Seems like Ms. DiResta should be a featured witness in an upcoming Congressional hearing, so that the entire citizenry can hear her responses to basic questions -- under oath. Sunlight is the best disinfectant for the rot she and others have caused over the past 8 years.
You don’t actually think she’d respect being “under oath” in such a hearing, do you? People like her have convinced themselves that lying and misleading under any and all circumstances, including under oath, is not only justifiable but demanded of them.
I do. I think many like her melt under authority. Fundamentally, an order-taker. Thoughts & actions derivative, not independent. Perhaps I’m wrong -- but let’s find out.
Let’s hope you are right. If Ms. DiResta is as smart, ambitious and accomplished as Michael outlines in his article here, she doesn’t sound like a follower to me. She sounds like one of the leaders within the movement.
You’d be surprised, Head Girl types, though smart, ambitious and accomplished, typically get where they get by following the rules rather than drawing outside the lines.
She sure drew outside the lines in the Alabama senate campaign when she created the false Russian bots and other things. It was a sophisticated very partisan sewing of disinformation and massive influence operation. She seems on the order of Mark Elias. I wouldn't discount her as mere girl boss. She's dangerous and effective.
It would be good for all Americans if Mark Elias suffered a voice box failure. Just saying that, I imagine the gears of Democratic authority grinding into motion to ensure I can't continue spreading misinformation about its operators.
I think not. DiResta sounds like (I have not read anything beyond Public's post here) a rhetorically gifted liar or perhaps an intellectual captive to a prescribed narrative that posits any speech that undermines broad, central governmental control is dangerous. As such, she will quite happily lie and obfuscate through any interview she undertakes, regardless of what's at stake. Ideologically motivated people, particularly elite people throughout history have viewed it as their privilege to obscure their purpose and true self. It is a narcissistic position that serves them well within an authoritarian framework. Beria wouldn't have fessed up to his actions were he to face an examination by Soviet Governors looking for answers to Stalin's purges and neither would an American authoritarian take pause to care about a truth that disagrees with his/her beliefs.
I think you're right. I encountered her back in 2015 at the California legislature when I was fighting for medical freedom. She's sociopathic. Someone who is convinced that her agenda is justified no matter what. Twisting reality is no problem in her mind.
Exactly. And if you're captured enough (and I suffer from this) dismissing the opposition without any thought is as easy as sitting in a chair. It's remarkable to live in a time of information ready at hand to everyone while a large, educated group of citizens believe that opposition views are dangerous and should be silenced.
It seems to me that it’s human to be captured by our own view of things and to push away differences. For me it took being cast out of the progressive fold to fully see the cult dynamics at work. I cherish my intellectual freedom at this point and feel very wary of taking sides.
The purpose is to catch her in lies, as Michael did in this article, and then accuse her of lying to Congress. But do we have skillful, intelligent questioners on that committee?
You’re taking flak because you are over the target. It is telling how she disabled comments on her substack. I was blocked for calling Dan Rather for whipping his mentally Ill readers into frenzies. Full receipts here: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/how-to-post-a-cringe-comment
Let's have some fun and translate some of these quotes from the original Karenspeak into plain English:
"I didn’t want to be in a preschool with a bunch of anti-vaxxers*, candidly."
*anti-vaxxers: smelly proles/unwashed masses/heretics/Bad People/SexistRacistNaziFascists/people guilty of the crime of thinking for themselves/dissidents/extremists/enemies of the regime/People not from the Ivy League/ People without elite connections."
“…Shellenberger continues to mislead. He cited fabricated statistics and claims from a *crank…”
*crank: pretty much the same definition as the previous.
Apologies to Lewis Carroll, who must have known something about petty tyrants trying to control you "for your own good", which seems to be an eternal nuisance akin to bacteria and lice:
“When I use a word,’ Karen Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’
’The question is,’ said Michael Shellenberger, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’
’The question is,’ said Karen Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.”
Thanks again to Michael for being so sane and steady, and for fighting to maintain our basic freedoms.
