Michael Shellenberger, Alex Gutentag and Matt Taibbi have continued their reporting on the “Censorship Industrial Complex” with a new piece on an odious organisation called the Cyber Threat Intelligence (CTI) League. Their revelations provide fresh details about the early history of the public-private campaign to censor the internet in the wake of the 2016 presidential election, and I have to say that this is one of the most amazing and bizarre stories I have ever encountered.
Also, while I guess there must be some real Sara-Jayne’s out there (with spelling variations), there are a lot of us Who hear the name and think (fondly) of “Dr. Who” companion Sarah Jane Smith. That also rings false to me.
Maybe she adopted the Sara-Jayne for/from MI6 and the Terp for/from the CIA, in a gesture of transatlantic spook comity.
Now another reason to be ashamed of my degree from that great bastion of learning located in the beautiful burb of College Park, Maryland (where the mayor was just sentenced to many years in prison for possessing child porn).
You jest, but it's important to bare in mind: these people are genuinely crazy. Not schizophrenic-crazy; their brains work well enough---but religious fanatic-crazy. They really believe they're doing the Lord's work by combating Trump and the phantasmagorical forces which brought him to power. And they care not a whit about the principles undergirding freedom of speech. Fanatics never do.
I believe most of them understood in 2016 after Brexit and the Trump election that there was a realistic chance that they would be exposed and tried for treason. My anonymous friends did their best to help Assange, Snowden, et al. to expose them. Some of it may be religious conviction and some of them worship demons. But Podestas and Clintons and Bidens and Obamas and Bushes and Cheneys know what they done. And know that we know. They're afraid.
A lot to digest and re-read, but sadly none of it surprising in the slightest, given that total control of the internet has been a US/British goal since it was first made available to the wider public in the 1990s.
A minor point or two and not sound trite or pick nits but:
There's no such thing as former intelligence official, agent or officer. If someone has ever done work for or belonged to such an agency, it must always be assumed they may be part of that agency whatever they do. As with a criminal gang or the mafia, there's no real "out"; the group in question can always decide you "owe" them and they will always retain a way to pressure you into doing their bidding even if you genuinely wanted out and to be done with it all.
The hubbub about "misinformation" started because all Russia (Russia Today, mainly) had to do was report selected embarassing facts about the US, UK, EU and the rest of the West - that is the sticking point in the crow of the people you describe and even moreso their owners:
So much was wrong, corrupted, broken, subverted or simply wrong according to the people of the4 various western nations that russian propaganda just had to report truths.
Imagine the sense of outrage when they discovered that.
Sort-of example:
When US journalist Tim Pool visited Sweden, he was called a right-wing christian-conservative white-supremacist extremist by regime and state media, and was roundly villified and talked about - yet no swedish journalists would engage with him directly, nor refute any of his arguements, observations or his reporting.
The reason being, he visited areas of Sweden where you can get attacked on-sight for being white, or jewish should you be so stupid as to wear a star of David openly.
He simply had to show the truth.
You can fight propaganda with the truth, and the truth with propaganda, but what do you do when the propaganda is truth?
Censorship is the only path left. That or actually fixing the real and actual problems.
Term is an oxymoron. Clezr from time British 'intelligence' castrated Turing and cauaed his despair and suicide. The aim is not a positive one.Terp appears ... to be male.
A bit of a challenge - that. Given that acknowledging that problems exist seems to be verboten; and that discussion thereof is a criminal offense in many jurisdictions.
And of course, there are NO recorded instances in human history of a government voluntarily choosing to actually fix problems. It seems highly improbable that there are ANY governments in today's world that would choose to be first.
So we're stuck with censorship. (Which governments seem to be very willing to do!)
I think it's more likely that Terp is bigging herself up, and once worked on a paper that had some MoD funding. Like half the people I went to university with.
Oh yeah, padding papers! It was almost a formal subject in its own right when I was a student myself.
"Has experience with real-life applications of anti-intruder tactics, crowd pattern recognition and using behavioural psychology to defuse potentially hostile situations"
The next time you're paying taxes, remember that these people get hundreds of millions of dollars, for free, and if you try to do anything about it, they'll fuckin' shoot you for tax evasion
Jesus Christ. It's like the Soviet Cheka, except run by clueless, highly concerned, purple-haired schoolmarms. Imagine dedicating your career to fighting the national security threat of frogs on Twitter
Uhhm...go ahead and look the chiefs of the Cheka and later NKWD up. All of them were disgusting freaks as well. It was an asset. They were expendable and disliked by all around them. Except that Stalin did choose them on purpose to strengthen his own power, in the West it is just the consequence of low infant mortality and high mutational load I'd say.
