Accidental Aspic

I spent 13 years in counterintelligence and HUMINT. Let me explain why the government psyop operation on X is a problem. I'm not some random person speculating about intelligence operations. I spent 13 years in the United States Army doing counterintelligence and human intelligence work. Then another 7 years working for the government in related fields. I know how this works. When I tell you that military PSYOP personnel operating on a domestic social media platform is a serious problem, I need you to understand I'm not being hyperbolic. What PSYOP actually does: Psychological Operations are designed to influence the emotions, attitudes, and behavior of target audiences. That's the literal job description. These are professionals trained to shape how people think, what they believe, and how they act. This is a legitimate function — in foreign theaters. PSYOP exists to influence foreign populations in areas where the US military operates. It's a tool of warfare and foreign policy. The problem: It's not supposed to be used domestically. There's a reason for this. The Smith-Mundt Act historically prohibited the government from directing propaganda at American citizens. The idea was simple: the US military and intelligence community should not be in the business of psychologically manipulating the American public. That's what authoritarian governments do. That's what we criticized the Soviet Union for. That's what we point to when we call countries "unfree." What's happening now: US military psychological operations personnel are now embedded in the platform that tens of millions of Americans use as a primary news and information source. The "free speech" platform. The one that was supposed to be the alternative to government-influenced big tech. Let me be clear about what this means: The same people who are trained to run influence campaigns on foreign populations — to change what they think, to manipulate their behavior, to shape their perception of reality — are now operating on a platform used primarily by Americans. The irony is suffocating: The MAGA crowd screamed for years about "government censorship" and "deep state control" of social media. Elon Musk bought Twitter explicitly to "free" it from government influence. And now? Literal military psychological warfare specialists are running operations on the platform. And MAGA is fine with it. Because it's THEIR government now. THEIR psyop. This is what I was trained to recognize: In my years doing counterintelligence, part of my job was identifying foreign influence operations. Recognizing when a population was being manipulated. Understanding the techniques. I know what a domestic influence operation looks like. I know the signs. I know the methods. And I'm watching it happen in real-time to my own country, being cheered on by people who think they're "free thinkers" while consuming content curated by military psychological operations specialists. It doesn't matter if you agree with the current administration. Today it's your team running the psyop. Tomorrow it won't be. The infrastructure you're cheering for will be used against you eventually. That's how this works. That's why we had rules against it. You don't give the government the power to psychologically manipulate the domestic population just because you like the current president. That power doesn't go away when the next administration takes over. Wake up. You're not free thinkers. You're targets. And you're thanking them for it.