There is cognitive warfare going on. But what is it?
In part 3 and part 4 of my series “The War for our Minds”, I did a fuller dive into papers and studies sponsored by NATO and others that deal with ‘Cognitive Warfare’. For links and a more complete explanation, please refer back to those 2 articles.
What is Cognitive Warfare?
Cognitive warfare attempts to alter people’s perceptions, which is the fundamental basis for action. It achieves that by opposing and degrading the capacities to know and to produce, and to actively thwart knowledge.
- disinformation, on various levels
- eroding trust between people and in institutions, undermining groups as well as whole societies
- sowing discord
- inducing emotional responses and guiding the reaction to such responses
- overloading our minds with a constant barrage of news/info
- the fast pace trains us to make quick reactions, instead of taking time to properly investigate
- flooding the field with coordinated and massive campaigns to deliver a streamlined, ‘unified’ image
- it aims to gain support through creating empathy towards the desired goals/people/groups
- it builds on the lingering feeling people had when first hearing about topics, even if later corrected
- etc.
None of this is directly lethal, nor physically destructive. This makes it both hard to see when it is done, and hard to find an appropriate military response to.
It uses/abuses human factors, including emotions, belief systems, culture, education, psychological/behavioral attributes, and experiences that filter the overwhelming information to which humans are exposed.
And it turns each one of us, as citizens, into targets, as this is influencing on meta-level: whole societies, not just state actors, or the military, but the complete civilian population… It has universal reach, and this warfare has no start nor end point: it is constant.
Such attacks can be aimed at different operational areas, such as education, entertainment/media, financial sectors, health, electoral systems, and security/surveillance industries.
This has been going on for centuries, for thousands of years, even. What is different today? The massive reach of media, and the vast amounts of electronic data we create (cell phone pings, payment transactions, logins,...) as well as personal information that we voluntarily and/or unwittingly provide though social media and other online sites/apps. This allows for a very finely grained analysis of our patterns, our identity, our habits, our thoughts and opinions, which is the key to tailor such cognitive attacks.
The instant reach of media and news is also a new and key factor: a lot more can be done building on this speed and scope of information delivery.
It bears repeating that the objective of Cognitive Warfare is to harm societies and not only the military. The line is very hard to draw, but if acts take place that are intended to harm societies, they become acts of war, that in turn would justify a response, up to and including a military response.
In the US, we see such attempts aimed at us, in our education system, in our elections, and against political opponents and ALL their supporters.
There are, however, several counter-moves that are accessible and important to us all, as civilians:
1) AWARENESS that this is going on. We ALL are targets in this new warfare domain.
2) This also supposes restoring access to KNOWLEDGE/TRUTH: the attack aims to actively thwart this, so bolstering it will help soften or fully prevent the intended effect of the attack.
3) QUESTION what is going on. Which is, in essence, ‘THINK SLOW’, or the 48hr rule.
4) TRUST is key. Trust in our institutions, trust in our leaders, trust in each other.
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[An important fact to keep in mind: points 3 and 4 seem contradictory: how can I both question and be critical, while also be trusting? As Reagan said, Trust, but Verify. It requires that we don’t make our own perspective absolute: I might not understand Trump endorsing Dr. Oz, for example, but do I trust Trump? (See this write-up by Andre on Free Atlantis, here narrated by Patrick Gunnels: https://rumble.com/v10lt2e-the-creation-of-the-plan-to-save-the-world.html Starting at 27:00m until 30:50. Short, but a great example of this). One can both question Trump’s decision, while still trusting him.]
For the full analysis and examples, see part 3 and 4, as well as several other of the articles on my Substack, as I keep exploring this, bit by bit.
If this was helpful, help spread the word, and share either this article or parts 3 and/or 4. Talk about, think about, add to it. Since we are under attack, no longer innocent bystanders and victims, but targets, we need to raise awareness of the nature and scope of that attack, and we need to start acting and countering as proper combatants instead of mere remaining cannon fodder and gullible masses. Some of us already have started the counter, but we can help strengthen them.
All is well.
Please see my 4 part series on Subversion, titled Connecting the Dots. It provides a framework for discussing subversion as explained by an ex-Soviety defector. Subversion is a more, and older term for your thoughts on Cognitive Warfare.
https://robberry.substack.com/p/connecting-the-dots-600?s=w
Thank You Arn, God bless 🙏