Be Prepared for the Cognitive Infiltration of ATS in the Wake of Arizona Shootings

In the world of asymmetrical warfare the old adage of “Let no crisis go wasted” has been a time honored maxim for strategists and tacticians. The premise is a simple one; seize the wave of public emotion in the aftermath of a tragedy to institute a corrective remedy that suggests this will help prevent a similar reoccurrence in the future. Typically this corrective measure would be something that people would normally reject as excessive or intrusive or unwieldy in normal and the best of times, but become much more amiable to while in a state of shock, anger or sorrow over a tragedy.

Now I am no alarmist, nor am I the paranoid type. I tend to chuckle at the more paranoid posters who think just posting on this site will get you on some government list, investigated by shadowy secret agents, targeted for some secret prison, or FEMA internment camp.

No, the truth is that the Government through it’s controversial information czar, former University of Chicago and Harvard Law Professor Cass Sunstein who has for at least a year now been pushing for what he refers to as ‘Cognitive Infiltration’ of conspiracy oriented Web Sites, to counter the claims by people he theorizes suffer from ‘crippled epistemology’ might soon be infiltrating the site.

What is Crippled Epistemology?

In a nut shell it’s the belief that you are relying on to few and the wrong sources for your news, opinions and views.

Sunstein’s theory is that people prone to believe in and investigate conspiracies become more or less ‘isolated’ on sites like ATS and end up developing opinions and views by over reliance on too few sources of information, where to be fair to the premise of the theory, the information being put forth is poorly researched, or deliberately incomplete to paint a false and misleading picture.

To be sure, in all fairness, some of the theories published here on ATS are not particularly well researched or complete. To be even fairer though this is something that many critical and skeptical minded ATS Members point out again and again in such threads.

That though doesn’t stop those people who want to believe. A great example being the Nuclear False Flag Thread in Three Days published back in November that the only research and sole source of information was a YouTube video comprised of some Fox Network TV Shows and some Hollywood Movie Snippets.

A good portion of the more seasoned, critical and skeptic minded members dismissed it as nonsense out of hand, stating politely in most cases why (as Terms of Service conscious and polite members are prone to do), but of course that didn’t stop the more paranoid amongst us from desperately wanting to believe the credibility of the theory and the information it was based upon. Amazingly even after the three days expired and the prediction didn’t pan out, another member seizing on its popularity, reworked the date, and kept the fear mongering going for another month.

Even in the face of it not happening, those who truly had a need or overwhelming desire to believe simply told themselves that the thread itself had been enough to frighten off the would be plotters, and in that fashion determined that the whole premise and theory was credible and valid even once failed.

Now I share all this not to be disparaging of the Original Poster or the members who excitedly followed the thread, after all Conspiracy Theories no matter how wild, or poorly thought out or researched are what ATS is in essence about at it’s core.

No I point this out to show how some people do end up suffering from crippled epistemology, and why some people in the government believe that poses a real threat to the safety and security of the government and sometimes people.

I also point it out for another important reason, and that is that particular thread turned a lot of lurkers (people who read ATS but aren’t members who can post) into members.

Big Events Drive New Membership

What happened in Arizona was a real tragedy, the vast majority of us believe violence is never a solution or an answer and deplore and denounce it, but the truth is when such crisis happens, it leaves a lot of people with questions.

Though it’s often derided and scorned in mainstream news media and government circles, when people can’t always find answers through those more traditional sources of information they end up here on ATS looking for answers.

When big events happen, especially ones related to conspiracy circles, it drives a lot of new lurkers, many of whom become members, who want to pose questions, share statements and take part in the ongoing discussions regarding the topic.

The influx of new members is great for ATS, but at times can be a real chore for the Staff as well as the existing members.

Examples would be during the New York City so called Ground Zero Mosque Crisis a few months back, as a host of the new members turned out to be rabid anti-Muslim, pro-Israel minded posters, who joined in mass quite likely from another site, who weren’t to particular or keen to follow the ATS Terms of Service in their posting habits.

They would copy and paste to thread after thread the same debunked information, avoid intelligent questions and discourse as they engaged in methodical often coordinated efforts with one another to dominate the conversation, derail the thread, and deploy ad hominin attacks towards the posters who didn’t agree with them, or their information sources.

