Disrupters on DU. What is at stake. What we can do about it.

[Tom Rinaldo]

More smears against our candidates are spread per minute on this site than Ross Limbaugh could ever dream of uttering. Much of the time we innocently fall right into it, pick up a right wing hit virus, and become effective carriers of it for them against our own, spreading doubt and dissension within our own ranks, all in the name of helping our preferred candidate.

Most of the time it is unwitting, but I don't believe for an instant that there aren't infiltraters seeding the conflicts, and planting the infections. Back in my old movement days the term used for those operatives was "agent provocateurs". All grass roots movements had to assume they were present among us. I believe the FBI even got an agent planted as the bodyguard of a Black Panther leader. Sometimes it helps to be an old 60's activist, because many of us already sent for and received our personal FBI files. We have the hard evidence that agents really were used to infiltrate and disrupt our political organizations, and we know that some (not all) of them were quite skillful at what they did.

Nowadays I see people using the term "trolls" for bulletin board mischief, but it goes far beyond that. This is a highly specialized dirty politics political art. Think about it, our government funds and maintains large programs dedicated to "psychological warfare", to be employed theoretically against our international enemies. We KNOW the CIA has destabilized foreign governments. There is a refined methodology that is used to disrupt organizations and governments. It's use targets the media, labor organizations, business associations, political parties and more. Do you think for a minute that the Republican Party hasn't by now found and employed agents skilled in their use, to work on their behalf domestically?

I don't think our "enemy" here is the official FBI or CIA etc, but it may include alumni from their ranks, and those trained by them, who are now working on behalf of the Bush team. Think Nixon's plumbers, except now they don't have to resort to physical break ins when political strategy plays out online. Why would they NOT attempt to disrupt the democratic process of the Democratic Party, the institution seeking their removal from power? Why would they NOT attempt to sow discord through DU along with other sites?

The thing is, effective agents mimic passionate, or disgruntled, true believers. They do that extremely well. Usually it is impossible to distinguish one from the other. There are always posters who I believe are disingenuous. The problem is, I know that 4 out of 5 times my suspicions would prove to be unfounded, and we would all lose BIG TIME if we got into a witch hunt mentality here. Should that ever occurr they will have hit the jackpot. But that doesn't mean that one out of five times I would not be proven correct about infiltration, if the true facts could be known.

So what to do? DON"T PASS ON ATTACKS AGAINST OUR CANDIDATES unless you are dead certain, and I mean CERTAIN, that they are accurate. If you get caught inadvertently participating in a hit job against one of our candidates (and we should all always be on the look out for this), come back online and apologize and admit that you jumped to a hasty decision and examine how that happened. Then join in the efforts to actively debunk that line of attack WHETHER OR NOT you are a supporter of the victim Democrat. If someone who professes loyalty to your own candidate obsessively engages in sharp attacks on another candidate, call him or her for that behavior. Don't let it happen in your name. We have to take back our own process before we can take back our own country.


This is an expanded version of a post I did on another thread, which had a specific candidate name in the header. Since that sometimes limits who will open a post, I am putting this out under a canidate nuetral header. Here is that other thread, which I also urge you to visit. The link it contains has valuable insights for all of us:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=132&topic_id=173410

[slinkerwink]

1. I think you're right on this....

[Moderator]

2. Locking

4. Broad-brush statements about all or some of the supporters or opponents of any Democratic Primary candidate are forbidden. Don't paint people as disruptors or cult members.


DU Moderator