Deceptions and Misdirection Strategies

This thread will be a bit unusual in the fact that it is inspired by Sun Tzu's Art of War. In here I wish to compile all the deceptions and misdirection strategies that have been employed during my short existence.

We are living through times where powerful entities seek to dominate people, violate fundamental rights, and impose autocratic structures. In their quest for domination and for the destruction of true democracy, many of such entities employed great deceptions. This is a list of the deceptions that they have employed so far. It is by no means a complete list; however it is my hope that it may serve to benefit our wisdom, and allow us to recognize such deceptions in the future, when those are employed again.

The "entity" described in the following paragraphs is a fictional generic person for illustrative purposes. The scenarios described have however occured in recent history, and some of them may still be recognizable events even if the entity is here kept nameless. I wish to focus on the strategy that deceptive entities tend to use, rather than focus on the exact identity of the entities. This is because unknown or multiple entities might attempt to use the same strategies in the future; and therefore the identity of the entities in the past becomes irrelevant, whereas the nature of the deception itself becomes highly relevant, along with its known objective.

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1: When an entity is riddled with controversy, this entity suddenly decrees that there is a "war" with a larger, dangerous, evil "enemy". This allows the entity to introduce a state of emergency, distract the attention, cancel investigations, and portray itself as the lesser evil - or, even, as the saviour.

2: The entity increases the price of construction materials; this prevents the people from building or renovating their private properties. This consequently forces the population to migrate into government-approved areas or facilities, and the governmental entity can then buy (or seize) the people's former rural properties.

3: When an alleged "enemy" supposedly moves against an entity, this entity exaggerates the belligerence and objectives of the "enemy". When the alleged "enemy" fails to act as violently as predicted by the entity, then the entity claims credit for keeping the "enemy" at bay.

4: The wrongdoing entity takes control of vulnerable and emotionally charged areas. When an alleged "enemy" attempts to conserve the areas and confronts the entity at those areas, the alleged "enemy" is then portrayed as a heartless monster that attacks the weak. Variant of a hostage situation.

5: The entity attempts to increase people's anger against an alleged "enemy", and plants agents dressed as this enemy. Those agents then carry out violence against the people, which causes the people to become angry at the "enemy" in accordance with the entity's wish. Variant of false-flag attack.

6: When people refuse to collaborate with the agenda of an entity, and begin launching investigations, this entity calls such people "conspiracy theorists", and claim that such people also believe in various blatantly absurd conspiracy theories. The entity then goes on to claim that such people's refusal to obey is threatening the safety of either the community or of the entire environment. Finally, the entity proceeds to label those people as "selfish", and, ultimately, "terrorists".

7: To eliminate any form of resistance against anti-democratic agendas, the governmental entity increases the cost of living. This introduces a state in which people become indebted to the entity. This forces people to sell their properties, or their properties to get seized if they choose bankruptcy. It may also force people to move into approved areas or facilities, where they are more easily monitored (and dealt with) by the entity.

8: To eliminate any form of resistance against anti-democratic agendas, the governmental entity makes it impossible for people to grow their own food, to build shelter, or to refuse pharmaceutical products. This allows the entity to starve dissidents at will, to eliminate unmonitored elements, and to introduce lethal substances at will into the bodies of known dissidents.

9: The entity employs partners to create a crisis and to promote the adoption of policies or products. The entity discreetly creates a pathogen or an illness so to publicly promote pharmaceutical products; or discreetly destroys the environment so to publicly promote "ecological" products; or discreetly seeds violence so to publicly promote restrictions. Variant of marketing strategies, where the manufacturer of a product or "solution" is also engineering the demand for the very same product or "solution".

10: The entity takes control over private media outlets. This allows the entity to broadcast a fake "democracy", maintain the illusion of debate, and broadcast mass disinformation. The entity also bribes important celebrities. When the entity passes a policy, those media and celebrities are then required to applaud it. Sometimes, if the policy is moderate yet controversial, those media and celebrities are required to "criticize" it by saying it's not "strong" enough of a policy, and that the government entity should not be afraid to introduce even stricter and harsher restrictions. Fake "petitions" might even be employed.

11: The governmental entity carries out sensitive actions through private agencies. When one of those agencies is caught, the governmental entity denies any form of liability, and feigns ignorance. This allows the governmental entity to act without any consequences from justice.

12: When a governmental entity seeks to annex a community, and if this community is strong at creating products and export, then the entity often aims to collapse the economy of the community. This forces the community to import and buy from the entity, and, eventually, become indebted to the entity. Finally, in exchange for clearing the community's debt, the entity seizes the community.

13: When a governmental entity seeks to annex a community, it increases violent discord within that community, and people leave the community so to seek out more stable lives. This allows the entity to then fill the community up with its own approved demographics.

14: The entity stirs up violence with an alleged "enemy", and when the latter reacts in any way, the entity then blames this "enemy" for the violence.