Most of them managed to get banned after being given a fair number of chances to clean up their act by the staff, but of course they made the posting environment a far less productive and more challenging one in their brief run.

What is Cognitive Infiltration?

Simply put, what I just described above, an organized group of politically motivated posters with an agenda, invading a site, in a coordinated effort to put their information out there and to try to discredit or diminish all other opinions, views, and sources of information in the process, and to discredit, frustrate, stymie, or otherwise manipulate posters opposed to their political agenda, or sources or tactics, into a emotional outburst that might result in them violating the terms of service agreements themselves and getting banned from posting.

Other well documented examples of organizations infiltrating sites, would be the group of neoconservative republicans who were using twitter to bury or promote news stories they didn’t like or like, and the well known Israeli Internet Defense Force.

Cass Sunstein would like to take this to a whole new level, by hiring people to basically post the government’s official story on everything, and to employ the above tactics and others to counter the threat of people with alternative views and opinions and sources of information from popularizing them, by bogging down the critical internet conversation process where they are popularized by conspiracy theorists and other critically minded people.

Let no Crisis go Wasted

Let’s face it the perpetrator of the heinous events in Arizona likely was a member of this site, and definitely posted a series of controversial videos on YouTube that have him labeled a conspiracy theorist.

You and I might be able to see such people for the anti-social sociopaths that they are, but that is not how it’s going to be sold to most of the public, or how most of the public is going to view it.

The notion that this person was influenced by alternative views, opinions and news sources, and that led to a psychotic break, and potentially can lead to a psychotic break in anyone who subscribes to alternative views, opinions and news sources, is what they are going to sell the public through the mainstream media and the politicians.

Why? Because it will allow them a favorable climate to officially do the next best thing to actual censorship and that’s cognitive infiltration.

People will reject the Internet being censored, or sites like ATS being shut down over the free speech clause, but in the emotional aftermath of a shooting that will probably leave a popular Arizona Congresswoman tragically babbling and drooling all over herself on the house floor when they pass a Internet Cognitive Infiltration Act it will be sold and viewed as the Government having the same right to free speech as every other person.

That might sound and come off as a bit tactless, but the truth is that is exactly what occured when the Congress passed the Brady Act in the wake of the failed assissination attempt on Ronald Regan that left James Brady shot through the head also, close to a wheel chair bound vegetable. They did wheel him on to the House Floor when they passed the Brady Act requiring all hand gun purchases be delayed three days from the time you purchase the gun, until you can take retail delivery of it, allowing for both background checks of the pruchaser and a 'cooling off' period for the buyer, in case they are buying the weapon to commit a crime of passion.

Let no good crisis go wasted.

So it’s likely coming, it’s been in the works, unofficially done in certain cases where public sentiment runs high like in the wake of G-20 protests, and many private groups have been doing it to push their causes for a while now.

New Members, New Posters, New Trends

I am relatively sure there has been a surge in membership in the past few days; I have seen a number of posts by people who just joined on 1/9 and 1/10.

Posts that prompted me to write this thread as a cautionary note, of what you might want to start being on the lookout for, posters dismissing any conspiracy out of hand, posters promoting the official story that runs contrary to a conspiracy, posters contemptuous of conspiracy minded people, may be in fact part of a cognitive infiltration effort by the government or ‘concerned’ private groups.

A Federal Judge has been murdered, a congresswoman critically wounded, and an aide, the Government is going to martial resources at it’s disposal to get a handle on what they in fact do know is a worsening problem.

They know that uncertain economic and political times breed frustrations and resentment towards the government.

We certainly have been through one of the worst economic slumps I have experience in my 46 years living here in America. The general distrust of big Government and big Business is at an all time high because of that.

The young like the alleged perpetrator of this incident are particularly hard hit, as desperate more experienced older workers; snap up the entry level jobs that the young would normally fill. Youth unemployment is particularly high and many are chronically unemployed as a result. Unlike older workers who often have up to 99 weeks of unemployment to draw on, younger adults with no prior work history don’t. With bleak economic opportunities facing them, along with an uncertain world, and the brashness that often comes with youth fueling them, a mounting crisis is potentially developing for the government, and while there is no trend here as of yet, when someone carries out an act this bold and brazen and egregious against the government the government is sure to respond.

