this post was submitted on 03 Jan 2025
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[–] FuglyDuck@lemmy.world 1 points 5 days ago

The term your looking for is "Information Warfare"

Al Qaeda and Taliban use this, targeting military personel and civilians alike.

ISIS also uses it. (and this is being talked about again with Jabbar and New Orleans.) And then there's the other side of that, the white supremacists.

other older and more certain examples include people like George Blake (who became a communist while captive during the Korean war and was flipped to work for the soviets.)

James Armistead may have been a double agent during the Civil War.

Jack Barsky was a KGB spy in the US who, just through developing a life in the US came to turn double agent.

You've also got dozens of studies on the same process with people like conspiracy debunkers (both amatuer and professional), as well as content moderators for social media. its the same basic process albeit less dramatic. This ranges from everything with flat earthers to people combating antivax through to people pushing more dangerous content like ISIS or Proud Boys or whatever angry white dude groups are around.

sorry, I don't have links, and I can't talk about some of it. but yeah. it happens. All the time. our brains are hardwired to jump to the emotional, even if the rational says "the fuck you doing", and the propaganda used by basically everyone is designed to exploit that.