Well, GW was paying quite well and I am still waiting on my Obama check. I think my salary is now going to Michelle's shoe collection and dog bones...oh, and the occasional AF1 photo op.

Now I just do it for #es and giggles. You see, everyone who has a differing opinion is not a disinfo agent. Not everyone who does not believe in holographic planes on 9/11 will discredit UFOs, Bigfoot or transcendentalism.

I mean, do you really think disinfo agents are needed with all the whackadoos that are already on line. I bet there are links to some of your posts somewhere on an NSA server and each wendesday the guys laugh their asses off at some of the stuff that is posted. on the other hand, they also need to do that to see how close you are...can you hear the black helicopters yet????

Let's just say I'm making this up and have nothing solid to back it up.

Creating memes is a business now. A growing number of people who are educated and fluent in written English, under-employed, usually with children, receive small but significant for them stipends from certain coutries and institutions. The goal is to spread disinformation that is either beneficial to the people paying for this service, or detrimental to their enemies.

Let's say, for example, Iran or Saudi Arabia wishes to put Israel in a bad light. They will propagate a rumour, say Mossad rubbed out someone important, Madoff sent all the money to Israeli banks, etc.

Just some unfounded rumour on a conspiracy site you might think. No more than that. Something is written and read. The more contentious it is, the more often it gets repeated.

With the right spin a million people believe it, then two million, then four million. In a matter of weeks it comes up in conversations and people invariably start saying "I heard that."

ATS is now considered closer to mainstream that lunatic fringe.

The rumour business online is considered more cost effective than conventional advertising and PR.

Read between the lines.


Mike

Originally posted by mmiichael

Let's say, for example, Iran or Saudi Arabia wishes to put Israel in a bad light. They will propagate a rumour, say Mossad rubbed out someone important, Madoff sent all the money to Israeli banks, etc.

Really...

Please post link to an Iranian or Saudi company that hires individuals to propagate rumours on the internet.

Thanks in advance.

Originally posted by Exuberant1

Originally posted by mmiichael

Let's say, for example, Iran or Saudi Arabia wishes to put Israel in a bad light. They will propagate a rumour, say Mossad rubbed out someone important, Madoff sent all the money to Israeli banks, etc.

Really...

Please post link to an Iranian or Saudi company that hires individuals to propagate rumours on the internet.

Thanks in advance.

Please read posts before commenting on them. A disclaimer made in the very first sentence "Let's just say I'm making this up and have nothing solid to back it up. " An example of the type of thing outlined was given.

Third, and maybe a big revelation for some ATS members. Not everything known has a link to it. There actually is a world beyond websites, Youtube, and Google.

People often meet and have conversations in the same room, talk on phones, exchange personal emails, even hand write and send letters to each other. There is also a wealth of information available in things called books, magazines, newspapers, most of which are not on the Net. Often they require hours of reading at a time, but contain vast amounts of information which has been validated independently by the authors.

Wikipedia probably has an entry on these once popular modes of information conveyance. Amazing how people used to learn things.



Mike

[edit on 7-5-2009 by mmiichael]

Been an agent for about 10 years now. have had many user names and many stories to tell. The pay is not all that great, you just do it when you are doing the "stable" job and get a little extra at the end of (every three months)

It's no big deal, its just mixing things up a bit, making sure poeple don't get out of hand with wild stories. If you see something coming that could do damage, you just get in there and say things to chill the whole thing down, another point of view, something that goes in the other direction and some people then follow. The people that follow then do the same thing, as they might agree with you, and so starts the flow of good info.

I was once offered a job to post in some dumb forum positive remarks about a certain video game that was just released and try to sway the commons in its favour

I dont see how political policy would be any different in this matter

The grey area (not that type of Grey) is that there are self-appointed disinformation agents out there. They receive no pay, no tangible reward, no thank you.

Brown shirts feel compelled to show how the Black shirts are the cause of all the problems. There is inevitable retaliation.

The ideal of this site and any discussion is to put forward and weigh the merits of knowledge and data to form a fuller picture of something.

It rarely remains objective and open minded. The need to vindicate one's most dearly help positions overrides common sense more often than not.

There are people out there who do receive remuneration for putting out false information and staunching the truth. There was a time when governments, religious and financial institutions generated propaganda almost exclusively through paper.

The mass audience has moved to the Internet. The same sub-industry exists, but the techniques and methodologies are different.


Mike

A thread was started today on 5/22/09 of which I found of great interest and wanted to acknowledge it, though I won't link - due to the direct implications involved.



[edit on 22-5-2009 by questioningall]