The Problem of Conflicting Narrative Warfare Powers

The dissident has a problem.

That problem is information. The specific problem is that information from sources outside the imperial sphere dominated by the power he dissents against is no less a weapon of Narrative Warfare than the sources he is accostumed to- all that varies are the details of how that institution executes its primary function of prosecuting such warfare.

It is easy for imperial powers to coopt dissidents to become agents to turn and employ against its rival powers. That is Sun Tzu 101, right out of the chapter on spies, and yet it continues to be a problem.

It is easy for this to happen because rival imperial powers see the value in taking enemy nationals or subjects and making them into mouthpieces for its propaganda, all under the cover of "exposing the truth". That turned dissident is now an enemy spy in all but name, and the imperial power in question is correct to regard such a catspaw as an enemy spy- and treat them accordingly.

We see this cooptation process in two notable examples.

The first is the influence of Alexander Dugin on Western dissidents in North America and Europe, often misunderstanding what his positions actually are--willfully so--in order to simultaneously sell the image of a Russia that is not real as well as to attempt to signal receptability to Russian Intelligence for cooperation (and thus cooptation).

(In this case, it is an attempt--in vain, as it turns out--to court external support for their efforts. This example is one of failure, as Russian Intelligence sees no value in rendering such support and right now lacks the means to do so anyway.)

The second is in the influence of the Chinese Communist Party with dissidents focused on the Asian sphere, such as The New Atlas. In this case it is the CCP that is the active party, seeking out pliable Western dissidents and using an influence operation similar to what was executed against Project Veritas in order to suborn the dissident to the Party and make him an asset under their control.

(This is an example of success, as through just a couple of turned dissidents they can and have erected a vast and deniable influence network throughout the sphere of Western dissidents and promulgate CCP-favored narratives with ease such that even the savvy can be fooled.)

The CIA and its fellow agencies in Globohomo have long ago standardized this very form of turning and deploying dissidents against Russia and China. That's what the entire Non-Governmental Organization network exists to do: give cover to Globohomo intelligence operations to undermine enemy targets and set them up to be taken over and assimilated into Globohomo.

This issue is complicated by one other fact: no successful dissident movement succeeds without operating as an insurgency, and no insurgency succeeds without external support. The savvy among all dissidents know this, which is why they seek out external support in the first place and often find rival imperial operations waiting for them on the other side.

This is a big problem. Yet, due to the liminal space issue I mentioned last week, now again comes into the picture.

from Imgflip Meme Generator

The entire point of having your dissident organization establish a satellite office in a liminal space location such as Dubai, Singapore, or some other location between two or all of the imperial powers is that you can establish there the infrastructure necessary to do the following:

• Secure access to the banking system.
• Erect the infrastructure necessary to finance operations at home.
• Use that same infrastructure to move personnel around deniably by giving them jobs in companies operating where you need them.
• Use that same infrastructure to establish a legal business machine that can support your organization and its members' dependents entirely outside of state power.
• Use that same infrastructure to erect wholly independent information (and thus intelligence) sources that can be relied upon.

The latter two in particular are vital to success. You need to guarantee the loyalty of your supporters; being able to feed, clothe, and house them despite the state's efforts goes a long way towards doing that. You need to have reliable intelligence to act upon; using your non-combatant suppporter to seek out reliable sources, vet what they find, and process it into useful intelligence. You must become your own news network.

That most dissidents worldwide can't even concieve of this at all is a good reason why they are so readily crushed or turned into assets for another imperial power that also hates them, wants to exterminate them, and thinks it's funny.

No one said making Empire fall is easy, quick, or convenient. This is what must be done--what is necessary--to make Empire fall.