The more I read about the ineptitude of these people, the more I kind of understand why they feel threatened, and the more I consider they need to be crushed.
The convoluted over-analysis these people indulged in really takes the censorship absurdity to a whole new level. It prompts the obvious question: Wouldn't it be easier to just assemble a coherent and compelling argument supporting their "side" of any particular issue? Convince people of the "rightness" of your position the old-fashioned way?
Clearly the people advocating censorship have given up on fighting perceived falsehoods with good strong doses of truth. It is perceived as being much easier to just make their opponents STFU.
And this thing about the Russians--I know most of what now passes for the power structure wants THE PUBLIC to believe that all these anti-establishment narratives are being flogged by Russian-sympathetic players, But seriously--do these people actually believe that themselves? If it really is the Russians, how come they are doing so much better at influencing the public than you are?
This is a class of person who finds opposing views inconceivable. This is not open debate. It is not an exchange of ideas in a public forum.
These people believe they have the truth. Any deviation from this is then false. And doing God's work means minimizing the spread of falsehood. This is their line of reasoning.
I would argue they cannot be reasoned with, only stopped. Alternatively meme them into submission 🤓
"It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop... ever, until you are dead!"
They do (says I as a "refugee" from the humanities), but they look at it like this:
If they present you with their opinion/arguement/statement of fact, all these three are one and the same. If you contest it, you are either evil, stupid or fooled by someone else. That they could be wrong objectively speaking, or that you have a different opinion doesn't exist as an option.
If you contest it with demonstrable, testable facts (f.e. stating that there are only two sexes among humans, XX and XY - female and male), to them it is still as outline above.
That's the main difference - you and me and Spiff could debate say the importance of the Kalmar Union in the rise of Russia as a power, using historical sources to try and prove our angle the most correct one - but we would also all be open to learn from the pther two participants, because learning more is a good thing to us; being proven wrong means we have improved ourselves.
The woke, to use that term, can't do that. To them, their opinion and personality and ego and so on are all one single thing. Therefore, any one thing not affirming or approving what they say is a direct attack upon them as a person.
And that means they are incapable of learning how to be wrong.
(Sorry to blather on a bit, but this is a topic very "near and dear" to me, so I just couldn't resist.)
„To them, their opinion and personality and ego and so on are all one single thing. Therefore, any one thing not affirming or approving what they say is a direct attack upon them as a person.“
What caused them to be like that? Do you think it has anything to do with their personal traits or mental health?
Agree with your summation - the woke, and most other religious fanatics, are incapable of accepting the validity of any point of view other than their own. Any deviance from their belief structure is perceived, as you pointed out, as an attack. And as absolute proof that the person expressing that contrary opinion is insane, or evil, or both.
Cyber Threat Intelligence League. Sheesh, sounds like a Marvel Comics construction. And that good guy/bad guy thing Twerp kept spouting.... Are there any adults left in the fucking room?
ETA: The name Sarah-Jane is a heads up. Peer at 'her' closely and tell me if that is truly a middle aged woman. The purple hair and teddy bear at cons is another tell.
I also thought that about the choice of "league" Literary and comic book superheroes and rogues. Isn't there a Sherlock Holmes league? Grandiose, always true of the Dunning-Kruger people. I'm not sure I believe in Ms. Twerp, although the number of women who look demented and wide eyed on the internet, that NY governor, is getting larger. But I think of this fake Covid and Coffee outted earlier this year.
The sticky-note satire is absolutely hilarious, though, so understated and ironic, and such a perfect symbol of the moonbat managerial vainglorious Dunning-Kruger class.
They often use Marvel Comics and Harry Potter like constructions and references. That fits in very well with their entire "we are good and all our opponents are bad" worldview.
This is fantastic news. At some level we all imagine some kind of MI6/NSA BlackOps thing that we need to genuinely fear. Whereas it seems to be a group of tech dropouts using Agile techniques to feel good about their fictional knowledge. The existence of cheap post-it notes is not a good sign either. The real ones stick very well.
Here is the view from the UK. Brexit shook them to the core. The elites were seriously put out. However they are somewhat realistic about power. The minions were aghast. It was evident they could not process what had happened.
Prior to the vote the chattering classes were content to believe the only people who hated the EU were white trash racists, a comfortably small subgroup most of whom were too drunk to vote in elections and would probably find the complexity of a referendum completely beyond their ken.
Not so. And after the vote they evidently could not understand this different world view. Normal people like doctors and scientists who wanted to end immigration and return their nation's sovereignty.
