Every republican has a copy

[bigtree]

Dr. Ron Strand @drronstrand
Read the CIA’s Simple Sabotage Field Manual: A Timeless Guide to Subverting Any Organization with “Purposeful Stupidity” (1944) https://buff.ly/33QslmU via @openculture

Link to tweet

[ck4829]

1. Maybe we should have copies too

https://www.gutenberg.org/files/26184/page-images/26184-images.pdf

It's long past due, it is time to fight dirty.

[ret5hd]

2. The problem is...

this tactic works…really well…when the goal is to hinder/disrupt/destroy.

It doesn’t work…at all…when the goal is to help/facilitate/build.

I have long professed that the REAL schism between liberals and conservatives…a schism that really started in the reagan years…is exactly that: we want to grow/build, they want to destroy.

Another aspect of this is: I have read that it only takes 10% of a population to overthrow a government (or any organization). Not because they are the majority (obviously). But because 10% has ENOUGH power to make any organization totally unmanageable.

It is SO much easier to tear down than to build up. It’s almost like a law of physics or something.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

3. Not build vs destroy, but a larger, similar, paradigm

Republicons think that life is a zero-sum game and you gotta fight everybody for your family's stack. Their fighting makes the sum lower, so that if it was zero-sum it become negative sum. That's where your destruction element comes from.

Democrats and progressives (virtual overlap) think cooperation and collaboration make life a positive sum game. Together, Americans can accomplish greater things than they ever could divided. That is definitely building.

This occurs partly because Republicons have lower levels of empathy. "Down on their luck and out on the street? Probably deserve it." Democrats are more likely to recognize that investments in people are an investment in community, state, and nation.


Republicons have a very tilted view of loyalties and priorities where self and family are paramount, way above everything else. Then their loyalties to their tribe (almost always white) come next, then farther down to community and then to regional and national entities rather farther down.

Democrats also have loyalties to their families paramount, with great loyalty to community (broadly defined) but the dropoff as it extends to regional and national entities is much more gentle. Tribe doesn't make much of a blip, if at all, unless you define it broadly as community (such as LGBTQ+ or "teacher", for examples).

[abqtommy]

4. Fascists fight dirty and we should never stoop to their level. Let us instead follow the

lead of John Lewis and make "good trouble"! "Good trouble" covers many illegal yet
peaceful acts that got Mr. Lewis and many other supporters of The Civil Rights fight
beaten and arrested. And you're right, it's way past time to take up the struggle.

[ck4829]

5. Well yes, the last section of that book is pretty interesting.

Nothing in that end part is illegal… one part says “play dumb” and “act stupid”. So when righties make a racist “joke” for example, we should insist they explain it to us, like “I’m sorry, I don’t get it… explain it to me like I am five” as loudly as possible.

[abqtommy]

6. Ooh... I'm real good at acting dumb! ;O) nt