THEY’RE COMING FOR YOUR BRAIN: (well, sort of…)It got our attention this week when former senior CIA officers Dave Pitts and J.D. Maddox made a rather compelling case in The Cipher Brief that U.S. adversaries – including China and Russia – are effectively using cognitive warfare strategies against Americans and that the U.S. needs to get smart on the strategy…real fast. The two define ‘cognitive warfare’ as “activities conducted across a broad spectrum to achieve specific strategic objectives by influencing individuals, groups, and societies at the cognitive level—through information activities, but also through a wide range of actions and pressures that can influence cognition. Our perceptions and beliefs, what and how we think, how we make decisions, the decisions we make, and even our will and resolve are under unprecedented assault.” The piece provides insightful observations on the issue and offers some ways for all of us private citizens to defend ourselves.
YOUR BRAIN ON POLITICS: With a U.S. presidential election just days away, another piece in The Cipher Brief by terrorism experts Bruce Hoffman and Jacob Ware question what’s going on in people’s heads as fears of a U.S. civil war following the election continue to circulate. The two point to some historical instances when violence was linked to politics in this country and assess how likely we are to see some of this election’s campaign rhetoric turn violent after the vote. The obvious observation here is that people choose to live in our democracy so that they can have peaceful transitions of power, right? Or maybe the U.S. adversaries who are coming for our brains have actually captured some of them already.
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