Sara Jayne Terp cannot process this. She will sincerely believe this could only happen with nefarious actors manipulating things behind the scenes. These are the midwits, and now they are our censors.
Women's creative endeavours are typically stuck at the arts and crafts level, hence the post-it note jamboree.
Agile, when done well, works well. But I have found even one female in the team kills it. They need too much reassurance so you lose the independent terrorist cell mentality where someone just works on a story as they see fit. Doesn't work with the ladies in my experience.
I strongly suspect these people are true believers. I think they do see nefarious actors around every corner. They cannot conceive of opposing opinions sincerely held. The British woman will be appalled by Brexit and unable to accept a majority of her countrymen have a different view.
What is "Sara-Jayne Terp's" real name? You do know that she was at University of Maryland ("Go Terps"), right?
no i do not know my way around many american schools, this fairly intriguing, thank you.
"The Terps" is the nickname of the Maryland Terrapins. Terrapins are turtles. So once again it's turtles all the way down.
Also, while I guess there must be some real Sara-Jayne’s out there (with spelling variations), there are a lot of us Who hear the name and think (fondly) of “Dr. Who” companion Sarah Jane Smith. That also rings false to me.
Maybe she adopted the Sara-Jayne for/from MI6 and the Terp for/from the CIA, in a gesture of transatlantic spook comity.
I would also be very interested to learn the answer to this question.
Now another reason to be ashamed of my degree from that great bastion of learning located in the beautiful burb of College Park, Maryland (where the mayor was just sentenced to many years in prison for possessing child porn).
*He. That's a dude, come on, and "Sarah Jayne Terp" is an attempt at cosplaying a geeky comic book heroine.
Tech is full of these types.
Shrink: Is the Russian interference here in the room with us now?
You jest, but it's important to bare in mind: these people are genuinely crazy. Not schizophrenic-crazy; their brains work well enough---but religious fanatic-crazy. They really believe they're doing the Lord's work by combating Trump and the phantasmagorical forces which brought him to power. And they care not a whit about the principles undergirding freedom of speech. Fanatics never do.
bear :) been happening in bunches lately.
Damnit. I wrote "bear" first and thought, that can't be right. Trust your instincts, kids.
bear? That's what the Russians would write...
On the off chance this comments section is the future of language and culture.
Lol. God help us...
I believe most of them understood in 2016 after Brexit and the Trump election that there was a realistic chance that they would be exposed and tried for treason. My anonymous friends did their best to help Assange, Snowden, et al. to expose them. Some of it may be religious conviction and some of them worship demons. But Podestas and Clintons and Bidens and Obamas and Bushes and Cheneys know what they done. And know that we know. They're afraid.
Patient: Can't you feel it? Those post-it notes on the whiteboard practically seethe with it.
No, that's the Chinese.
A lot to digest and re-read, but sadly none of it surprising in the slightest, given that total control of the internet has been a US/British goal since it was first made available to the wider public in the 1990s.
A minor point or two and not sound trite or pick nits but:
There's no such thing as former intelligence official, agent or officer. If someone has ever done work for or belonged to such an agency, it must always be assumed they may be part of that agency whatever they do. As with a criminal gang or the mafia, there's no real "out"; the group in question can always decide you "owe" them and they will always retain a way to pressure you into doing their bidding even if you genuinely wanted out and to be done with it all.
The hubbub about "misinformation" started because all Russia (Russia Today, mainly) had to do was report selected embarassing facts about the US, UK, EU and the rest of the West - that is the sticking point in the crow of the people you describe and even moreso their owners:
So much was wrong, corrupted, broken, subverted or simply wrong according to the people of the4 various western nations that russian propaganda just had to report truths.
Imagine the sense of outrage when they discovered that.
Sort-of example:
When US journalist Tim Pool visited Sweden, he was called a right-wing christian-conservative white-supremacist extremist by regime and state media, and was roundly villified and talked about - yet no swedish journalists would engage with him directly, nor refute any of his arguements, observations or his reporting.
The reason being, he visited areas of Sweden where you can get attacked on-sight for being white, or jewish should you be so stupid as to wear a star of David openly.
He simply had to show the truth.
You can fight propaganda with the truth, and the truth with propaganda, but what do you do when the propaganda is truth?
Censorship is the only path left. That or actually fixing the real and actual problems.
Yes, no such thing as a former intelligence officer, I use the term loosely
Term is an oxymoron. Clezr from time British 'intelligence' castrated Turing and cauaed his despair and suicide. The aim is not a positive one.Terp appears ... to be male.