15: When there are protesters within a controversial governmental entity, and if those protesters commit felonies, the entity then appoints some of those persons as puppet figures, in exchange for clearing those persons' criminal charges. This has the advantage of erasing official criminal records for those future puppet figures, which in turn gives to the public the impression of trustworthy figures. The original records might however be kept by the entity, as a form of blackmail strategy so to enforce the obedience of the appointed figures.

16: When the entity fails to carry out desirable, ethical, or economical projects, it claims that such projects were in fact sabotaged by the actions (or inaction) of an alleged "enemy".

(continued...)

17: The entity generates an artificial group whose political orientation appears to be opposed to that of the entity. This group however exists under the complete control of the entity. To give the impression of being mighty, the entity can then "destroy" the group publicly, at will. Or, the group is portrayed as making undesirable actions and expressing unsound opinions, so to make the entity appear better and more intelligent. Variant of sock-puppet strategy.

18: The entity generates an artificial group whose political orientation appears to be opposed to that of the entity. This group however exists under the complete control of the entity. The group attracts the main opponents of the entity, allowing the entity itself to monitor the opponents more closely, and possibly neutralize them more easily. Variant of the honeypot strategy.

19: When a person refuses to support an entity's associated media, the entity then claims that this person is trying to "destroy freedom of expression".

20. When there is a group of people that criticise or rebel against the entity, the entity creates a war, and requests such people to fight in that war. This decreases the likely lifespan of such people; and if such people do not survive the war, this also allows the entity to seize those people's properties with little resistance.

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This concludes my list for now.

Did you guys notice any additional strategies that deceptive entities have employed lately?

a reply to: swanne


The Propaganda is so palpable now, the grift is so easy to see; the stench is thick.
So many Information Operations & Psy-Ops occurring simultaneously, that a large % of the population is walking around in active fight or flight response.
Many others with a form of whip-lash, from the demoralizing propaganda or crisis narratives & gaslighting shifting from week to week.
At the very least, it gives more people every day the eyes to see and ears to hear; and perhaps we can catch this in time and reverse course together. Unity. Peace. Gratitude.

a reply to: DigitalStoic

Well said my friend.

Guys, always remember that if they have to use words as weapons, it's because their physical plans are not as solid as they pretend. Otherwise there wouldn't be any points to waste so much time, energy and money in all the propaganda.

a reply to: DigitalStoic


As a small example.. to agree..

At one point the conspiracy radio 📻 host used to warn people of the left/right paradigm.

For years.. then along came an orange 🍊 👞..man.

Then it was anti left.., and pro right.

So, Ive never read Art of War..and unless I learn 5th century Chinese fluently, I doubt I ever will. The first translation from its original transcription was by..wait for it..The Jesuits. Pretty funny. Sorry, just is. Same folks that voted on what was to be or not to be in the King James, and who was worthy of its distribution...Maybe if I can find it on audio in Chinese and play it while I sleep..Art of War by Osmosis..You have given me an idea..Thank You.

But all that English stuff You posted seems pretty convoluted...almost backwards. Maybe I should try to run it into Chinese, then compare that to original text, make comparisons...nah..Osmosis it shall be.

Thanks again

Elbo Grees

a reply to: didntasktobeborned

This list was inspired by the Art of War. It's like a post-modern interpretation based on current events.

Consider me corrected, and my apologies to OP, sometimes Im a little slow on the uptake. I do wish I could read Mandarin though.

Not to stray to far off, but "The Dream Of The Red Chamber", and most Confucious (all I could find) is the only Chinese Im familiar with.
I do hear alot of people reference This work, Art Of War, and I am interested in it though for some reason I have intentionally not read it, I think its probably because it seems like everyone else has already read it (spite)....I believe I will start with audio.

Interstingly the Tao doesnt seem to requre translation.
Nor do the Hindu teachings. Learned that from The Beatles.

I did read the list. What was confusing for me, was that every iten seemed tactically sound...for the most part..I will go back through it so maybe I can communicate my question better.

What came across to me was to accuse the enemy of everything. Invent things to accuse them of. Put the pieces in place to solidify the accusations and then present Your solution, that the enemy is forced to accept.

The mixing part of it is what got me..again..begging pardons...And I do have kind of a hang up about the whole Art Of War 'following'..

a reply to: MichiganSwampBuck

a reply to: swanne

Greetings good Swanne of the North.

Chattel # 26482593 reporting here.

Thank-you for this OP.

ATS is really weird sometimes in it's replies, as in it feels like we are in limited ' bubbles ', and not everybody sees everything.
This is info that all members should be familiar with, and is good to refresh every now-and-then.

These are the tools of our oppressors.

Have noticed a few other things, here's one :
Have noticed a parallel between a management approach from my employer, and in our Government's™ behavior :
Also Russel Brand did a bit on it on his daily vid, about 2 weeks ago.

