Psyop, Until Proven Otherwise
Intentional Incredulity
Welcome to Polymathic Being, a place to explore counterintuitive insights across multiple domains. These essays explore common topics from different perspectives and disciplines to uncover unique insights and solutions.
Today's topic investigates the very real world of Psychological Operations that you are exposed to every day. Thankfully, we’ll also explore a series of tools you can apply to ensure you don’t fall victim to a PSYOP and can start having better conversations.
Intro to Psychological Operations
Psycholocal Operations, known as PSYOPS, are a group of tactics under the larger umbrella of Information Operations. Both have played a critical role in war, statecraft, and manipulation since the dawn of human speech. One of the oldest recorded tales is from the Bible, in Genesis, where the serpent does not lie to Eve; he asks a question and offers ways to justify an action Eve had already been contemplating.1 The truth was more manipulative when framed with the right questions and triggers.
“Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’”
In geopolitics, PSYOPS never cease. The U.S. uses the CIA, the NSA, and more to conduct operations abroad, and the Russian Internet Research Agency, Chinese Troll Farms, and even non-state actors do the same back to the U.S. The reason is simple: a destabilized adversary is weaker and more exploitable.
The political PSYOPS are the most fantastical. Whether it’s PizzaGate, Russia "Hacking" the 2016 Election,2 The "Stolen" 2020 Election (huh… a pattern?) that Biden had body doubles as President or that Trump is a Russian asset, the one thing in common is that it doesn’t take a lot of rational thinking to raise serious credibility issues on any one of them and they all scream PSYOP. Let’s investigate one that motivated this essay. It’s from a Facebook post a friend shared, and it starts like this:
Senator Jeff Merkley walked into the hearing room like a man who’d just been told his car got keyed and knew exactly who did it. On the other side of the table sat Christopher Landau, Trump’s nominee for Deputy Secretary of State, who looked like he hadn’t slept since Inauguration Day, and Matthew Whitaker, a former acting Attorney General who carries himself like a guy who still brags about his high school bench press record.
The setup was simple: Merkley had questions, and Landau and Whitaker had excuses — weak, sweaty excuses that couldn’t outrun a three-legged dog.
It didn’t take long for the whole thing to unravel. Merkley started calmly, like a guy setting mousetraps in a room full of blindfolded rats. Then the hammer dropped…
Two things to note right off the bat. First, this is just the start of a longer post, and it leads with incredible priming language used to trigger biases. It’s a masterful example of emotive language that goes far beyond how most authors, outside of creative writing, articulate critical information like the proposed threat that the President of the United States is a Russian Asset. It’s important to note that all this language is wrapped around nuggets of things that are true, but the framing of that language completely changes our interpretation, just like in the Garden of Eden.
The second thing to note is the anonymous nature of the group posting:
also has a Substack that is equally cryptic in anonymity. There is zero engagement with anyone else3, and it appears to be just a stream of highly inflammatory content. Their About Page4 has two paragraphs justifying why they don’t need to cite or source their materials because they are fighting the good fight.
So, we have an anonymous entity posting mountains of unsourced content, all of which is designed to trigger a response toward social division. Once you add this context, you can more easily notice the neat pivots when facts would be warranted and the supplementation of truth with emotion. PSYOPs know that the human mind is a rational rider on an emotional elephant, and they know how to get your elephant to stampede. As evidence of how successful this division is, here’s what my friend posted when they reshared that Facebook post:
Ok. I’ve tried not to take sides and I can’t be like that anymore. If you choose to unfriend me, go ahead. I get it. We’re on different sides and have different beliefs. You’re going to say not so nice things about me. I’m ok with that. Not everyone likes me. So be it….I wish you a happy and prosperous life.
Their elephant started stampeding through the jungle, and they were willing to view any disagreement as an end to a friendship. There’s no invitation to learn the truth, just tribal posturing driven by emotive language from an anonymous source. Clearly, this isn’t a great place to end up, so let’s look at a great piece of advice and weave together a series of actions you can take to regain control of your elephant.
Countering Information Operations
“PSYOP, until proven otherwise.”
One of the best recommendations I’ve heard recently on how to deal with the regular outpouring of news on a variety of fantastical topics was on a recent podcast. Bret Weinstein advised treating everything as a “PSYOP, until proven otherwise.” I have to admit, it’s a fantastic piece of advice.
What’s counterintuitive is that you’d think we’d naturally be wary of these sorts of clear ploys. We are indeed skeptical of the fantastical claims from others, and we can see when PSYOPS are duping them. So why are these PYOPS so successful writ large? It’s because we default to believing what we really want to be true while often dismissing the actual truth.