"or actually fixing the real and actual problems"
A bit of a challenge - that. Given that acknowledging that problems exist seems to be verboten; and that discussion thereof is a criminal offense in many jurisdictions.
And of course, there are NO recorded instances in human history of a government voluntarily choosing to actually fix problems. It seems highly improbable that there are ANY governments in today's world that would choose to be first.
So we're stuck with censorship. (Which governments seem to be very willing to do!)
I think it's more likely that Terp is bigging herself up, and once worked on a paper that had some MoD funding. Like half the people I went to university with.
Oh yeah, padding papers! It was almost a formal subject in its own right when I was a student myself.
"Has experience with real-life applications of anti-intruder tactics, crowd pattern recognition and using behavioural psychology to defuse potentially hostile situations"
I.E, I had worked extra as a door-man, once.
The next time you're paying taxes, remember that these people get hundreds of millions of dollars, for free, and if you try to do anything about it, they'll fuckin' shoot you for tax evasion
Fines for mistakes, prison for evasion.
And what happens when you don't want to go to prison?
You invest in advance in politicians and prosecutors and judges, and let them have advisory seats on the boards of your businesses?
Terp looks like the generative AI output of “derp”
I call her 'Twerp'.
I believe the correct spelling is Twerp. 😝😁
Needs more herp
That photo! LOL!
She has those eyes.
And the winner of the All-Platforms Comment of the Year….
Jesus Christ. It's like the Soviet Cheka, except run by clueless, highly concerned, purple-haired schoolmarms. Imagine dedicating your career to fighting the national security threat of frogs on Twitter
Watch out Jits, or you'll end up on one of their blue sticky notes!
Clear evidence of Type 42B, subtype L. Dangerous bunch.
Uhhm...go ahead and look the chiefs of the Cheka and later NKWD up. All of them were disgusting freaks as well. It was an asset. They were expendable and disliked by all around them. Except that Stalin did choose them on purpose to strengthen his own power, in the West it is just the consequence of low infant mortality and high mutational load I'd say.
The more I read about the ineptitude of these people, the more I kind of understand why they feel threatened, and the more I consider they need to be crushed.
Terp? My first thought was "how Dickensian." Then I saw her picture and...wow.
She looks like Lauterbach's evil twin sister.
And, also, if she's British, why is it any of her business whom we in the US elect as president? MYOB, lady. Y'all lost.
Aren't you keeping up? Washington was a Russian stooge. So she thinks the US is hers, lol.
GW was a French stooge; Abraham Lincoln was a Tsarist stooge.
Maybe because "she" is a he...
'Jaye rape trans' is an anagram of her name so you may have a point!
The convoluted over-analysis these people indulged in really takes the censorship absurdity to a whole new level. It prompts the obvious question: Wouldn't it be easier to just assemble a coherent and compelling argument supporting their "side" of any particular issue? Convince people of the "rightness" of your position the old-fashioned way?
Clearly the people advocating censorship have given up on fighting perceived falsehoods with good strong doses of truth. It is perceived as being much easier to just make their opponents STFU.
And this thing about the Russians--I know most of what now passes for the power structure wants THE PUBLIC to believe that all these anti-establishment narratives are being flogged by Russian-sympathetic players, But seriously--do these people actually believe that themselves? If it really is the Russians, how come they are doing so much better at influencing the public than you are?
This is a class of person who finds opposing views inconceivable. This is not open debate. It is not an exchange of ideas in a public forum.
These people believe they have the truth. Any deviation from this is then false. And doing God's work means minimizing the spread of falsehood. This is their line of reasoning.
I would argue they cannot be reasoned with, only stopped. Alternatively meme them into submission 🤓
"It can't be bargained with. It can't be reasoned with. It doesn't feel pity, or remorse, or fear. And it absolutely will not stop... ever, until you are dead!"
Kyle Reese, sgt. tech-com,
A classic. And too close for comfort. There is something T-800 about her.
Or cut off their Scotch Tape supply-chains.
I don't disagree, but I'll bet they tell themselves the same thing.
They do (says I as a "refugee" from the humanities), but they look at it like this:
If they present you with their opinion/arguement/statement of fact, all these three are one and the same. If you contest it, you are either evil, stupid or fooled by someone else. That they could be wrong objectively speaking, or that you have a different opinion doesn't exist as an option.
If you contest it with demonstrable, testable facts (f.e. stating that there are only two sexes among humans, XX and XY - female and male), to them it is still as outline above.
That's the main difference - you and me and Spiff could debate say the importance of the Kalmar Union in the rise of Russia as a power, using historical sources to try and prove our angle the most correct one - but we would also all be open to learn from the pther two participants, because learning more is a good thing to us; being proven wrong means we have improved ourselves.