Why we are Entering a Dangerous Period as a Result

In the wake of 9-11, the TSA has quickly grown to a monster, in large part once again piggy backing off the crisis of 9-11, many Americans are prepared to give up liberties at the airports because it’s not to hard to see themselves as a victim too on something as a vulnerable and precarious as a metal box with wings hurdling through the sky thousands of feet off the ground at hundreds of miles an hour.

The potential threat is real enough to them to endure some indignities and inconveniences to enhance their desire to be secure and safe in the passage.

Congress people and Judges are now going to believe a real threat exists to them too, and guess what, they are the ones that make the laws and impose them and rule on them.

While conspiracy theorists are often derided and teased about being paranoid, our Congress People and Judges might soon be the most paranoid people in town as a result of this.

Unlike conspiracy theorists, these people can take and make concrete steps and actions to alleviate their paranoia.

I would bet dollars to donuts that our friend Cass Sunstein is going to not miss this opportunity, and Cognitive Infiltration is likely ready to officially arrive in the wake of this.

No, they won’t shut down ATS, no, they won’t censor the Internet but I highly suggest to be prepared for the newest member of ATS…

Big Brother

Information is power, and controlling the flow of information and how people view and react to it, is critical in forming the societal constructs that form social behaviors amongst groups.

The Government and Big Mainstream Media has lost a lot of ground as alternative news sources have sprung up across the Internet, tragically for them during a period where they have pushed and implemented a lot of controversial acts like the Patriot and Homeland Security Acts, the Bailouts and Obama Care.

It’s been a rougher ride for them than they would have liked, a ride that for what ever tragic reason is turning deadly for Agents of the Government, and it’s Political Officials.

They not only have wanted to cognitively infiltrate these sites, they know they need to if they are going to keep the upper hand and a firm grasp on power moving forward.

They have just needed an opportunity to do so.

I believe that opportunity has arrived, Big Brother, might be posting in a thread along with you soon.

A year ago I was the first to break the story here on ATS regarding Sunstein's ambitions, in this ATS Thread:

www.abovetopsecret.com...

I do believe now presents the perfect opportunity for the Government to implement this, something we all might want to consider, study and review and be on the look out moving forward.

It's an excellent opportunity for them for sure. We know they can and will use this to spread their agenda items and try to control the collective consciousness.

But it's an opportunity for us too...a big one, as this is one of the last bastions for true investigation and free thought, no matter how off-the-wall or random it may appear at times as we work through these kind of events digging for possibilities and the truth and to deny ignorance. An opportunity to let them know we know, eh? Thanks for this.

[A point of clarity...the Tucson shooter may or may not have been a member of this site. We have to remember this has not been confirmed yet by any means.]

As a new member but having been reading through the site for the last few years I agree with you wholeheartedly with everything said. I think in the end its comes down to, just as you stated, having evidence and just being as logical and rational as you can about everything that is presented. I have my beliefs but still read as much as I can because there is so much disinformation. It all comes down to just being logical and using common sense and open minded. If everyone did that their threads wouldn't become dominated by those that wish to dominate it and steer the topic to their agenda.

Well, you said that new posters will also be dismissive of most conspiracys...and that sounds about right actually. A person coming here may be interested initially in maybe one or two conspiracys, then faced with the sheer amount of conspiracys on everything here, will sound red faced and denying. This doesn't make them infiltration anymore than someone coming on here and adding 400 new conspiracys a day is.

As far as trying to get people sniped through emotional responses, well, the terms of service here is structured in such a way that the troll will end up with the ban well before their target.

And burying the storys with nonsense...meh, this is common already...you will find especially around elections that if a story comes out about something against a political party here, you will quickly see about 15 new posts go up in record time right after. Many of those posters are now for the most part inactive except for some token posts now and then..maintenance..but will reactivate in a year or so...whenever the new election season starts, still, I find even those paid marketing agents to be amusing to talk to and rip down...its like talking to a stone wall mind you, but its never really about changing their opinion verses show them up for what they are.

Finally..ATS has been open for many years now...and in that time, consider how many wacky domestic terrorist attacks happened...this is fresh on the mind, but it is certainly nothing new.

So in other words...