In the disinformation campaign waged by DiResta and her team to help Democrat Doug Jones win election, they literally “imitated Russian tactics”—this, despite DiResta and her team working with Democrats in the U.S. Senate to pen a report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. If Russia interferes with an election, it’s Extremely Dangerous to Our Democracy™; but when Democratic disinformation experts do it to defeat Republicans, it’s totally cool.
The idea that Russian interference swung the 2016 election in Trump's favor is such a joke. A New Knowledge report found that just “11% of the total content” attributed to the IRA and 33% of user engagement with it “was related to the election.” The IRA’s posts “were minimally about the candidates,” with “roughly 6% of tweets, 18% of Instagram posts, and 7% of Facebook posts” having “mentioned Trump or Clinton by name.”
Moreover, per Oxford’s Computational Propaganda Research Project, the Russians spent an infinitesimal amount of money on these social media memes and ads: $73,711 between 2015 and 2017, with about $46,000 spent on Facebook ads before the 2016 election. For context, that amounts to about 0.05% of the $81 million spent on Facebook ads by the Clinton and Trump campaigns combined.
After reading the article I switched on the Joe Rogan podcast with DiResta and was surprised to see Rogan treating her with kid gloves. Rogan, was buying into all of the bs she was tossing at him like a little boy in school impressed by his teacher. People like DiResta who come across as if they are doing us a public service are the most dangerous of all. Why do we need this little lady protecting us from the wrong information? Can't we be allowed to judge for ourselves? As we can easily see this gal has got an agenda and all she has to use against Shellenberger is deception and ad hominem insults.
Rogan was completely on board with the demonization of so-called anti-vaxxers for years. This was a Trojan horse being used by the likes of DiResta. He's become aware of the underlying agenda through the Covid debacle. But he still thinks it came out of nowhere. Doesn't get that this has been in the making, through the scapegoating of parents who wanted to protect medical freedom, for years.
It’s so weird how no one has noticed how similar cries of Russian US election interference are to dictators’ claims that protest movements are due to “foreign agitators “. (See Iran, Egypt, Russia, Cuba, etc)
What's funny is that these dictators' cries that "protest movements are due to foreign agitators" are often correct, and they're often the work of US and allied agents! People like Victoria Nuland, CIA, US funded NGO's with the word "Democracy" in their name, etc. These US operations go in and assist and infiltrate existing protest movements to overturn not only dictators, but often duly elected (albeit via imperfect elections) governments. These are called color revolutions.
Can't put the genie back in the bottle, kids. Every Soviet citizen knew if Pravda said the weather would be sunny to bring an umbrella. We in the west knew that at least some of the news was mostly close enough to the truth, with the occasional slam dunk. But once everyone got a little too chummy with Bill Clinton, and the Bush II White House pruned back the press corps to their liking, it was the end of the road.
Now the mainstream press is just a jobs program for Ivy League English majors with an ax to grind.
When you think something like the Disinformation Governance Board has been terminated, think again. Like the ants in my kitchen, these people never go away. They just go to new hiding places until they find one that works, and that keeps them successfully concealed while they resume their business.
Regarding the government weaponization of information and the various forms of disinformation... isn't it always the case that the weapons the government develops to fight foreign enemies will eventually be turned on its own citizens?
I'm reminded of what Prez J'Biden said early in his presidency about citizens and their right to keep and bear arms:
“If you wanted or if you think you need to have weapons to take on the government, you need F-15s and maybe some nuclear weapons. The point is that there has always been the ability to limit — rationally limit the type of weapon that can be owned and who can own it.”
Michael, thank you so very much for addressing the role of odious Renee DiResta at Stanford and elsewhere. Another still festering sore that should be addressed and cleaned is just how once stellar Stanford University fell so deeply into corruption, oppression and censorship culture.
Remember -- Stanford administrative terror led to suicide of a wonderful and beloved-by-all goalie of women soccer team. The ratio of administrative surveillance to students is close to 1:1.
