Venezuela 'Protests' in US a PsyOp

Exploring the psychological operations behind protests in the US and their implications.

Yes, I know that not EVERYTHING is a psyop. There are plenty of stupid people doing stupid things for stupid reasons, and many people who attend radical protests are just hangers-on who get their sense of importance by imagining themselves revolutionaries. 

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But just as some conspiracies are real, which is why the word exists in the first place, there really are psychological operations, and every government and large organization spends a lot of time, money, and effort to shape the "information battlespace" or even a market. 

Governments deployed actual psychological operations units during COVID to create fear and induce compliance

On a more benign level, one of the most successful psyops campaigns in the private sector was the launching of Red Bull. In order to create a mystique, the company didn't use advertising, but a marketing campaign that created the false impression that Red Bull was hyper-popular, and if you wanted to be cool, you should try Red Bull

It’s the late 1980’s. You’re getting ready to head out to the club with some friends, but you’re feeling a little low on energy. What better way to put the spring back in your step than with an energy drink?

The only problem: with so many options available, which do you choose?

That was the issue faced by industry giant Red Bull, back during the early stages of their business. Energy drinks were fast becoming the next big trend, but that led to the market becoming saturated with alternatives.

How could Red Bull stand out from the crowd? With a truly unconventional strategy.

Red Bull’s Genius Marketing Solution

Rubbish bins. 

Yep, you read that right.

Over the span of a couple of months, the team filled London’s rubbish bins with empty cans of Red Bull. Not only this, but they gave out free samples to DJs and left cans lying around outside of clubs.

The goal: to create the illusion of popularity. By filling the rubbish bins of London with empty Red Bull cans, people would draw the conclusion that Red Bull was THE energy drink of choice.

After all, it was what everyone was drinking…right?

Consumers assumed that Red Bull was popular for a reason, which steadily began to influence purchasing decisions. Nowadays? Red Bull has a 43% global market share* of the energy drinks sector, making it by far the most popular out of its competitors.

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That is one successful PsyOp. So if anybody tells you that they are a myth, or only deployed in warfare, that's just not true. 

During the Trump years, the American public has been subjected to countless psyops run by his opponents. I generically refer to them as "hoaxes," but the hoax is just the kernel around which the operations are built. It is the steady drumbeat and the creation of a false impression that 'everybody' thinks this way that makes a psyop a psyop. A concerted, organized, and usually well-funded campaign to create an illusion. 

Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't. Often enough, the audience is not everybody, but some subset of the population who can be mobilized to get a desired result. 

The climate hysteria has been a very effective psyop (whatever you think of the reality of climate change, you have to admit that the drumbeat of propaganda that has resulted in trillions of wasted dollars and the concentration of power has been effective and highly dishonest). 

Communist anti-war propaganda? A very mixed record. It certainly hurt Bush in his later years, but mostly because the war itself turned into a disaster. 

The anti-Trump/pro-Maduro protests are clearly part of a foreign national psyop, and one that I doubt will have much impact outside the circles of people already inclined to be hypermotivated already by hatred of Trump and America. 

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NEW: Within minutes of the U.S. military operation in Venezuela that led to the arrest of Nicolas Maduro, a hardened cell of self-described Marxist, socialist, and communist leaders launched a psychological and propaganda operation in the United States

"From a military intelligence perspective, experts say the overnight sequence bears the hallmarks of a pre-positioned influence network executing a rapid-response operation. The synchronization of messaging, the staggered release of content across aligned platforms and the immediate transition from online agitation to physical mobilization point to an ecosystem designed not for spontaneous protest, but for ideological warfare.

In this framework, experts say, the nonprofit leaders are foot soldiers in Maduro’s war on the United States, acting as civilian operatives advancing the strategic interests of a foreign ideological project. Their role is not to fight with weapons, but to contest legitimacy, shape public perception, apply internal pressure on U.S. decision-making during moments of external conflict and further the cause of communism, experts say."

