The Smith-Mundt Modernization Act of 2012 signed into law by President Obama legalized the use of US Government propaganda on US Citizens. Over the past decade, people on the Right have been screaming to roll it back.
Last week, it emerged that .@DataRepublican is a paid influencer working for the Department of War, which may help explain the mystery of why the Act still hasn’t been repealed: The Trump administration apparently wants to do information operations in order to counteract the unrelenting Fake News of the Deep State media outlets.
The work product of .@DataRepublican has generally been very fruitful for public discussion. Hopefully, her crash-out last week won’t tarnish her good work.
On a brighter note, Rep Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) introduced a short, two-page bill last Monday to amend the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) by inserting the language “social media influencers” under the definition of “publicity agent.” It would be nice to know if Tucker “Qatarlson” is really working for a foreign government. The bill has the backing of Democrats and Repubicans in the House.
The influencer talent agencies that we’re about to discuss may be violating FARA, Posse Comitatus, as well as campaign finance laws.
It's long past time to become more aware of the mechanics of contemporary domestic information warfare. We live in a world of paid influencers and where authentic political discourse has been steadily replaced by highly-calculated, algorithmic interventions designed to keep the public divided.
In this video, Canadian YouTuber Felix Rex of Black Pigeon Speaks shares an important insight about how mass media is becoming less of a conveyor of narratives to sell industrial products and more of a conduit for industrial producers to sell narratives.
He says:
“Once marketing becomes primarily a competition over narratives, the recommendation systems distributing those narratives, becomes something considerably more consequential than an advertising tool. They become cultural machinery…
“Instead of one official narrative being imposed from above, millions of personal narratives are being generated simultaneously, each one tailored to a different audience and the resulting feedback loops gradually construct the informational environment in which people understand their world.
“For example, two people can wake up, consume completely different media ecosystems and by the end of the day, possess radically different explanations for what is happening in the world around them.
“They aren’t merely disagreeing about politics. They are operating from different narrative perspectives and cannot even agree on what reality is. And once people’s entire understanding of the world is mediated through these feedback loops, political arguments become almost impossible to resolve, because the disagreement begins several layers beneath the actual argument.”
Felix Rex introduces us to the influencer talent agency, Night Media, which provides influencer marketing services, "pairing brands with top creators to craft stories that shape culture”.
If these “brands” from whom they’re funneling money to influencers are fronts for foreign government groups, such as the CCP or terror groups, like the Muslim Brotherhood or the IRGC, might Night Media be in trouble?
Night Media’s Senior Vice President David Huntzinger represents both Communist activist multimillionaire, Hasan Piker AND right wing gaming slob goblin multimillionaire, Asmongold.
Felix Rex calls this:
“The transformation of political disagreement into an entertainment industry, where personalities are products, narratives are the merchandise, algorithms are the distribution network and attention is the currency.
“The modern internet didn’t eliminate the gatekeepers, it created new ones. And unlike the old gatekeepers, these ones don’t necessarily look like gatekeepers, they look like your favorite streamer cosplaying as Mao or living in filth.
“And perhaps the greatest trick of all: You don’t have to control what people think when you can control which narratives become impossible to escape.”
Back in 2022, Tore Maras asserted that many of the “Q” influencers, including Dave from the X22 Report were being run (ironically) by the Progressive influencer talent agency, People First, saying, “That’s how they’re paid. I have receipts!”
People First was founded in 2020 by Curtis Hougland, a former contractor for the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) who specialized in countering online extremism and in conducting digital propaganda counteroperations against the Islamic State (ISIS).
The parent company of People First, formerly known as Main Street One, also owns the Defeat Disinfo Political Action Committee (PAC), which is a Progressive NGO that leverages a very powerful software developed by DARPA using our tax dollars (see -> 'Shadowgate').
People First’s operational methodology is rooted in defense-grade behavioral psychology and network analysis. Their information warfare has thus moved beyond simple propaganda delivery into the realm of dynamic, database-driven narrative management.
Rather than relying on traditional top-down political messaging or overt advertising, People First leverages their proprietary platform to recruit and deploy a vast, decentralized network of “micro-influencers” and “real people“, ranging from twenty thousand to over six million creators depending on campaign scale.