Welcome to ATS new members...we're on to you...we don't trust you...we will be watching you...and we know you are a government dis-info agent



Yah...that helps the image of ATS...

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


Great points.On the other side of the coin. I wonder once they start reading the site and what it contains, how many of them will be converted and start seeking truth

ah yes.. good times. well presented, and for that I flag you. if they were smart at all, they would have joined weeks in advance. surely they saw this coming.. it seemed like a well choreographed pop dance..

enjoy

reply to post by ~Lucidity

It's an excellent opportunity for them for sure. We know they can and will use this to spread their agenda items and try to control the collective consciousness.

Cognitive Infiltration would be the sensible response by policy makers in the wake of this. The government and the Powers that Be then to like to start out small with systems that they can expand on and enhance in slow incremental non-alarming ways.

Getting Cognitive Infiltration Agents legally in the door is the first step, from there like the TSA their powers can be gradually enhanced and modified over time to better reach the government's key goals.

A lot of peaceful law abiding Americans might support such a first step in the wake of such a tragedy, and that's the real concern here, because we all know the government relentlessly expands itself and it's mandates once given.

But it's an opportunity for us too...a big one, as this is one of the last bastion's for true investigation and free thought, no matter how off-the-wall or random it may appear at times as we work through these kind of events digging for possibilities and the truth and to deny ignorance. An opportunity to let them know we know, eh? Thanks for this.

I agree and because we might soon find a cadre of new members skirting the Terms of Service and challenging us in ways that might be hard on the ego or patience, extra patience and care is needed in continuing to put forth rational and intelligent alternatives to the 'official story'.

Forewarned is forearmed!

[A point of clarity...the Tucson shooter may or may not have been a member of this site. We have to remember this has not been confirmed yet by any means.]

I took care to point out that the alleged perpetrator might not have been a member, to date I don't think it's been proven, but the accusation has been made oddly enough not in the mainstream media, but on alternative news sources of information, and once that accusation is made, it's likely to stick in some people's minds, even if proven false.

Regardless this person is being viewed as a conspiracy theorist with alternative views on the government and the Federal Reserve, as part of his charachter, which I think we can all agree is a tragically flawed and dangerous one.

Even if he was the worst conspiracy theorist in the world, with theories no one would adopt or view as credible, the label conspiracy theorist is likely to be used as a connotation of someone who poses an enhanced security risk.

Thanks for sharing my friend.

Ah yes ATS a place to deny ignorance, but also a place of much deceit, tread lightly my friends.

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


As always, very well-said, my friend.


I too have noticed the influx of new membership in the days following the shooting tragedy, as I am sure many of our ATS membership has. There was one in particular (who shall remain nameless) that was either a very good troll, or a professional disinfo agent. I'm sure there will be others to follow in this person's footsteps, and we will just have to keep a good eye out, keep our wits about us, and back up everything we say with just a little more concrete information.

The best that we can do is to know the tell-tale signs of trolls/disinfo agents/letter agents/et al. Many of them are getting desperate, and they will almost always make the first mistake (as long as our more hot headed members don't jump in first).

You've said everything that I could say on this topic, so thank you for your words and thoughts. I hope some of the new members will take a look at this thread. The information and words you have provided might avoid them an unnecessary banhammer on the noggin.



Peace be with you.

-truthseeker

reply to post by SaturnFX

Well, you said that new posters will also be dismissive of most conspiracys...and that sounds about right actually. A person coming here may be interested initially in maybe one or two conspiracys, then faced with the sheer amount of conspiracys on everything here, will sound red faced and denying. This doesn't make them infiltration anymore than someone coming on here and adding 400 new conspiracys a day is.

I agree completely and almost included a reference in the opening post to what I call "Conspiracy Theory 101" where we see the novice come in with some 6 year old bit of information on 9-11, or some other popular conspiracy and post it like they are bringing it to the world the very first time.

A lot of these people are skeptical of some of the more diverse yet very popular conspiracies discussed on the site.

Like I said I am not advocating paranoia, but caution, to simply not let people 'testing' you, for what ever reason, get the best of you in your exchanges to the point that you might react in a way that violates the Terms of Service.

The posting environment might simply become more challenging. Presently ATS would ban anyone government agent or not that violates the Terms of Service repeaditively over a short period. So for the moment we have little to really fear, or adjust too.