Yes, I know. "Experts say..." is a bad sign, but in this case, I suspect the "experts" are right. If you look at the fact that protesters around the country had signs ready almost immediately in cities across America, it's clear this campaign is inorganic

As the U.S. military carried out a daring operation to capture Venezuela's Nicolás Maduro, a second front opened up within minutes in the United States: an information warfare, psychological and propaganda operation run by a hardened cell of self-described Marxist, socialist and communist leaders.

For years, this cell has fomented anti-American hate in the U.S. under the cover of "anti-war" protests, rallying activists after the 9/11 attacks to condemn the U.S. response, appropriating "anti-racism" protests after the 2020 killing of George Floyd, marching with Antifa agitators, organizing antisemitic campus encampments after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Hamas and activating "working-class Americans" to support Maduro and his regime in a war against "U.S. imperialism."

A Fox News Digital analysis of their minute-by-minute moves overnight reveals how this network activated a coordinated ideological and information warfare campaign, moving through digital social media channels with quickly produced posters to mobilize foot soldiers to the streets for an "EMERGENCY DAY OF ACTION" in New York City; Washington, D.C.; and an estimated 100 other cities, moving with the speed and discipline of an organized military operation.

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There are lots of parties and NGOs out there organized to undermine American interests, and its difficult to untangle the web of how they are connected and funded. 

Maybe they run daycares? 

But there are certainly money flows from outside the country, from NGOs within the country, and often from blue governments through cutouts. Zohran Mamdani's connection to the DSA and its connections to communist-led NGOs are just the tip of the iceberg. And with Mamdani's and other DSA candidates, you can see the ultimate goal of the money flows and psyops: power. 

At 1:35 a.m., as U.S. special forces teams had just landed in Venezuela, BreakThrough News, a socialist propaganda arm of the network, published some of the first video from the U.S. military strikes, blasting the Trump administration for waging an "illegal bombing campaign of Caracas," the capital of Venezuela. It was a talking point that was going to stick.

Ten minutes later, at 1:45 a.m., one of the key leaders of this network, Manolo De Los Santos, executive director at The People's Forum, a proudly socialist 501(c)(3) nonprofit based in New York City, echoed the narrative on social media of an "illegal bombing." 

Less than an hour later, at 2:29 a.m., the ANSWER Coalition, a nonprofit co-founded by a proud Marxist, Brian Becker, published a red siren alert on the social media platform X with a slick new poster, calling supporters to the streets in Times Square for a protest Saturday to support Maduro.

"NO WAR ON VENEZUELA! STOP THE BOMBINGS," the poster screamed, on brand.

Minutes later, at 2:34 a.m., The People’s Forum shared the call-to-action, screaming: "EMERGENCY PROTEST"

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The Venezuelan government was still reeling, but the communists here in the US were already mobilized as the rest of the world slept. 

One of the key groups in the complex of communist organizations that create fake "grassroots" protests is the Party for Socialism and Liberation, funded by a billionaire who is associated with the Chinese Communist Party. 

The PSL doesn't limit itself to astroturfed protests. Its members are involved in violent actions such as the assassination of the Israeli embassy employees. PSL, Antifa, and various other groups all work together, each playing a role in agitating and trying to bring down the United States and the West. 

These operations are well-funded, highly organized, and the ultimate flow of money comes from our adversaries abroad. We tend to focus on figures like George Soros, as we should, but there are a lot more and bigger trees in that forest, some grown here at home and some imported from abroad. 

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As always, liberals see these people as benign, and as soon as you mention communism, they scoff. Point out that Zohran Mamdani is an actual, bona fide communist, and PolitiFact will "debunk" you. Now that he is mayor, his "tenant advocate" is already talking about taking property away from landowners. 

What you are seeing is a not-so-slow-motion takeover of the United States by communists, and the moment you point out this obvious fact the minds of liberals shut down. No amount of evidence will penetrate their minds because they have this bizarre idea that the communist threat has always been overblown. 

The Soviet Union had nuclear weapons aimed at us and they thought they commies were the good guys. 

As I said, psyops work. 

Editor’s Note: Democrat politicians and their radical supporters will do everything they can to interfere with and threaten ICE agents enforcing our immigration laws.

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David Strom

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