Their “Shadownet” technology identifies the underlying narratives and values that the target audiences already believe. It then matches these insights with everyday digital creators who possess high trust within localized, niche demographics.
These seemingly independent micro-influencers are then paid by People First to distribute highly “authentic” videos, posts and comment-section responses across platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and X, to flood the digital space with “authentic” counternarratives, effectively neutralizing the conservative message at the peer-to-peer level without revealing the institutional hand behind the campaign.
VIDEO: “The People First Creator Portal makes getting paid partnerships for micro-influencers easier than ever” - Pub Jul 21, 2022 on TikTok
This activity is, in turn reinforced by platform algorithms, creating a closed-loop system of cognitive warfare.
The use of US Taxpayer-financed weapons of war against the American populace directed by a retired Army General doesn’t sound very legal to me. It sounds like a potential violation of Posse Comitatus. (Any lawyers out there care to weigh in?) This technology is based on Shadownet software, which was developed by Patrick Bergy and which you can learn more about in a very important film I recommend to everyone called ‘Shadowgate’ ← which you can watch there.
People First has deployed this “peer-to-peer” cognitive strategy on behalf of major progressive organizations, including Black Lives Matter, Planned Parenthood, and the Latino Victory Fund.
The Washington Post reported that, this Defeat Disinfo AI system would detect communications from President Trump that were trending on social media and would find the most effective opposing viewpoints and then, send those talking points over to their paid trolls and sockpuppet accounts on Twitter and Facebook for them to share relentlessly. This kind of work is of course also being done by sophisticated bots.
Retired US Army General Stanley McChrystal is listed as a Senior Advisor for Defeat Disinfo PAC and is directly connected to the technological and operational framework of People First. McChrystal is the former commander of the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan.
Through this advisory role, McChrystal acted as a bridge, transferring military counterinsurgency and cognitive warfare strategies directly into the domestic political operations of People First.
Social media is rife with allegations of a similar “Flynn Network” of online influencers who simp for former Stanley McChrystal colleague and ‘5GW’ author, General Mike Flynn. Cassandra MacDonald (née Fairbanks) and Tracy Beanz (Diaz) are two people who I’ve heard worked for Flynn in the past. It's hard to verify, as they would have signed non-disclosure agreements.
The activities of People First suggest that the “Truther” and alternative media movements have been subjected to highly sophisticated forms of systemic infiltration. This infiltration is not carried out merely by physical intelligence operatives but through the deployment of advanced behavioral science, powerful datamining software and cognitive design (i.e., Shadownet or a derivative).
The first dimension of this infiltration is the domestic application of military-grade information operations. People First demonstrates a direct transition of defense-funded technology into the domestic political sphere. Under the Global Engagement Center (GEC) and DARPA programs, technologies were researched, tested, and funded to combat foreign propaganda and extremist messaging.
By rebranding these technologies and deploying them through “talent agencies” like People First, institutional actors have successfully infiltrated domestic digital spaces.
Rather than attempting to suppress conservative voices through overt censorship – which often fails and drives audiences to unmoderated alt-tech platforms like Rumble – this strategy relies on narrative saturation.
By utilizing algorithms to locate narrative vulnerabilities and paying “ordinary citizens” to deliver peer-to-peer talking points, institutional campaigns seamlessly bypass cognitive defenses and reshape the informational environment from within.
As documented in research conducted by People First, traditional political persuasion does not scale effectively through overt political creators, because audiences already hold aligned views. True cognitive influence scales through “real people” sharing seemingly organic, personal stories.
The Deep State has thus engineered a highly effective method of cognitive infiltration. By purchasing “authenticity” at scale, the distinction between genuine grassroots belief and highly managed, state-derived cognitive campaigns has been entirely erased.
The second dimension of infiltration involves the deliberate cultivation of “controlled opposition” within alternative media spaces. In classical psychological operations, controlled opposition involves injecting extreme, ridiculous or easily debunked fabrications into a broader movement to discredit its justifiable claims and to legitimize institutional calls for further digital censorship and surveillance.