It's this new style of management, where they set-the employee/citizen to feel obligated to have expected behavior of an obedient slave, by imploring-us to behave up to high levels of Codes-of-Conduct™, that they only fake doing themselves.
There is a constant do-good attitude, being pushed on us by dishonest misbehaving leaders.

But that's not really the crux of it, that's just the way we experience it.

Here's my understanding of where it stems-from : they operate now according to shifting and changing procedural compliances.
When the nature of the factors of the compliance change : the rules change for us.

All we see are the constant fuzzy rules, and how they seem to vary from week-to-week.
This puts us in a state of unsureness, and we can never be sure that we are doing what we are supposed-to.

We become weak, and dependent upon them to tell us how the rules will be applied THIS TIME.
Might be different tomorrow, might be the same : we never know.

We become hypnotized, and dependent upon them to know what to do.

On ne sait plus sur quel pied danser !

We're paralyzed, and lose confidence in our own decisional abilities.

Personally do not have one good word to say about the types that are interested in ' Leadership™ ' in any way, shape, or form.
Anybody with a management type of attitude doesn't appreciate me much neither, LoL !!
Why would they ?
They can tell in an instant that their BS isn't being bought.

Do employees get to choose their managers ? Not really, but some movement is possible.
Why do folks think that we actually choose our politicians ? ( We don't. )

The Politicians™ are imposed on us, just like their selected and groomed ' Experts™ ' on everything and anything : just like our " Boss™ " is.

Nothing they do is for the common good, while constantly boasting that they are working for us.
It is only for the interests of the ones behind the curtains, and their chosen Partners™ .
Unfortunately : half of the population still believes that we have any kind of a say, including many at ATS...

Have you read any of the essays from Iain Davis at In-This-Together . COM ?

What we are describing is how we observe the rubber hitting the road, but Iain Davies goes a little deeper, and explains some of the reasons for why we are observing the various behaviors that we do.

originally posted by: LastFirst
a reply to: DigitalStoic


As a small example.. to agree..

At one point the conspiracy radio 📻 host used to warn people of the left/right paradigm.

For years.. then along came an orange 🍊 👞..man.

Then it was anti left.., and pro right.

Trump did not bring about pro right. He brought about more 'independent'.
Most people who follow Trump are disgusted with the 'right' just as much as the 'left'. Every registered Republican I know, including myself, family, friends and most strangers I have talked to - removed themselves from the GOP and registered as independent.....although, will still vote R.
Something tells me you fall prey to the propaganda quite easily.

a reply to: swanne

Great job. Id love to respond and add....if I had more time - I lack that so much :/ maybe I will be able to get back to this.
But wanted to acknowledge that this was a great write up!

a reply to: didntasktobeborned

In all honesty, I have never read the Art of War. From what little I have read, quotes here and there, this is more of a list than the philosophical theories of Sun Tzu's war tactics. It certainly isn't a how to manual at any rate.

a reply to: swanne

You make some well versed points and arguments, but personally, all that is occurring is according to a great global/globalist agenda, not necessarily via the Art of War by Sun Tzu. Some may ascribe such as part of the Great Reset initiative or even a global/globalist revolution but be assured, it is aimed at or its aim is to transform our society, how we interact with each other via discourse, information, etc. This global/globalist agenda or revolution is all-encompassing and will ultimately pose and effect human civilization, and subsequently, the future of humanity. Truth be told, what is transpiring is nearly right out of Orwell's 1984 as it pertains directly to controlling discourse, information, etc.

Take for example, the latest memo issued by the Department of Homeland Security in February of this year. One thing that becomes clear is that information that does not follow, adhere to or is ascribed by the Government, etc. can be construed as 'misinformation' and that that 'misinformation' can then be labeled as something potentially akin to terrorism:

(1) the proliferation of false or misleading narratives, which sow discord or undermine public trust in U.S. government institutions;

Who, exactly, determines what is false or misleading or is 'misinformation' especially given the utter fact that over the past two years, we have seen many, many things that were or had been labeled, ascribed, or characterized as being 'a conspiracy theory,' 'false information,' or straight up 'misinformation' by 'fact checkers,' governmental entities, etc. and then have been proven to be FACT or completely true? According to the memo, it becomes increasingly apparent that the ones who are making the deciding determination(s) will be the government, better yet, the political party in charge or in power and their controlled media and social sites sock puppets. The very essence of freedom of speech, thought, and conscience is deeply, deeply at jeopardy and risk here....and is being normalized with each passing day. And to think that just a few decade or so ago, a government directive of this type would have been near impossible by near most in society even among the extremes of left and right political ideologies. 9/11 changed this country and this world and put into motion the global/globalist agenda/revolution.....again, an agenda that will not only ultimately change society as we know it, but all of humanity, as well as the future of humanity itself.

a reply to: DigitalStoic

Yes, very well said indeed.

Sadly, many still buy into the nonsense.