The 2024 U.S. Election and Perceptions
The shaping of perceptions is a key element of Psychological Warfare. You do not have to go far to see it in action. Just turn on your TV set.
Background: I was an Infantry officer for over 20 years. I served in conventional and Special Operation units. I am a student of history and military science. I did extensive research in the area of Guerrilla Warfare and Revolutionary Warfare. Conflicts I have analyzed: El Salvador, Nicaragua, Algeria, Indo-China, Peru (Shining Path) Rhodesia and others. I can tell you from past experience: A corner-stone of any Revolutionary /Civil war is propaganda and psychological warfare. For the sitting government or the revolutionary force: you work to manipulate the population to act and think in a certain way to facilitate and support your operations.
Now onward to the subject at hand.
You really get tired of people. Did you hear the latest? Members of the press are now reporting that Rural White America is the most dire threat to the nation.
Yes, people living in Rural areas are the most racist, anti-freedom, anti-American, hateful individuals in the country. They all have a new disease called White Rage and they are all consumed by it. Therefore, Rural America is a fascist playground full of wild eyed, screaming nut cases.
Really? Really? You know what is going on here right? No? Well, I will tell you. It is called psychological operations. You take a populace and you give them a threat to fear and despise. You do this to hide real problems that may be looming or to ensure your continued power by distracting the electorate from what is really going on. Your goal is to instill fear and loathing within the political spectrum to obscure the general condition of society. This is a well-worn technique used by oppressive governments for over 100 years. It has been used all over the world and for such a long time for one reason: it works.
In our case, it is being done and done efficiently.
What you see here is really quite simple. It is a mere continuation of a smear campaign against one sector of society. It is a continuation of our elites’ propaganda that Rural America is inhabited by neanderthal dolts who inhabit a place called “fly over country”. Does that sound familiar? It should. That term “fly over country” has been used by our elites for over 30 years. It was and still is a disparaging remark used by our smug, arrogant political and media class to describe all those who do not live in “important” places like the East and West coast metropolitan areas. This was one of the first divisive labels to create a narrative of “bad land America.” Later on, we were given additional opinion and terminology to help solidify the concept of an “ignorant nobody land.”
An example of this was the Obama quote in 2008 of people in Pennsylvania that those“who cling to their religion and guns”.
“They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
And who could forget Hillary Clinton in 2016.
You could put half of Trump's supporters into what I call the basket of deplorables. Right? They're racist, sexist, homophobic, xenophobic, Islamophobic – you name it.
The Media has been a big supporter of smearing Rural America. Why? Because most Red States are Rural America, and do not follow the ideology the media supports. Therefore, the MSNBC report, above, is simply a re-enforcement of a historical trope. In psychological warfare, it is perfectly logical, that in an election year, that the Establishment media, would facilitate and help market an Anti-Rural America theme that shows all America’s problems are from Rural Americans. Why? Because the majority of Rural Americans happen to support the candidate they do not like. To support “their side” the media develops and re-enforces a thread. The spinning of this idea is just another version Madam Pelosi’s “The Wrap”.
https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4785397/user-clip-pelosi-explains-the-wrap-smear
Truth does not matter, perception does.
Fine example of marketing Rural America 2018. Video Game Far Cry 5
What we have here is classic psychological warfare conditioning a populace to a certain view point. This whole “blame Rural People” is really Soviet in nature. This is exactly what Joe Stalin did when the majority of the farmers in the Soviet Union did not support his collectivization policies. These small farmers were called Kulaks. Stalin had his propaganda machine systematically demonize all Kulaks. Then, when he was ready, he declared them wreakers, capitalist sympathizers, and therefore, Enemies of the State. He then had the NKVD (secret Police) round them up and had the Kulaks eliminated as a class of people.
We are all being programed for future events. You, me, and all our fellow Americans. This is a preparation up for the upcoming election fallout. Election fallout? What do you mean? If you have not figured it out. I will help you. Take this survey. The Answer will be either yes or no.
Do you consider Biden a threat to democracy?
Do you consider Trump a threat to democracy?
Do you believe that Biden will deprive you of your rights?
Do you believe that Trump will deprive you of your rights?
Do you believe that the policies of Biden will destroy America?
Do you believe that the policies of Trump will destroy America?
Do you believe that Biden will fail in making the world a safer place?
Do you believe that Trump will fail in making the world a safer place?
Do yo believe that Biden is a threat to the American way of life?
Do you believe that Trump is a threat to the American way of life?
Do you think that Biden supporters are non-thinking ideologues who cannot be reasoned with?
Do you think that Trump supporters are non-thinking ideologues who cannot be reasoned with?
Do you think Biden supporters are bad people?
Do you think Trump supporters are bad people?
If you answered YES to any of the above questions we have a problem. Either we live in a broken country or your perceptions have been twisted..
Look at the questions again. Use a critical eye. What did you read and then think? What is your perception of your fellow Americans when you answered “YES”? I tell you what it is. The other side is evil. They cannot be trusted and full of hate.
This, of course, is not true. Yes, there are fanatics out there, but that is not the majority of the population of either side. But what does that tell you about your political culture? One candidate is supposedly a demented, dottering, old fool and the other is a supposedly a tyrannical, lying, monster, full of hate. Our Main-Stream media also does its best to re-enforce this perception.
What does that say about our political parties and media? The reasonable man would say: That if the perceptions of the two candidates are true, then both parties have failed the American people and not longer serve the best interest of the Republic. And he could also say: That the media has been bought and paid for and can no longer be trusted.
So by your very answer of “Yes” you show the American political system is in free fall. The Republicans and Democrats do not care what happens to us.
A. Understand what you have just done. You just admitted you have been thoroughly propagandized into believing a large part of your fellow citizens are now your enemy.
B. You need to read: A Nation of Enemies by Pamela Constable; Arturo Valenzuela. Though it is not an exact footprint of where we are at now in the United States. It serves as a warning. You see, like El Salvador in the 1980s, the “political space” in the U.S. is closing and fast. This “Rural White Rage“ narrative is just another tactic to ensure we fight each other.
Lastly, you need to realize that many people will answer YES. I submit to you that one way or another, the majority of Americans , both left and right, blue or red will answer “Yes” to at least one of the questions above. Why? Because people on both sides are not working off of fact, but off a manufactured perception of people who would vote for the other candidate. This is a tactic of psychological warfare. Reality is not fact. Reality is shaped to what the narrative maker wants it to be.
Now, the key part of this whole story.
You and I and every other citizen of the United States has been intentionally painted into a box. If Trump wins, the left will revolt. If Biden wins, the right will revolt. The reasons given for revolt will be many. The election was; unfair, cheating, weaponizing of the courts , Unfair influence, Russian interference, fraud or something else. Pick your favorites and add more, it does not matter.
That line of thinking will have little to do with the situation at the time. Critical analysis or critical thinking or reason will be scarce. It will have gone beyond that. Just realize one thing. THE BOX HAS BEEN PAINTED and that No One is going to accept the results of the November 2024 election. You will be a witness to the beginning of something new.
Self disclosure: I live in Rural America. I pay my taxes. America is a great country. My Grandparents were all immigrants. I worked hard, paid my own way through college with the help of the military. No one gave me anything. I have no privilege. But I am eternally grateful for the hard work of the others who came before me. Only because of them, we live in the most affluent society the world has ever seen.