wouldn't act on that way. But as I know how disinfo agents are working as they're always following three-four similar patterns, it's easy to recognize them and their actions.

Originally posted by SaturnFX
Its good to be skeptical of a person's agenda to a point...

Also true.

And there is nobody without some kind of agenda.

Originally posted by Sentinel412

You know I wouldn't call people as disinfo agents IF they wouldn't act on that way.

What if they arent disinfo-agents but just idiots?

Originally posted by Skyfloating

Originally posted by Sentinel412

You know I wouldn't call people as disinfo agents IF they wouldn't act on that way.

What if they arent disinfo-agents but just idiots?

Then they would act on a different way. It's human nature. You can make a difference between a 16 year old kiddo who is just ignorant and an adult who is directly trying to discredit you because all your points are valid. The pyramid thread was a really good example for that where I and many others are proven dozens of interesting videos about it, yet two disinfo guys are continuously posted wall of texts just to push all the info to the background (As many ATSer and humans in general are used to read the first and the last page only.). I can list dozens of examples what are the prime traits of a disinfo agent and what is the difference between a DA and a 16 years old kid who is just trying to piss you up.

While I have no doubt that some government "employees" or third parties are paid to monitor and possibly participate in internet discussions, I think disinformation networks and agendas are probably more subtle and hi-tech then we would care to believe.

reply to post by Sentinel412


I dont disagree that there are people here who are only here to discredit something, for some reason or other. It does happen sometimes.

Originally posted by Skyfloating

Originally posted by whaaa
Namecalling an denigration of the person you disagree with, especially in political "discussions" seems to me to have gotten much worse across the board.

Thats quite a collection of insults you have there.

Yes it is...and it's only the one's I can remember. There are probably that many more. What ever happened to enforcement of the T&C. I used to never send in a complaint but now I do with flagrant obscenities. Sometime they stay up for days or even weeks.

Disinfo and those that use the term are minor in comparison to the trend of outright obscenity and offensive attacks on a personal basis.

Originally posted by Skyfloating
reply to post by Sentinel412

 

I dont disagree that there are people here who are only here to discredit something, for some reason or other. It does happen sometimes.

This is the general description of a disinfo agent. Paid government or hobby disinfo agent, it's really matter. And unfortunately this is starting to appearing very freqently here on ATS.

to tell you the I don't even get it, but I am quickly starting to, I just looked up the word disinfo and it is heavily laden with paranoia/doubt/untrust ect.

I just got here really because I just started reading and posting not long ago, when I first came to this site I found it by other means and made a few posts and have not been back until recently. I admit I may act like a toothless country person but we the people also have a voice, ignorant by others assumptions or not... it will not be denied.

I am formulating another approach to this situation and washing my mouth with soap in submission !

::RULES:: we learn as we go along...

#1 do not implicate in anyway ATS is a power structure
#2 talk like Barney the purple dinosaur

I love being called a reptilian because I occasionally stumble into a reptilian thread where someone is showing a youtube video of a person having slit eyes.
I will try to explain the lighting going on, and how you can actually do it yourself..and yep...I am a reptilian or some hybrid..

People generally do not like facts mixed in with their delusions.

-eats a bug-

reply to post by Sentinel412


excellent ! call them out... and thanks for the post really, it is exactly what happens isn't it.

reply to post by Sentinel412

Now there is a problem with disinfo agents; many are actually existing here on ATS. But it's our job to filter them.....

Dis-info agents are real.

I had a knock down drag out fight (I won) on one site with a VP of Monsanto a couple of years ago. Since then a guy who is a consultant, according to the link with his name, has mocked me, called me names and made a general pest of himself at any website I contribute to in my own name, but never ever actually addresses the information (well documented) I present. For an example of the type of posts I make:
see THIS

Aside from his very obvious attacks on me, he seems to be well educated. I just find it VERY weird that this guy, a busy consultant, has had time to attack every post I made in my own name over a couple years time, when I am a retired. AND he does it in the middle of a work day!

Yes, I actually took the time to chart his replies and found they were not "on his own time"

However I to not think this is a typical case. I do know certain people who have a pretty good grasp on what is happening and the ability to communicate it to others are going to be targets. A couple of others who also were fighting Monsanto have been called Hysterical and much worse names. They even had a very well documented, factual article "DEBUNKED" and posted on well over 1000 websites. The debunking was rebutted with FACTS but the rebuttal never went "viral" like the DEBUNKING did so the disinfo agents won.

Disinfo Agents are more interested in targeting as wide an audience as possible at "serious" sites. I do not think they are going to be seen here at ATS very much because they can debunk the entire site by calling us "conspiracy nuts" although I am certain this site is being watched.

reply to post by Skyfloating


Skyfloating,

Good topic and discussion, thank you.

Its not too often that I have seen any heavy duty Agents here on ATS, however....
There was a time in the recent past when it became obvious that a heavy duty agenda had cast its net wide, and involved ATS.

Remember when this happened...
Internet Users Have Been Defamed By The Anti Defamation League

And...there was another thread at that same period of time....
www.abovetopsecret.com...

Those two threads alone were illuminating in that what a suprise it was to see ATS members that had registered years ago, as old as six years whose posts stopped years ago....only to surface for those threads.



In my opinion, the agents in those threads had an agenda that was far and above the mere agenda of dissagreement; they attacked ATS itself. Now, that was the first time I had ever witnessed it in real time, it was quite an experience.

I ususally dont jump in, but I did that time.

So, I do agree that most of the time people get ruffled about differing opinions and such, and call "agent",
that defeats the whole purpose of free thought and disucssion of ideas. And that is what makes ATS great.

One of the best agents I have ever seen here on ATS usually starts out by agreeing with most of the OP, Very subtle in the beginning but over several posts it becomes obvious.

I am of the mind...that when an agent presents himself you will see it.

If your looking for one everyday, well
then your missing out on some very excellent discussion, opportunities to learn and the best of the net.