By tethering legitimate conservative concerns (such as media bias, government overreach, and institutional corruption) to highly absurd theories (such as Flat Earth), the entire movement is effectively neutralized.
As Juan O Savin explained last January, the Flat Earth PSYOP was popularized by psychological warfare master (and Satanist) Lt Col Michael Aquino, who was paid at least two payments of $500,000 to push it out into the conservative community. The purpose was, “To map the suggestible nodes or persons within the greater community, so that they could then put out other information, where those people were influential to large groups, who then accepted it, because they were very skilled at pushing ideas, getting acceptance, etc.” The Pentagon was thereby able to map the conservative community and to tweak it.
As these technologies continue to develop, the domestic information space will be increasingly defined by these highly-managed, synthetic battles over peer-to-peer trust.
This article was written with additional research by James Grundvig.
(Roll video of Hasan Piker podcast)
Hasan Piker: We’re gonna keep bringing in immigrants into this country on purpose just so they can f*** your sister and then maybe even your daughter We’re gonna destroy the white race, b***h. That’s what we’re here to do!
Black Pigeon Speaks: Hasan Piker, well, he has built his brand around deliberately provocative rhetoric, as well as his circus-use of Mao imagery, revolutionary aesthetics and these have propelled this Turkish Muslim to essentially become the e-celebrity face associated with Progressive Democratic Socialism in the United States.
On the opposite side of the political spectrum sits Asmongold – I’m not exactly sure how to say that, but we’ll go with that – another enormous internet personality who has increasingly become the standard-bearer for online right-wing and anti-establishment audiences.
The famously filthy nature of this gaming-goblin-turned-political-commentator has practically become part of his public mythology, particularly after reports that his girlfriend developed a rash while staying in his disgustingly filthy home and his resulting mess requiring a serious cleaning – or so I’ve read.
At first glance, Hasan and Asmongold represent completely opposite political universes. One offers revolutionary rhetoric and the other anti-establishment conservatism. One attacks capitalism and Israel the other frequently attacks the institutions and cultural assumptions of the modern Left, as well as shoring-up unwavering support for Israel.
(Roll video of Asmongold podcast)
Asmongold: (Reading CBS NEWS article) “Jewish American pedophiles [?] go to Israel for safety.” Uh-oh. That sounds like bullshit. I don’t believe this.
Black Pigeon Speaks: But here’s the thing: both of these men exist with inside the same unprofessionalized e-celebrity influencer economy and not only that, they both belong to the same e-celebrity talent agency.
Yeah, and from the outset of this video, I should say I’m not an expert on either of these e-celebrities. It is the industry behind them that we will put into focus.
(Promo)
Black Pigeon Speaks: Online platforms are pretty clear that when a particular set of ideas – nationalism and social cohesion, for example – become too dangerous for a platform’s walled gardens.
Those voices explaining them can simply be de-ranked, demonetized, banned or pushed-out, while the more acceptable and monetizable representatives remain available to fill the vacuum.
Currently, the internet political marketplace is constantly replacing yesterday’s acceptable dissident with tomorrow’s more profitable controversy, especially with the muzzle taken off of Twitter and its transformation into X and the rise of Rumble.
And flavors of the month do change. For a long time Tim Pool, for example was acceptable and obviously algorithmically-boosted by much of the online establishment, because he presented himself as a disaffected liberal, a former Left-Wing journalist who had become increasingly skeptical of the political movement he once belonged to basically a feckless fence-sitter.
And then, there’s Lauren Southern and Pearl, for example two women who are set to face off this autumn debating over the so-called “Manosphere”, a political ecosystem Southern, herself has claimed creating, even as her public positions, allies and enemies are reinvented seemingly every few weeks.
And this is the important thing to understand about modern internet politics and that is the personalities change faster than the audience does, in that the supposed political opposites Hasan Piker and Asmongold they are both part of the exact same overlapping professional infrastructure behind the scenes and that should make you reconsider what exactly it means when these people are called “independent internet personalities”
Now, let me explain this. The e-celebrity talent agency, Night Media, well, it emerged from the professionalization of the YouTube economy with executives and investors bringing experience from sports management, advertising, digital media and major entertainment companies.