However if a Cognitive Infilitration Act is passed, "Official" Cognitive Infiltration Agents likely not only won't be hiding that they are there/here to post the 'Official Story' but might in fact be legally protected from being banned.

Very much like you can't insist Law Enforcement can't invade some public and private domains.

Finally..ATS has been open for many years now...and in that time, consider how many wacky domestic terrorist attacks happened...this is fresh on the mind, but it is certainly nothing new.

No the event is not new, Sunstein's thinking and theories and plans for Cognitive Infiltration are new though.

So I don't think it's wise to just dismiss the very real possibility out of hand.

Please keep in mind that this particular act was not carried out against the citizenry but the Government itself. This basically tasks and forces the Government with the need to exude some kind of real and strong response.

People on average our outraged by these senseless acts of violence, and the Government's main role in most citizen's eyes is to provide security and formulate responses to make sure tragedies like this don't reoccur.

Dismiss it out of hand if you want, but I don't believe the Government will, and I do believe that this ultimately is going to be their response.

Enough so to take the time to publish a thread, because I like the Government believe no good crisis should go unwasted!

I unlike the government am sacrificing a beautiful 80 degree beach day to do this.

The sacrifices I make for this planet, I tell you!

Thanks for posting.

reply to post by 11PB11


That's an excellent point and something we should all strive for. The end result of an investigation of an incident isn't always sexy or chock full of intrigue. Sometimes things are just what they are. And while a lot of random incidents often do turn out to be related and we should consider every possibility no matter how insane it may appear to us, Staying on topic, organization, logic, and clarity of thought along with thoughtful and insightful challenges and open and honest discussion both gets us where we need to go 99% of the time and usually prevails, while at the same time weeds out the infiltrators with conflicting agendas quite well.

Originally posted by OutKast Searcher
So in other words...

Welcome to ATS new members...we're on to you...we don't trust you...we will be watching you...and we know you are a government dis-info agent

Yah...that helps the image of ATS...

Actually when it comes to some outcast posters we have been on to them for a while now!



But honestly if that's how you want to paraphrase the opening post, I don't believe you have done your research on Cass Sunstein his published Book calling for Cognitive Infiltration of the Internet by the Government, his popularity within the Obama White House, and how the government usually makes hay to push a new agenda and new laws in the wake of a crisis where the atmosphere becomes more favorable as a result.

I believe I have pointed out credible examples of previous infiltrations by private groups and some tell tale things to be on the look out for to spot potential occurences.

Now do you really believe you are being fair by not fairly considering what is a well published desire, on behalf of a high ranking White House Official and Presidential Appointee?

reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler


Yep. Agreed. In a way this White House did us a favor by admitting they're psyched by cognitive infiltration. Past administrations have all done it but not with this much transparency. It validates a lot of what we've all known and been saying here for years.

[Also, that point of clarity about the shooter maybe or maybe not being a member is just something that's really irking me, and yes, you did take pains to make it clear and I didn't mean to imply otherwise...I was just reinforcing it in my own feeble little way.]

Not only was your post extremely well thought out and very well written,but I have to wonder if big brother isn't already here in other ways as well. I had a script that was running when I was on another site, so I stopped it but before I did, I took a screen shot of it. I am using Mozilla Firefox and at the end of the "stop script" message it said...........Google.thoughtcrime.org. Can anyone tell me what that is about?

Excellent OP Proto, as usual. S&F
I'd like to add something though.

Originally posted by ProtoplasmicTraveler
Sunstein’s theory is that people prone to believe in and investigate conspiracies become more or less ‘isolated’ on sites like ATS and end up developing opinions and views by over reliance on too few sources of information, where to be fair to the premise of the theory, the information being put forth is poorly researched, or deliberately incomplete to paint a false and misleading picture.

Rememeber these threads?

Obama "visit" to India costs 200 million. Per day.

34 warships sent from US for Obama visit

They were misreported by numerous MSM outlets (for political gains, no doubt), not just conspiracy themed websites, and many tried to tie it all into the Nuclear False Flag Thread in Three Days.

To add to Sunstein’s theory I'd like to ask if perhaps the traditional news outlets may also be to blame for feeding conspiracy fires? Either inadvertently or on purpose?

