Sep 24 2021 63 mins 1
Yuru Bezmenov bestow gift to America. In 1984, long before the rise of the internet as we know it today, he introduced to the West methods to destabilize the nation using Ideological subversion. As a former Soviet journalist, former KGB informant, part of his role was to spread disinformation to foreign countries to advance Soviet propaganda.
Once he was able to defect to the west, Bezemenov provided significant insight into techniques that have eerily foreshadowed our current state of unrest, rising authoritarianism, and civil society at odds with each other.
As he describe, this is psychological warfare. Ideological subversion means changing the perception of reality of every American to such an extent that despite the abundance of information, no one is able to come to sensible conclusions in the interest of defending themselves, their families, their community, and their country highest art of warfare is not to fight at all.
It is inefficient and idiotic-but to subvert anything of value of your enemy after such time that perception of reality of your enemy is so screwed up that he does not perceive you as an enemy and your civilization, your system, your values are looked at as alternative-NOT desirable, but at least, visible. The act of subversion is not illegal.
As Bezmenov states, it can be done by anyone-student, artist, actor, or neighbor. Subversion can only be successful if the receiving party is willing to be subvert. This can take considerable time and effort. He describes 4 stages used by KGB to gradually overthrow the US political system. When you're not sure what is right or wrong, evil and good, demoralization is justified.
Violence is not justified but we can be lead to believe it. The initial stage of demoralization in non-digital terms may take 15-20 years. When population accept society of establishing religion, power structure, laws and their way of life, it is futile to attempt to weaken their resolve. This is far easier to employ in education, to cultivate generation of students in shaping their personalities or their outlook at a time when these things are still in formation.
The Internet has been stimulus to accelerate this stage by not only reaching discrete groups, but also to spread their propaganda more widely. The death of George Floyd, and Coronavirus have become catalysts that have allowed all of the US to pay more attention to embedded injustices, and misinformation that has arisen in time of self-isolation.