The woke, to use that term, can't do that. To them, their opinion and personality and ego and so on are all one single thing. Therefore, any one thing not affirming or approving what they say is a direct attack upon them as a person.
And that means they are incapable of learning how to be wrong.
(Sorry to blather on a bit, but this is a topic very "near and dear" to me, so I just couldn't resist.)
„To them, their opinion and personality and ego and so on are all one single thing. Therefore, any one thing not affirming or approving what they say is a direct attack upon them as a person.“
What caused them to be like that? Do you think it has anything to do with their personal traits or mental health?
Agree with your summation - the woke, and most other religious fanatics, are incapable of accepting the validity of any point of view other than their own. Any deviance from their belief structure is perceived, as you pointed out, as an attack. And as absolute proof that the person expressing that contrary opinion is insane, or evil, or both.
Terp looks like a local troon.
A failed one (as they all are).
Must you insult the trans community? I mean really 😜
Cyber Threat Intelligence League. Sheesh, sounds like a Marvel Comics construction. And that good guy/bad guy thing Twerp kept spouting.... Are there any adults left in the fucking room?
ETA: The name Sarah-Jane is a heads up. Peer at 'her' closely and tell me if that is truly a middle aged woman. The purple hair and teddy bear at cons is another tell.
Should have been Cyber League Intelligence Threat, yeah?
"Coming Spring of 2024 - Brie Larsen as Mandy Terp, agent of C.L.I.T."
LOL!
I also thought that about the choice of "league" Literary and comic book superheroes and rogues. Isn't there a Sherlock Holmes league? Grandiose, always true of the Dunning-Kruger people. I'm not sure I believe in Ms. Twerp, although the number of women who look demented and wide eyed on the internet, that NY governor, is getting larger. But I think of this fake Covid and Coffee outted earlier this year.
https://www.coffeeandcovid.com/p/doctor-honey-do-friday-january-6
The sticky-note satire is absolutely hilarious, though, so understated and ironic, and such a perfect symbol of the moonbat managerial vainglorious Dunning-Kruger class.
They often use Marvel Comics and Harry Potter like constructions and references. That fits in very well with their entire "we are good and all our opponents are bad" worldview.
I think it's a bloke as well.
Sarah-Jane (and it's variants, derived probably from Dr. Who) is a very popular adopted name in certain circles. I always look twice when I hear it.
"Sarah-Jane Baker" for example is a trans activist that was arrested earlier this year for threatening women at a UK pride rally
This is fantastic news. At some level we all imagine some kind of MI6/NSA BlackOps thing that we need to genuinely fear. Whereas it seems to be a group of tech dropouts using Agile techniques to feel good about their fictional knowledge. The existence of cheap post-it notes is not a good sign either. The real ones stick very well.
Here is the view from the UK. Brexit shook them to the core. The elites were seriously put out. However they are somewhat realistic about power. The minions were aghast. It was evident they could not process what had happened.
Prior to the vote the chattering classes were content to believe the only people who hated the EU were white trash racists, a comfortably small subgroup most of whom were too drunk to vote in elections and would probably find the complexity of a referendum completely beyond their ken.
Not so. And after the vote they evidently could not understand this different world view. Normal people like doctors and scientists who wanted to end immigration and return their nation's sovereignty.
Sara Jayne Terp cannot process this. She will sincerely believe this could only happen with nefarious actors manipulating things behind the scenes. These are the midwits, and now they are our censors.
Agile, Waterfall, Gantt charts, Scrum - I wish we could drop all this nonsense and go back to gut instinct like real men!
Women's creative endeavours are typically stuck at the arts and crafts level, hence the post-it note jamboree.
Agile, when done well, works well. But I have found even one female in the team kills it. They need too much reassurance so you lose the independent terrorist cell mentality where someone just works on a story as they see fit. Doesn't work with the ladies in my experience.
"Sarah Jayne" is a guy. Probably used the post-its to appear more cutesy and feminine
Pure Marxist evil, can't win the argument so they have to cheat.
I strongly suspect these people are true believers. I think they do see nefarious actors around every corner. They cannot conceive of opposing opinions sincerely held. The British woman will be appalled by Brexit and unable to accept a majority of her countrymen have a different view.
tl;dr: Our civilization is being run by a Cargo Cult.
I know you meant this to be a serious post, but you really had me in stitches.
This sounds like something middle school kids would come up with to play in their tree house.
I wonder what technique mocking and laughing at them is and, most importantly, is it Russian?