A few things everyone should know on the premise of "black propaganda."
When most people think of the term "propaganda" they assume it means lies or misrepresentations to make yourself look strong or the enemy look weak: "We will crush them," "We will be welcomed as liberators," etcetera.
Black propaganda is different. Wikipedia describes it as well as anything: "Black propaganda is false information and material that purports to be from a source on one side of a conflict, but is actually from the opposing side. It is typically used to vilify, embarrass or misrepresent the enemy." To put it in more directly applicable terms, concern trolling is a form of black propaganda. Black propaganda is designed to demoralize the side that it's painted as coming from, a supposedly "friendly" voice telling people that they shouldn't be fighting, or that it's hopeless, or that the enemy isn't really that bad.
Black propaganda is one of the three major schools of propaganda, and in many ways the most effective. Now tell me: with the best minds the Republicans can muster spending in excess of a billion dollars just this cycle on their efforts to defeat Democrats and throw President Obama out of office, do you REALLY think that they've simply ignored one of the largest and best tools they have available, in the form of trying to destroy Democrats from the inside?
It's in that context that you have people like Ralph Nader, Glenn Greenwald, Jane Hamsher, etcetera, operating: people who pretend to be liberals just enough to make people believe, while constantly and rigorously undermining the actual cause of liberalism. Acting as third party spoilers, advocating third parties, constantly disseminating smears against elected officials designed to depress left-wing turnout. Nader singlehandedly gave the 2000 Presidential election to Bush with the claim that there was no difference between Bush and Al Gore, a claim that's so laughable in hindsight it's hard to imagine how 95,000 voters in Florida actually believed it. How many liberals stayed home in 2010 because they believed the constant tirades from Greenwald and Hamsher telling us that Democrats are bad and we shouldn't vote for them? Tirades usually based on nothing but unsourced claims and pro-Republican spin.
And make no mistake, the left wing of the party is exactly where the propaganda is directed. They're not aiming at conservative Democrats, or middle of the roaders, they're aiming at us. We're more likely to be getting our news online from easily-manipulated blogs, more likely on average to be interested in ideological purity tests, and more likely to stay home if we're incensed or feel our pet peeve isn't being addressed fast enough. It's the nature of left-wing politics all throughout history: we are the undisputed masters of the circular firing squad.
One classic example that offered impeccable: the Republicans get in trouble over the Ryan budget's plan to effectively end Social Security and Medicare. Within days, you have "left wing" websites by the dozens attacking President Obama's supposed secret plan to end Medicare and Social Security in the name of debt reduction, including cites of anonymous "sources." When this "secret plan" was disproven time and time again as the goalposts were moved, including a debt deal that expressly protected every means tested and entitlement program from any cuts, it was finally dropped like it never existed and the next round of propaganda was hatched. It's the mirror image of Fox News: a propaganda operation designed not to prop up a party in the name of objectivity, but to tear one down with the same methods.
If you go back through the news over the last few years, you'll find the same basic pattern over and over: whenever the Democrats accomplish something or the Republicans are under fire, the same few universally negative sources will open fire with some counter. DADT repeal? It's not really repeal because Obama's a secret homophobe and it'll never take effect. Universal healthcare? Giveaway to big insurance, the same industry that spend hundreds of millions of dollars fighting it tooth and nail, and still is. We left Iraq? Obama's a secret warmonger who's invaded 42 more countries. Ryan budget? It's really OBAMA who wants old people to be eating cat food! Not to mention the thousands of things they say Obama hasn't done, even when he has, like proposing raising the cap on FICA taxes to guarantee Social Security's solvency, or ending the wars he inherited. And in each case, it usually tracks back to the same few sources like FireDogLake, WSWS, and others with a universally negative opinion of the Democrats, glowing things to say about third parties, and mysteriously good funding.
Consider this a friendly warning for the next time you see a "left wing" website or pundit talking about how horrible the Democrats are while giving the Republicans a pass, or while ignoring the fact that 2009 to 2011 gave us one of the most productive and progressive periods of government in half a century. Don't believe me on that? Go through the records and tell me when we've had as much success passing as much solid legislation since 1965 at the most recent, and maybe not since the 1930s. And even back during those periods, when they had three quarters majorities in the House and Senate, there was still grumbling that things like the Social Security Act and the Civil Rights Act weren't good enough. The difference today is that some people have given the grumbling a megaphone in the hope of stopping progress in its tracks.
= new reply since forum marked as read
.
.
.
what was called The School of the Americas", a CIA training facility for Central and South American despots and their generals.
One of their nastiest tactics was to find out who was the most respected and admired member of your fighting force. The "Sergeant Saunders" guy.
[img]
[/img]
Every army has one.
Once you find him, have him killed as brutally and viciously as possible and make sure the enemy gets the blame. We're talking "head on a pike" stuff.
This will rally your troops in a quest for revenge.
His name will even become a battle cry.
Thank you Wraith. Words of wisdom. We all need to be very alert. 
Rec anyway. 
