I think people greatly inflate the relationship between Rojava/YPG and the US to come to this conclusion. The US has effectively abandoned the kurds at this point and maintain that the PKK (the group Ocalan created) are terrorists. (Read some of Ocalan's writings, maybe you won't like all of it, but he isn't an American op lmao.) I don't know what the feds would gain from PissPigGranddad convincing a bunch of online leftists into tacit support for American presence in Syria. I get it helps with the anti-assad/anti-russia push, but the anti-russia stance is ingrained in the American psyche without any additional propaganda needed. Also, no one gives a shit what leftists oppose/support in the USA. The Iraq war protests failed to do anything, and we have never seen a push against war like that since.
Anyone associated with Bellingcat is fed-friendly tho. And it wouldn't surprise me if Thiel money has made its way through the leftist podcast scene, but at times this feels like when libs were foaming at the mouth because so and so donated $20 to Trump or some shit.
At the end of the day podcasts, like all other forms of media, are simply part of the spectacle. The capitalist machine consumes all.
it wouldn’t surprise me if Thiel money has made its way through the leftist podcast scene
I think there was a scoop yesterday that some Thiel acolyte tacitly admitted that Anna K and Red Scare have received Thiel money to fund their podcasts, along with some other people in that sphere, so it's not much of a stretch.
Not saying Brace is or not an OP, because I don't follow him, but if he CIA would try to build a popular "leftist" from the ground up, they would not just throw him/her out there spewing pro-US interest stuff from the get go. That would throw leftist off him right away. Instead they would slowly build trust up, and what better situation that Rojava/YPG that the US has a strong presence. If Brace or any other popular leftist slowly shifts towards pro-US interest takes, they might've been an op from the get-go.
That's a very speculative position though and I don't see why they would try to mask it like that. It seems like an ostensibly "left" position would be enough to get people to listen, see: :funny-clown-hammer: but I don't even think he is an op, but just an idiot who understand his class interest.
That would also mean the current iteration of feds are far more patient and well organized than they seem to be (the Michigan plot is a good recent example of how much patience they have). Again, the left is not a threat anymore. Every leftist position is nearly immediately co-opted and defanged. I just don't see why it would be beneficial to pay someone like brace to be an op, because that is the longest set up for the smallest payoff. I feel like people would just simply stop listening to him if he pivoted to a pro-us hegemony position, and it's not like true anon is much more than a comedy show with some informative information and a small audience. My hot take on brace is he was a rich kid who hated his parents and made rebellion his identity. A reverse Mayor Pete in a sense. But that sums up a lot of left media, and gives no hint someone is an op, just liberals cosplaying. Podcasts are functionally useless media, like most media.
I honestly have no idea either way. I barely listen to true anon or any podcast unless I need background noise, but calling everything an op seems to hark back to a time when the feds needed to infiltrate communist parties due to their numbers and or potential strength. The last hurrah seems to have been the undercover shit that every state did to sow discord in every leftist group around. The internet does the majority of this work now. In a sense, the internet is the op. It pacifies and atomizes society to the point where there are no more groups or media that would ever truly threaten anything.
Again, maybe I'm wrong, and this was a lot to write about nothing lmao
:funny-clown-hammer: did far more to pose as an anarchist and had actual leftist sounding takes, his content initially was "leftist but anti-woke and edgy to attract right-wingers to turn them left", thus "tactical nword". It has only more recently turned to outright complete and total support for US interests as he double. tripled and quadrupled down on being against whatever the meanie tankies want.
I agree with @CommCat, we should be watching out for leftists that start leftist and then slide. That's precisely how they will always do ops. Treat them as ops even if they might not be, they are indistinguishable from what an op would do.
I don't follow Brace religiously, but I kinda feel like if he was an Op he would have gotten more blatant with the pro-US stuff by now. I'm 90% sure :funny-clown-hammer: is an Op and he's just full blazen repeating State Dept talking points now. Even if he was a "long con" it seems it's been a bit too long by now.
