Here's How the U.S. Military Hacks People's Brains🎙Darknet Diaries Ep. 65: PSYOP

PSYOPs, or "Psychological Operations" are happening all around us, 24/7. Sometimes they're used in warfare against foreign enemies, and sometimes we know them by different names: Marketing, PR, spin, and propaganda. This is the story about information being weaponized for good and shady ends.

[DetectiveThursday]

The best defense against Psyops is a critical mind clearly grounded in objective reality armed with a philosophy that is pointed towards objective truth, and the knowledge that everyone at one point or another is psyoping everyone else. When a society gets into a relativistic mindset on truth, it becomes too jaded to break past propaganda. At best it sees it for what it is and does nothing, at worst it perpetuates the problem with propaganda of its own or even worse embraces the propaganda of others in nihilistic resignation. When you are being played, you may be getting played with the truth twisted towards an agenda, a good mind knows how to separate the truth from the player. The truth at that point no longer belongs to them, they are disarmed, and what truth is gleaned is free to be understood on its own terms.

[rugerdie]

50:30 Our Own Government (US) has memetic Warfare teams (IO). I attended Expeditionary Warfare School DLP as a US Marine first lieutenant back in 2013-14. We covered the Cyber/Pys Warfare doctrines emegering at that time and our course materials explicitly stated that we were pivoting to domestic messaging operations. We don't just need to worry about other nations commiting PsyOPs. Our own government is engaged in this space against the American people. The FBI and DHS have been infiltrating domestic groups to disrupt their activities (sow division, coax criminal actions, etc...). The FBI has been involved in major terror plots that went live inside the US (OKC Bombing, World Trade Center Bombing) which led to major changes in US law and the general sentiment of the populace (problem reaction solution)

They do not serve us...

[abefromen]

“Fear is malware in your brain” I love this show. Keep up the good work

[DrKnowsMore]

I like how he tells us that they don't run psychological operations on the American public and he actually expect us to believe that

[CurrentlyBlazed]

Heh.

I was Army infantry from 2004-2007. Deployed to Iraq in 2005 and my unit was pretty much in charge of security throughout eastern Baghdad and Sader City.
Around the end of our deployment, towards October (We arrived in Country end of January), we had a Psyops unit attached to us. They came out and followed us around on our missions/we escorted them around ect ect... Heh. Now that I think about it also, it's kinda interesting that the day we had a massive incident they also where attached to us. Could be though they attached to us because we where an active unit, and extremely professional in everything that we did. I was very blessed to be in a high speed company, and an even more high speed squad.
Anywas, We cordoned off a neighborhood to search houses after a IED had hit a National Guard convo 3 days prior and had some shit happen. I can remember one of the female soldier form the unit taking photos of a deadbody I had found, and me telling her it was pretty bad and she probably didn't want to see it (child shot in the head...) She said to me, 'I have to see it.' and then went to take photos, and when she saw the kid she said 'Oh god'. Took some photos, and then that was that. I dont remember where she went aftwards because I had to casulty evac one of the other wounded Iraqi civilians. We didnt have many missions much after this other than route security and escort stuff to BIOP, and they Psyop people where never attached to us again.
They would never talk to us about what they where doing. They just said they where there to watch us, and find out how people felt about our presence while we where on patrol. They always would talk to random Iraqi's while we where out patrolling and such, and it was right as we would leave also.

Edit: One of the big things I will always remember about my deployment, was our mission and what we where told our goal was. It was 'To win the hearts and minds' of the Iraqi's. We did lots of missions that involved us going out to assist a town with anything they needed, from digging out sewers/shit trenches, to assisting with infrastrucure like installing generators at power supply stations and then teaching the people to fix/secure the equipment so it doesn't get stolen. My unit helped install the majority of barriers at all the poling sites throughout Baghdad so the people could vote without fear of vehicle born explosive devices. My unit did all sorts of stuff like this, but none of it is known to the average American public

[THEMAX]

I’m genuinely shocked that after all of his time in the industry, all of these interviews and what I am, assuming are several trips to Defconn that Jack has never heard the term PSYOPS. The relationship between psychological operations and social engineering is notorious.

[KathleenEdge]

I was in Psychological Operations.
It was unlawful to use psychological operations on Americans. However, the Smith-Mundt Act changed that.

[paulis]

PsyOps is includes all kinds of things, including gaslighting. It’s all about psychological control over people. It comes in handy when you’re about to get attacked by criminals on the street.

[codemiesterbeats]

Buddy of mine joined the army for a while... he told me he witnessed the cook placing miscellaneous powders into the food he was preparing and when he asked what it was he sort of ominously said "vitamins"

[indiana-dani]

The Steele Dossier was a nice PsyOp touch by the US regime machine on the US people.

[TheGreenMarksman]

"Believe nothing that you hear and half of what you see."

[theobserver]

I have a friend who worked for psyops. He is an anthropologist.His job was hanging out with various people in Iraq to gain understanding of their point of view. I knew him as a goofball entertainer who worked in a "theater troupe" that I worked with. It blew me away to see him in military gear hanging out of a helicopter. I thought he was just a theater nerd.

[Wreckz_Tea]

It's so cute that he's surprised our government actively influences our opinions and thoughts through propoganda and many other means. Stay innocent jack, the world is a shitty place and it's better if you don't know all that goes on

[alexleggett]

As someone who has been aware of this type of thing for years it becomes hard not to roll my eyes when people are unaware of psyops BUT I need to remember there are many people who are just learning about this type of thing and I should welcome them aboard the ship of reality as opposed to being annoyed by their ignorance. So I say to everyone just learning.... Welcome aboard!

[raymond_luxury_yacht]

The best defense is to not engage with media. Can't get hacked if you're not in the network.

[noThankyou-gc]

do you interview a guy whose job it is to do psychological warfare (who reached out to you first!) and take everything he says at face value? I hope not but that’s already the vibe im getting lol

[Electron]

Fun fact: Edward Bernays - the “Father of Propaganda” was Sigmund Freud’s nephew. I wonder if they did ❄️ together…

[ultravioletiris]

Btw just because there is a law that says something is illegal doesnt mean it cant still be done under conditions. Under certain conditions basically any law whatsoever can be waived. The network that is capable of deciding this is sometimes referred to as COG

[MyChihuahua]

The best way to discern deception is the become very familiar with Truth.

[mitchs]

This is an interesting concept. Good work. I love all of your podcasts, thank you for what you do Jack.