So, for me, I treat everything as a PSYOP until proven otherwise. This is especially applicable if I really want it to be true! The more I want it to be true (or false), the more likely I am to fall victim to a Psychological Operation. PSYOP, until proven otherwise, is a great way to pause our emotional elephant and let the dust settle on a contentious topic. It forces us to step back so we can apply rational analysis.
Think of it like testing a hypothesis with the scientific method: I need to look for facts and data that support the assertion instead of simple emotional appeals. It’s also important to note that PSYOPS love to shift the Burden of Proof where these posts make incredible claims and then demand you prove them wrong. This leads to proving a negative, which is a clever tactic to make it more difficult.
When you add all of this together, you realize the content isn’t up for debate; it’s there to create division. It’s not about truth, so we aren’t going to disprove it. What we can do is prepare ourselves so we aren’t the ones getting sucked into a PSYOP. Thankfully, there are some practical steps we can start with:
Recognize clickbait priming with emotionally loaded words and imagery. Look for sleight of hand and logical fallacies, like begging the question where the conclusion is already assumed to be true, the tactic of that first Facebook post.
Get to know your triggers for things that upset you and those that confirm your biases. Things you really want to be true are the easiest targets of triggers.
Be aware when the situation stacks biases, such as too much information, not enough meaning, and a need to act fast. Look for long posts with histronic emotion, vague assertions, and demands for action, which stack biases.
Understand that your brain has an exceptional capability to smooth over your own cognitive glitches. Maintaining mental consistency is a cognitive superpower but can also result in powerful cognitive blindness. You aren’t a rational being; you are a rationalizing being who doesn’t like being wrong.
That’s a lot to grapple with all at once, which is why I love the distillation: PSYOP, until proven otherwise. This simple tactical pause is essential to taking those next steps so you can separate fact from fiction and ensure you aren’t falling victim to psychological operations from malicious actors sowing division.
Remember, Heaven can be high, and the Emperor should be far away. Let’s not collapse our conversations into a hellscape and bring political divisions into our homes. The world outside is so amazing when you practice intentional incredulity.
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The Bible. Genesis 3:1-6. New American Standard Bible
Yes, Russia meddled in the election, and the FBI found that they invested relatively equally in both candidates ’ campaigns. The goal was division, and they succeeded.
EDIT 3/16: They apparently took umbrage at this essay and penned this reply which is amazing in that it does a great job showing my point. Of Note, I don’t think they’re a Russian Asset. I think they’re a 20 year old kid with a creative writing degree from a liberal arts college who is ignorant that they’re following Russian Internet Research Tactics 101.
I took a screenshot in case they decided to update their page after getting called out:
What a load of absolute bollocks.
Assume everything is a PSYOP.
OK.
A quick watch of the actual event would have told you at once that Closer to The Edge's post was an accurate report in the style of Hunter S. Thompson - I'm assuming you've both heard of and read him.
Now let's look at you.
What is your actual point here using Closer to the Edge's post? It's instantly checkable, verifiable very quickly and easily. What matters isn't anonymity nor citation but whether what is promulgated can be quickly verified as fact. If you haven't worked out how to fact check using various search engines or how to access peer reviewed articles etc then you really must.
Closer to the Edge reports on current affairs and events in a style which I enjoy. They're not written in any way to manipulate the reader given that the said events are usually all over the mainstream media anyway.
There is absolutely nothing exciting let alone 'Fantastical' about the post regarding Senator Merkley's questioning, you can watch it in its entirety on YouTube.
So, Michael, what is your point?
If you want us to have any credence in your mediocre ramblings, I would strongly suggest using an article that might indeed be fantastical and involve a degree of manipulation rather than one that doesn't.
This is a really good post and I like the approach. I remember when I was much younger I was coming out of an alcoholic fog and getting sober and clean. As I was trying to figure out the world, I was reading everything from Ayn Rand to Karl Marx. I had a friend who was recruited by the CIA as an electronics wiz. He never revealed too much, but was working on surveillance. We got together one time and he saw a copy of the guardian, not the same guardian as today, but a much more left-leaning newspaper. It freaked him out.
I struggled with trying to figure out what was true as I knew all the messages from every angle were trying to hook me. Ultimately, I personally thought Rand was a heartless person and Marx was an idealist and his philosophy was perverted by so many regimes.
So now here I am today, at 60 years old, where I definitely lean more on the left. But what’s fascinating is that I am deeply involved in activism and recognize the limitations of motivating others through logical (logos) arguments, I try that as a basis but the path of passion (pathos) is more effective.
I try to limit my consumption of news and social media to maintain sanity and try to focus more on critical thinking, however, my wife and I were watching MSNBC although we know it was an echo chamber, jokingly she said it was like a warm hug!
Treating everything like a PSYOP is a great way to check myself.
Thank you