Element Descriptor
When you speak truth to – or about – power there are usually consequences, especially when there’s profits or prestige at stake. Knowing what tools states and corporations use to silence their opponents means you at least won’t be surprised when you’re on the receiving end. For what that is worth. It goes beyond COINTELPRO, btw…
Level descriptors
| Novice | Practitioner | Expert | Ninja |
|---|---|---|---|
| You know who is more likely to be on the receiving end of outright repression in a given situation, while understanding that the carrot and the stick are fungible and mutating things… | You know the tricks of the trade- how COINTELPRO wasn’t the first and won’t be the last, and how it plays out in your own country, and what corporations have been doing to destroy their opposition. | You can compare what is going on now in your country with what has been happening elsewhere, recently and in the distant past. You know how organisations have successfully resisted and how they will have to keep innovating to stay ahead of efforts at defeating democratic forces. | You have a comprehensive knowledge of counter-insurgency, security service tactics and where that overlaps with all kinds of horrible corporate bastardry. Hollywood script writers come begging for truth they can turn into fiction, as do men and women who “work for the government.” |
Element Overview Essay
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The reason people do this badly respond to this badly in the West, is we’re not often on the receiving end of it. And we think that people who are have done something wrong. I remember watching those houses burn in Philadelphia when they were firebombed. It was a pivotal moment for me when I understood that the state really hates black men. People who don’t have the full lock, refused to back down.
Consequences? So if you don’t understand that corporate and state repression do happen, you’ll be surprised when it does, and unprepared and you’ll be eating meat, which is sad. You should be tough meat.
So what is to be done? Read up on it realise that it could happen to you. And it will happen to you if you’re doing the right kinds of active citizenship.
Make yourself less vulnerable.
Make yourself more prepared.
It’s never going to be enjoyable. But it’s a fact of life. Those with power, I’m not going to give it up without a fight. And the fight means that you’re going to be on the receiving end of some unpleasantness, which might simply mean legal harassment, it might mean infiltration and attempts to decapitate it might mean rent-a-thug.
It’s well worth remembering states and corporates do this stuff. It exists outside of Steven Seagal movies
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