This is no longer some guy helping his friend upload videos to YouTube. It is an industry. There are managers, sponsors, marketing firms, analytic companies, brand partnerships and increasingly-sophisticated systems for identifying which personalities can reach which audiences. And then essentially, curating entire baskets of personalities for every conceivable ideological niche, giving every demographic its preferred mouthpiece.
Now, most people no longer even care about the quality of the information. What they care about is the personality behind the camera, delivering it. [No, they care about the narrative and having their own opinions reinforced].
And this is where the transformation becomes considerably more profound than simply replacing CNN with YouTube, because increasingly, the product isn’t merely a physical object being advertised to you. The narrative is the product.
And once marketing becomes primarily a competition over narratives, the recommendation systems distributing those narratives becomes something considerably more consequential than an advertising tool. They become cultural machinery.
For most of human history, the major cultural narratives came from institutions that at least claimed some broader purpose: religion, family, community, nation, philosophy, tradition.
Now, increasingly, cultural context is being assembled by advertising systems, recommendation algorithms and engagement metrics.
Literal mathematical systems are helping determine which cultural stories proliferate. And the algorithms don’t have moral philosophy they don’t understand the difference between social cohesion and social destruction. And This is where the concept of a post hyper-normalization of society becomes useful.
The old Soviet idea of hyper normalization described a system in which propaganda maintained the appearance of normality even though everyone could see that reality was increasingly detached from the official narrative.
The modern version works entirely different. Instead of one official narrative being imposed from above, millions of personal narratives are being generated simultaneously, each one tailored to a different audience and the resulting feedback loops gradually construct the informational environment in which people understand their world.
For example, two people can wake up consume completely different media ecosystems and by the end of the day, possess radically different explanations for what is happening in the world around them.
They aren’t merely disagreeing about politics. They are operating from different narrative perspectives and cannot even agree on what reality is. And once people’s entire understanding of the world is mediated through these feedback loops, political arguments become almost impossible to resolve, because the disagreement begins several layers beneath the actual argument.
One person sees oppression another sees hysteria. One sees fascism The other sees communism. What both sides mostly fail to see is the real threat of societal collapse, because of this.
And this is why, in part, contemporary political movements in the West and the US, in particular are so demonstrably emotionally intense, even in societies that, by historical standards remain extraordinarily prosperous. And therein lies the danger of handing cultural distribution over to systems whose primary objective is optimization, without any corresponding moral framework.
And this is why companies such as Night Media, with its roster of e-celebrities is so interesting, as it exists within a system increasingly capable of assembling recognizable faces for different ideological and cultural demographics.
A socialist audience gets its socialist celebrities. A right-wing audience gets its right-wing celebrities. The Manosphere gets its personalities, the gaming world gets its personalities and every audience gets the impression that its chosen representatives emerged organically from the community. And once the curtain is drawn back, the suddenly Independent rebel, well, he’s sitting inside the same commercial infrastructure as his purported ideological enemies.
For example, you have Hasan Piker the multimillionaire Supposed socialist who says something outrageous. And then, Asmongold the multimillionaire supposed filth goblin, well, he responds. Someone clips the response. Another personality reacts to the clip. The audience starts fighting. The algorithm notices the engagement and suddenly, one argument has become an entire week’s worth of content and both men, along with their shared talent agency Night Media profit.
This is not a flaw in the system. This is the system working. Each side gets its villain. Each side gets its hero. Each side gets confirmation that the other side is completely insane and the machine gets another profitable cycle of attention. And two supposedly opposite political e-celebrities can simultaneously then benefit from the same ecosystem.
So perhaps, then the real story isn’t Hasan Piker vs Asmongold, it is the transformation of political disagreement into an entertainment industry, where personalities are products, narratives are the merchandise, algorithms are the distribution network and attention is the currency.
The modern internet didn’t eliminate the gatekeepers, it created new ones. And unlike the old gatekeepers, these ones don’t necessarily look like gatekeepers, they look like your favorite streamer cosplaying as Mao or living in filth.
And perhaps the greatest trick of all: You don’t have to control what people think when you can control which narratives become impossible to escape.