Originally posted by Bonified Ween
reply to post by ProtoplasmicTraveler

 

Great points.On the other side of the coin. I wonder once they start reading the site and what it contains, how many of them will be converted and start seeking truth

There are quite a few Law Enforcement Officials who are members of the site voluntarily and not as an official part of their job.

In the wake of the G-20 in Pittsburgh a year ago, some of the rhetoric became quite heated on ATS about the heavy handed crowd control tactics. I must confess I was particularly perturbed as I was originally born in Pittsburgh and took real offense at what the Government and Police did on the streets of my home town.

A member who had been a member for a good while but never posted out of the blue posted to one of the threads I had authored, and posting too, identifying himself as a high ranking FBI Agent of a supervisory capacity, and both cautioned and questioned me at length here in that thread as to what my ultimate ambitions or remedies were in response to the event.

He cautioned me, by telling me point blank, that what I write here on ATS travels much further and influences far more people than I likely imagine. At the time I was somewhat skeptical and dismissive of that notion, but since then I have come to realize he is write. Many of my major conspiracy threads are republished on other sites across the world and prompt lively discussions I don't know about or take part in.

His message was clear, make sure my message is clear, because my message might have a far greater impact than I might consider.

Now two things occured to me, one is that he definately knew I was more popular than I did, and two, that popularity does cause some concern.

So I point all this out for two reasons. Law Enforecement is on ATS on a voluntary basis, as just regular members, but a cop is a cop 24 hours a day, even when they are off, they are still thinking and often acting like they would while on the 'job'.

Two is while they voluntarily enjoy the site on a membership level, and no doubt learn things and gain critical and valuable insights into the workings of the human mind while on the site, they are partially of the opinion that these sites and some of the people on them represent a real danger in their minds.

A danger that I do believe the Government would be remiss if it didn't attempt to curb or check.

Situational Awareness is an important and critical part of navigating the world, understanding the true nature of the environment and situation one is exposed to, then becomes an important part of conducting yourself well.

This thread is a cautionary note to pay more attention to what might be a rapidly changing environment.

Thanks for posting.

reply to post by 2minutewarning

hahahaha

ur funny

Originally posted by OutKast Searcher
So in other words...

Welcome to ATS new members...we're on to you...we don't trust you...we will be watching you...and we know you are a government dis-info agent

Yah...that helps the image of ATS..

Okay you got me...now..what ? .....should i terminate your isp or purposely slow your connection down to the point of mental frustration just so we can have a . No ill do neither of the two, ill simply allow you to dwell into the thought of, what if ? , who ? , is he/she really one the " them ?"

As for the Proto, excuse my language, but damn well thought out post, greatly appreciate reading it. Although the obvious is obvious and sure some will visit and some will hibernate, it is a matter of protocol, but the fact is, one must be questioning what ever he or she reads within the web.

Sadly and as obvious as you pointed out, threads with occasional links without the research is a somewhat but not such a common event here. The great thing, many mods or active researches do eventually walk into the threads and replace insanity with sanity.

Good Thread.

reply to post by truthseeker1984

I too have noticed the influx of new membership in the days following the shooting tragedy, as I am sure many of our ATS membership has. There was one in particular (who shall remain nameless) that was either a very good troll, or a professional disinfo agent. I'm sure there will be others to follow in this person's footsteps, and we will just have to keep a good eye out, keep our wits about us, and back up everything we say with just a little more concrete information.

Thanks my friend.

I would like to make it clear, that new members are good for the site and good for all of us, especially those of us with theories and opinions we want to share with others.

This isn't about just blindly being suspicious of new members, or unwelcoming to them, it's about the fact that not everyone is necessarily an honest or open minded poster.

There are a lot of agenda driven posters on the site, spend any time here regularly and that becomes obvious.

But there is a real difference between someone who is passionate about an issue, a cause, a religion, a war, a belief, and people paid to promote it using tactics that aren't always pleasant, fair, or open minded.

I do believe it's a reasonable assumption that we might see a real influx of posters who want to use cognitive infiltration on the site, and I believe there is a real possibility we might see some new laws calling for it, and making it official in the not too distant future.

Thanks for posting, great to read your thoughts as always my friend.