Stanford University is now fully dominated by Censorship Industrial Complex and has myriad well-funded government and State security censorship operators and entities, including the infamous Renee DiResta of “Stanford Internet Observatory”.
IMPORTANT -- just look whom SBF (Samuel Bankman-Fried) and his parents (both full-time Stanford Law School professors – father also a full-time employee of criminal FTX and Alameda $40B swindle and mother - financing arm of Dem. party) – whom they financed by hundreds of millions of dollars.
See the list of 30+ organizations that have major FTX "investments": The SBF Scandal: The Players and the Money – far more extensive and – truly alarming “Covid pandemic activities” https://brownstone.org/articles/sbf-scandal-players-money/
And, of course, there is another taboo subject -- the role of St. Obama in rise of fascism in US under pretext of "defending femocracy". US coup against democratically elected government of Ukraine was under Obama, expulsion of 20+ Russian diplomats from US embassy was done in the last weeks of his administration as part of launching the Russia-gate 5-year long immense hoax, etc. St. Obama comes from a family of CIA operatives and was selected and nominated by Deep state:
A Company Family: The Untold History of Obama and the CIA
By Jeremy Kuzmarov - October 1, 2021 ( Note: Photos themselves are truly fascinating )
Good to see a Big flashlight shining on this woman. She will never operate in the silent background again. Hopefully Congress will call her in for a chat. Put her under oath and let’s see what she has to say.
Seems like Ms. DiResta should be a featured witness in an upcoming Congressional hearing, so that the entire citizenry can hear her responses to basic questions -- under oath. Sunlight is the best disinfectant for the rot she and others have caused over the past 8 years.
You don’t actually think she’d respect being “under oath” in such a hearing, do you? People like her have convinced themselves that lying and misleading under any and all circumstances, including under oath, is not only justifiable but demanded of them.
I do. I think many like her melt under authority. Fundamentally, an order-taker. Thoughts & actions derivative, not independent. Perhaps I’m wrong -- but let’s find out.
Let’s hope you are right. If Ms. DiResta is as smart, ambitious and accomplished as Michael outlines in his article here, she doesn’t sound like a follower to me. She sounds like one of the leaders within the movement.
You’d be surprised, Head Girl types, though smart, ambitious and accomplished, typically get where they get by following the rules rather than drawing outside the lines.
She sure drew outside the lines in the Alabama senate campaign when she created the false Russian bots and other things. It was a sophisticated very partisan sewing of disinformation and massive influence operation. She seems on the order of Mark Elias. I wouldn't discount her as mere girl boss. She's dangerous and effective.
It would be good for all Americans if Mark Elias suffered a voice box failure. Just saying that, I imagine the gears of Democratic authority grinding into motion to ensure I can't continue spreading misinformation about its operators.
I think not. DiResta sounds like (I have not read anything beyond Public's post here) a rhetorically gifted liar or perhaps an intellectual captive to a prescribed narrative that posits any speech that undermines broad, central governmental control is dangerous. As such, she will quite happily lie and obfuscate through any interview she undertakes, regardless of what's at stake. Ideologically motivated people, particularly elite people throughout history have viewed it as their privilege to obscure their purpose and true self. It is a narcissistic position that serves them well within an authoritarian framework. Beria wouldn't have fessed up to his actions were he to face an examination by Soviet Governors looking for answers to Stalin's purges and neither would an American authoritarian take pause to care about a truth that disagrees with his/her beliefs.
I think you're right. I encountered her back in 2015 at the California legislature when I was fighting for medical freedom. She's sociopathic. Someone who is convinced that her agenda is justified no matter what. Twisting reality is no problem in her mind.
Exactly. And if you're captured enough (and I suffer from this) dismissing the opposition without any thought is as easy as sitting in a chair. It's remarkable to live in a time of information ready at hand to everyone while a large, educated group of citizens believe that opposition views are dangerous and should be silenced.
