Turn Obama’s Web Site Into His Verdun

Grizzly Groundswell ^ | 7/12/08 | Winged Hussar 1683

[Winged Hussar]

Obama’s Biggest Asset is Also His Biggest Liability

My.BarackObama.com, the user community site at Barack Obama’s official Web site, is vital to Barack Obama’s campaign and fundraising strategy. Supporter participation in the form of blogging and social interaction builds commitment and encourages donations. The Internet is in fact Obama’s key asset for fundraising and organizing, and it is what General Karl von Clausewitz would call his “center of gravity”–the asset that, if captured or overthrown, results in total defeat. Barack Obama’s campaign therefore cannot live without my.barackobama.com, so we must arrange matters so it cannot live with it either. This is a relatively easy task because the Obama campaign exercises editorial control over the site, thus making it responsible (despite the disclaimer at the bottom of each page) for its anti-Semitic, misogynist, racist, and even libelous content.

The strategy we propose is simple: post and circulate, as widely as possible, the hate speech that pervades My.BarackObama.com. Always add the key phrase “exercise of editorial control,” which makes the Obama campaign morally responsible for every piece of hate speech.

It is critical to circulate the offensive material as widely as possible, with the explicit statement that Obama’s campaign “exercises editorial control” over the site. Colonel Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger’s Psychological Warfare warns that bundles of leaflets that fail to disperse make little impression on the enemy, unless they land on his head. Outrageous MyBO material that stays at Grizzly Groundswell, Free Republic, and so on also will cost Obama very few votes because not many readers plan to vote for him anyway. The material must reach the independent voters who are prepared to vote either way, and also the Hillary Clinton Democrats whom Obama must win if he is to have a chance in November.

[Winged Hussar]

See the linked article for two examples of hate speech.

[ER Doc]

Ping for later

[RJR_fan]

Colonel Paul Myron Anthony Linebarger literally "wrote the book" on Psychological Warfare. It's out of print now, and copies run nearly $200 on internet book stores. Linebarger, better known by his pen name of "Cordwainer Smith," was a high-church Anglican who taught that effective psychological warfare is based on truth and love. Those you are attempting to demoralize must sense that you are being honest with them, and have their best interests at heart.

[Winged Hussar]

Re: “Those you are attempting to demoralize must sense that you are being honest with them, and have their best interests at heart.”

My approach is to present the “Propaganda Man” (the person I am trying to convince) with material he/she can verify independently, i.e. they can see for themselves that I am telling the truth. This is doubtlessly why the Obama campaign shut my blog down so quickly—I was presenting quotes from “Dreams From My Father” that, unlike the urban legends, included page numbers.

[aruanan]

Isn’t Cordwainer Smith a science fiction author? Maybe I just saw his name quoted in an SF book.

[RJR_fan]

Yes, “Cordwainer Smith” wrote a number of poignant and memorable short stories, when he wasn’t engaged in diplomacy, espionage, and psychological warfare. The document this godson of Sun Yet Sun was proudest of was a propaganda leaflet that literally saved thousands of lives. He informed the readers that, if they would approach an American soldier, and utter a prescribed sequence of Chinese “apple pie and motherhood” words, they would be received with respect, and honorably treated. What the Chinese soldier said was patriotic rhetoric. What the American heard sounded like the English phrase “I surrender!”