Saturday, May 16, 2020

Conspiracy theories

Conspiracy theories flourish when society cannot provide a common narrative that aligns with the everyday experience of most of its citizens.  In the absence of a shared societal narrative, other actors will step in to fill the void.  Their attraction is the promise of revealing of "truth" to those who believe.

Monday, May 4, 2020

The Blob Attacks: Gaslighting Or Just Gasbagging?

"This is a closed club that offers only gradations of diversity just like Democrats and Republicans during the war: No one argued about “liberating” Iraq, only about the tactics. That was why it was so easy for Hillary Clinton’s Nat Sec team in-waiting to create the Center for a New American Security in 2008 and transition to an Obama think tank shop in 2009. Plug and play one for the other, counterinsurgency under Bush? Meh. Under Obama? Let’s do this! They all had a plan for staying in Afghanistan, and they made sure we were, until this day.

This doesn’t even include the orbit of research centers like RAND and the Center for Naval Analysis, which actually get government funding to churn out reports and white papers, teach officer classes, lead war gaming, and put on conferences. Do you really think they call for less funding, killing programs, eliminating lily pads, or egads, pulling out of entrenched strategic relationships that might not make sense anymore? Never. The same players get the contracts and produce just what the government wants to hear, so they can get more money. If they don’t get contracts they don’t survive. It’s how the swamp works."

Link here.