It seems to me that it’s human to be captured by our own view of things and to push away differences. For me it took being cast out of the progressive fold to fully see the cult dynamics at work. I cherish my intellectual freedom at this point and feel very wary of taking sides.
The purpose is to catch her in lies, as Michael did in this article, and then accuse her of lying to Congress. But do we have skillful, intelligent questioners on that committee?
Let's find out. I'd be eager to see that.
Of course your pints are realistically accurate however the exposure of the duplicity is informatively valuable.
Any means to an end, yes Mr. Galt.
Like this idea!
You’re taking flak because you are over the target. It is telling how she disabled comments on her substack. I was blocked for calling Dan Rather for whipping his mentally Ill readers into frenzies. Full receipts here: https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/how-to-post-a-cringe-comment
Let's have some fun and translate some of these quotes from the original Karenspeak into plain English:
"I didn’t want to be in a preschool with a bunch of anti-vaxxers*, candidly."
*anti-vaxxers: smelly proles/unwashed masses/heretics/Bad People/SexistRacistNaziFascists/people guilty of the crime of thinking for themselves/dissidents/extremists/enemies of the regime/People not from the Ivy League/ People without elite connections."
“…Shellenberger continues to mislead. He cited fabricated statistics and claims from a *crank…”
*crank: pretty much the same definition as the previous.
Apologies to Lewis Carroll, who must have known something about petty tyrants trying to control you "for your own good", which seems to be an eternal nuisance akin to bacteria and lice:
“When I use a word,’ Karen Dumpty said in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’
’The question is,’ said Michael Shellenberger, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.’
’The question is,’ said Karen Dumpty, ‘which is to be master — that’s all.”
Thanks again to Michael for being so sane and steady, and for fighting to maintain our basic freedoms.
In the disinformation campaign waged by DiResta and her team to help Democrat Doug Jones win election, they literally “imitated Russian tactics”—this, despite DiResta and her team working with Democrats in the U.S. Senate to pen a report on Russian interference in the 2016 election. If Russia interferes with an election, it’s Extremely Dangerous to Our Democracy™; but when Democratic disinformation experts do it to defeat Republicans, it’s totally cool.
https://euphoricrecall.substack.com/p/big-disinfo
The idea that Russian interference swung the 2016 election in Trump's favor is such a joke. A New Knowledge report found that just “11% of the total content” attributed to the IRA and 33% of user engagement with it “was related to the election.” The IRA’s posts “were minimally about the candidates,” with “roughly 6% of tweets, 18% of Instagram posts, and 7% of Facebook posts” having “mentioned Trump or Clinton by name.”
Moreover, per Oxford’s Computational Propaganda Research Project, the Russians spent an infinitesimal amount of money on these social media memes and ads: $73,711 between 2015 and 2017, with about $46,000 spent on Facebook ads before the 2016 election. For context, that amounts to about 0.05% of the $81 million spent on Facebook ads by the Clinton and Trump campaigns combined.
https://euphoricrecall.substack.com/p/new-study-confirms-russian-twitter
Whenever you hear or read the words "our democracy," realize that it's democracy for the elites; it's not intended for you.
After reading the article I switched on the Joe Rogan podcast with DiResta and was surprised to see Rogan treating her with kid gloves. Rogan, was buying into all of the bs she was tossing at him like a little boy in school impressed by his teacher. People like DiResta who come across as if they are doing us a public service are the most dangerous of all. Why do we need this little lady protecting us from the wrong information? Can't we be allowed to judge for ourselves? As we can easily see this gal has got an agenda and all she has to use against Shellenberger is deception and ad hominem insults.
Rogan was completely on board with the demonization of so-called anti-vaxxers for years. This was a Trojan horse being used by the likes of DiResta. He's become aware of the underlying agenda through the Covid debacle. But he still thinks it came out of nowhere. Doesn't get that this has been in the making, through the scapegoating of parents who wanted to protect medical freedom, for years.
Finally, naming real names of the real people who are disenfranchising us. Keep it up Mr. Shellenberger. Please.
