A Valuable Narrative Warfare Primer

Last weekend, Joshua Lisec did a long Twitter thread on Manipulation vs. Persuation. This is Narrative Warfare 101.

I responded to the part that most clearly demonstrates that Manipulation is Narrative Warfare.

This? This is what Hollywood and OldPub is all about.

Big Two comics try to do it too, but suck at it now.

This is why major powers treat mass media as a national security priority- BECAUSE IT IS! https://t.co/vNBa9ChaQR

— Bradford C. Walker (@MrBCWalker) August 3, 2025

You can find the thread here.

The context of the thread is mostly in the form that a Normie would grasp without effort: marketing and advertising of services and products to him in an unethical (if not illegal) manner meant to short or cheat him in the exchange.

That quoted post, on the other hand, shows how these same techniques are used by Academia and the Media--including entertainment media--to advance a particular social norm that benefits them and screws over the Normies they seek to exploit.

Lisec's feed has threads like that on a regular basis; the one on how the "Boss Wife" is a Boomer-specific psychological operation that's been pushed down upon the rest of us is another recent example and it shows how those Manipulation tells were--are--present in the culture through to the present.

But, of all those forms of manipulation, it is the entertainment media that is most important. I was not kidding: the US Federal Government, as with all competent governments, shows by their deeds that they view entertainment media as a critical National Security asset that needs to be shielded (to a degree) from market forces because of its value as a Narrative Warfare asset.

You want to know why "Return to Fresh Prince" is both a meme and a phrase of derision? Recognition of that very fact in action. "The 90s was when we solved (X)" is a lie, a massive illusion, and it was entertainment media that fed and sustained that narrative despite the reality that many on all sides kept trying (with varying levels of success) to correct.

"We need more money for these programs" is fast turning out to be another that Normies are waking up to, thanks to more scandals like all the Somali-run scams in Minnesota getting out and getting national or international attention, because it's finally being allowed to be noticed and acknowledged that these programs profit from the problems they claim to solve so they not only have no incentive to fix them but to make it worse.

This is how the Foxes of Globohomo have run things for as long as they have, and the rival powers--Neo-Tsar, Red Dynasty, Curry Confederation--all ape them.

But there's too much noticing now, which is why we have this massive rush of Internet censorship, but it's too late: Empire is falling.