Scott Presler’s Father Mentioned in Intelligence DOD Report on Influencing Political Outcomes
A great deal has been discussed about Rob Presler, Scott Presler’s father with a Military Information background including in Counter Terrorism in Defense Security, Global Force Planning at the Pentagon, Director of Information Operations in the Department of Defense. The below graphic is one of the best representations, showing compelling evidence but there is much more including a Department of Defence Report thanking Robert Presler and then mentioning influencing political outcomes through social media.
Robert Presler was thanked in a report from the National Defense Research Institute titled
“Improving C2 and Situational Awareness for Operations in and Through the Information Environment“ the Acknowledgements of which say: “We wish to thank our various points of contact and interlocutors in the sponsoring office: Rob Presler,…”
Report: DOD Influencing Political Outcomes War is Political – Discourse Through Social Media and Technology. The report summary describes the Information Environment (IE) saying:
“War is politics by other means” is one of the central (and most quoted) principles of Carl von Clausewitz’s military thinking.5 This observation has recurring salience for U.S. military thinking, especially when recent U.S. military efforts “have produced many tactical and operational gains, but rarely achieved desired political objectives and enduring outcomes in an efficient, timely and effective manner.”6 Enduring strategic outcomes are usually political in nature, and “military power alone is insufficient to achieve sustainable political objectives.”7 Furthermore, politics increasingly takes place in the IE—not just in the cognitive dimension of the IE in terms of the decisionmaking of national leaders and their constituents, but also in terms of the increasing volume of political discourse taking place through social media and mobile technology. Global penetration of technology is increasing, and the available modes of communication associated with that diffusion are increasing, too. Civilian populations in countries that are relevant to U.S. strategic interests have access to more information and a greater variety of conduits than ever before. They also have a greater ability to share their views with their leaders, even in autocratic or other nondemocratic regimes. Greater attention to the IE could improve DoD’s ability to influence political outcomes, through both warfare and other types of activities across the range of military operations.”
The implications from this paper to allegations of Scott Presler influencing large political opinions both of him and Early Voting and Mail in Ballots are staggering:
The Report includes Mentions of Memetic Warfare
What is Memetic Warfare?
“a form of modern information warfare and psychological warfare that involves the propagation of memes on social media to influence public opinion. It shares similarities with traditional propaganda and misinformation tactics but is tailored to the digital age, particularly social media platforms. Memes, which can be images, text, videos, or other forms of digital information, are used to spread ideas and narratives that can shape public perception and behavior.”
Yes, using meme’s in psychological warfare to influence public opinion.
From p32 in the report “IE situational awareness requires a detailed understanding of individuals, social groups, behavior dynamics, communication architectures, exploitation of narratives, and target audience vulnerabilities, as well as the newly emerging techniques of real-time, live big data analytics, social media scraping, and
memetic warfare.”
The Report Literally Describes the Exact Tactics Being Used to Defend Scott Presler’s Reputation as Shown Above. A quote from p14 describes the exact tactics used swarm any critical post: “
When a post by a user has been met with an inundation of opprobrium or “flaming” by other users, the initial user may be hesitant (suppressed) to post again expressing similar views.”
And another quote from p88 which says: “
Additionally, social media platforms were infiltrated by foreign bots and automated retweets. An analysis that fails to account for these facts would have negative value: It would mislead instead of inform.“
From p97-98 “A critical purpose of direct automation is as a force multiplier: It allows quicker reactions or more reactions.
The utility of using automation can be seen in Russian factories of people overseeing propaganda and trolling bots, running many accounts that are nearly identical or use slight variations on the same message, perhaps via automated rephrasing. The sheer volume of content posted on social media sites is possible only via automation, with reactions and responses to the posts controlled manually. These are near-MADCOM processes, and they suggest how hard it would be to distinguish sophisticated, fully automated propaganda from human-generated propaganda if it is deployed in large volumes.”