It’s so weird how no one has noticed how similar cries of Russian US election interference are to dictators’ claims that protest movements are due to “foreign agitators “. (See Iran, Egypt, Russia, Cuba, etc)
What's funny is that these dictators' cries that "protest movements are due to foreign agitators" are often correct, and they're often the work of US and allied agents! People like Victoria Nuland, CIA, US funded NGO's with the word "Democracy" in their name, etc. These US operations go in and assist and infiltrate existing protest movements to overturn not only dictators, but often duly elected (albeit via imperfect elections) governments. These are called color revolutions.
Oh yes, I would largely agree. It's good old fashioned imperialism - but not territorial or so much economic, but certainly cultural and political.
Well said!
Can't put the genie back in the bottle, kids. Every Soviet citizen knew if Pravda said the weather would be sunny to bring an umbrella. We in the west knew that at least some of the news was mostly close enough to the truth, with the occasional slam dunk. But once everyone got a little too chummy with Bill Clinton, and the Bush II White House pruned back the press corps to their liking, it was the end of the road.
Now the mainstream press is just a jobs program for Ivy League English majors with an ax to grind.
When you think something like the Disinformation Governance Board has been terminated, think again. Like the ants in my kitchen, these people never go away. They just go to new hiding places until they find one that works, and that keeps them successfully concealed while they resume their business.
Thank you for reporting on this
Beware attractive, intelligent and articulate people - none of these qualities mean they have your best interests at heart.
Regarding the government weaponization of information and the various forms of disinformation... isn't it always the case that the weapons the government develops to fight foreign enemies will eventually be turned on its own citizens?
I'm reminded of what Prez J'Biden said early in his presidency about citizens and their right to keep and bear arms:
“If you wanted or if you think you need to have weapons to take on the government, you need F-15s and maybe some nuclear weapons. The point is that there has always been the ability to limit — rationally limit the type of weapon that can be owned and who can own it.”
Michael, thank you so very much for addressing the role of odious Renee DiResta at Stanford and elsewhere. Another still festering sore that should be addressed and cleaned is just how once stellar Stanford University fell so deeply into corruption, oppression and censorship culture.
Remember -- Stanford administrative terror led to suicide of a wonderful and beloved-by-all goalie of women soccer team. The ratio of administrative surveillance to students is close to 1:1.
Stanford University is now fully dominated by Censorship Industrial Complex and has myriad well-funded government and State security censorship operators and entities, including the infamous Renee DiResta of “Stanford Internet Observatory”.
IMPORTANT -- just look whom SBF (Samuel Bankman-Fried) and his parents (both full-time Stanford Law School professors – father also a full-time employee of criminal FTX and Alameda $40B swindle and mother - financing arm of Dem. party) – whom they financed by hundreds of millions of dollars.
See the list of 30+ organizations that have major FTX "investments": The SBF Scandal: The Players and the Money – far more extensive and – truly alarming “Covid pandemic activities” https://brownstone.org/articles/sbf-scandal-players-money/
And, of course, there is another taboo subject -- the role of St. Obama in rise of fascism in US under pretext of "defending femocracy". US coup against democratically elected government of Ukraine was under Obama, expulsion of 20+ Russian diplomats from US embassy was done in the last weeks of his administration as part of launching the Russia-gate 5-year long immense hoax, etc. St. Obama comes from a family of CIA operatives and was selected and nominated by Deep state:
A Company Family: The Untold History of Obama and the CIA
By Jeremy Kuzmarov - October 1, 2021 ( Note: Photos themselves are truly fascinating )
https://covertactionmagazine.com/2021/10/01/a-company-family-the-untold-history-of-obama-and-the-cia/
I’m so grateful there are people of integrity taking these kind of actions. Thank you!
Good to see a Big flashlight shining on this woman. She will never operate in the silent background again. Hopefully Congress will call her in for a chat. Put her under oath and let’s see what she has to say.
sounds like DiResta and New Knowledge violated the Civil Rights of voters in Alabama. doesn’t the Biden admin press charges for that now?