I think people greatly inflate the relationship between Rojava/YPG and the US to come to this conclusion. The US has effectively abandoned the kurds at this point and maintain that the PKK (the group Ocalan created) are terrorists. (Read some of Ocalan's writings, maybe you won't like all of it, but he isn't an American op lmao.) I don't know what the feds would gain from PissPigGranddad convincing a bunch of online leftists into tacit support for American presence in Syria. I get it helps with the anti-assad/anti-russia push, but the anti-russia stance is ingrained in the American psyche without any additional propaganda needed. Also, no one gives a shit what leftists oppose/support in the USA. The Iraq war protests failed to do anything, and we have never seen a push against war like that since.
Anyone associated with Bellingcat is fed-friendly tho. And it wouldn't surprise me if Thiel money has made its way through the leftist podcast scene, but at times this feels like when libs were foaming at the mouth because so and so donated $20 to Trump or some shit.
At the end of the day podcasts, like all other forms of media, are simply part of the spectacle. The capitalist machine consumes all.
I think there was a scoop yesterday that some Thiel acolyte tacitly admitted that Anna K and Red Scare have received Thiel money to fund their podcasts, along with some other people in that sphere, so it's not much of a stretch.
Red Scare isn't even a leftist podcast lmao. But yeah, I believe it.
Oh yeah whoops I accidentally left out the bit about them being "left-adjacent at best" when I rewrote my reply, but yeah you're right.
Its cool, I know what you mean. They are dirtbag adjacent. They may also be two of the dumbest people to listen to lmao
They are so unbelievably dumb. Lose less brain cells listening to like Alex Jones or Glenn Beck tbh
Now that I would believe - that whole section of the internet is a level 5 cognito-hazard and should be regarded as an active MKULTRA operation.
Not saying Brace is or not an OP, because I don't follow him, but if he CIA would try to build a popular "leftist" from the ground up, they would not just throw him/her out there spewing pro-US interest stuff from the get go. That would throw leftist off him right away. Instead they would slowly build trust up, and what better situation that Rojava/YPG that the US has a strong presence. If Brace or any other popular leftist slowly shifts towards pro-US interest takes, they might've been an op from the get-go.
That's a very speculative position though and I don't see why they would try to mask it like that. It seems like an ostensibly "left" position would be enough to get people to listen, see: :funny-clown-hammer: but I don't even think he is an op, but just an idiot who understand his class interest.
That would also mean the current iteration of feds are far more patient and well organized than they seem to be (the Michigan plot is a good recent example of how much patience they have). Again, the left is not a threat anymore. Every leftist position is nearly immediately co-opted and defanged. I just don't see why it would be beneficial to pay someone like brace to be an op, because that is the longest set up for the smallest payoff. I feel like people would just simply stop listening to him if he pivoted to a pro-us hegemony position, and it's not like true anon is much more than a comedy show with some informative information and a small audience. My hot take on brace is he was a rich kid who hated his parents and made rebellion his identity. A reverse Mayor Pete in a sense. But that sums up a lot of left media, and gives no hint someone is an op, just liberals cosplaying. Podcasts are functionally useless media, like most media.
I honestly have no idea either way. I barely listen to true anon or any podcast unless I need background noise, but calling everything an op seems to hark back to a time when the feds needed to infiltrate communist parties due to their numbers and or potential strength. The last hurrah seems to have been the undercover shit that every state did to sow discord in every leftist group around. The internet does the majority of this work now. In a sense, the internet is the op. It pacifies and atomizes society to the point where there are no more groups or media that would ever truly threaten anything.
Again, maybe I'm wrong, and this was a lot to write about nothing lmao
I don't know, :funny-clown-hammer: has almost 400k subs
:funny-clown-hammer: did far more to pose as an anarchist and had actual leftist sounding takes, his content initially was "leftist but anti-woke and edgy to attract right-wingers to turn them left", thus "tactical nword". It has only more recently turned to outright complete and total support for US interests as he double. tripled and quadrupled down on being against whatever the meanie tankies want.
I agree with @CommCat, we should be watching out for leftists that start leftist and then slide. That's precisely how they will always do ops. Treat them as ops even if they might not be, they are indistinguishable from what an op would do.
I don't follow Brace religiously, but I kinda feel like if he was an Op he would have gotten more blatant with the pro-US stuff by now. I'm 90% sure :funny-clown-hammer: is an Op and he's just full blazen repeating State Dept talking points now. Even if he was a "long con" it seems it's been a bit too long by now.