Fearmongering 2.0: Trait Baiting, Pressing On. Divide and Conquer.

Home Free: "Just when you thought you were home free", that you thought you heard and seen everything here about Psy-Ops. More specifically, about "fearmongering" So did I. That was until the past few days, when I saw and heard what was otherwise unimaginable...

Full Court Press: When members of the press, supposedly impartial and objective, while 'holding court', while they have your attention as the one being interviewed, or US at home anticipating the next question, press the one being interviewed, until they get the answers they seem to have been looking for. This, following the 'set-up', the question(s) designed to lead the witness...who, unsuspecting, unprepared, in an emotionally vulnerable state...

Waiting, Baiting: For years now, but more acutely the past week, more so the past two days, I have read, watched, but especially listened (mostly while working out, TG!) with rapt attention, to members of the press, trained journalists, who are ostensibly 'there' to get the whole story, interviewing citizens, soldiers, and other "stakeholders" in and around Ukraine...primarily and sometimes almost exclusively as to "how are you feeling...?" Q&A sessions that seem to have a pre-destined outcome, at least follow a predictable path, a type of algorithm. It's as if they have a play book, at least a cheat sheet like the side-line coaches and quarterbacks in the NFL carry and whisper behind so as to protect their secrets, not telegraph the next play they are about to call...the accumulation of which gave rise to me thinking I was instead seeing the influence, confluence not only when east meets west, but when the...

Fourth Estate meets the Fifth Column: The "Fourth Estate" referring to "the press", an outmoded reference but an association that popped up in my Psy-Ops mind when I also heard about the "Fifth Column", the enemy within, those separatists-in-waiting, sympathetic to the invaders. As if it wasn't tough enough for the outnumbered and 'out-gunned' (literally) citizens of Ukraine and their government to see a column of tanks and enemy combatants lined up as far as the eye could see, but to find out there are some within the country willing to join forces...who collectively join forces in an attempt to get the host country to...

Demilitarize, Demoralize: Calls from the neighboring country to put down their arms (literally for many, as that's all they have left to fight off the invaders and the photos coming to us dramatically depict many going out in their home towns bare fisted, barely equipped, with the exception of home-made molotov cocktails). This, in response to "throw down your weapons..." We've also heard some strong counter-responses, some of which have become a strong source of inspiration and humility for the rest of US. But then the unforeseen, behind the scenes, the ones that catch you by surprise, as in "Can I ask you just one question?" Which turned out to be a series of questions, which were aimed at the soft underbelly of the interviewee, already fatigued, weary, but apparently not leery...which would only end with the interviewee, after saying "no, we are not a house divided...we are fearful but not to the point where we will run away...we are going to put up a good fight, to send them back to where they came from; we believe in fighting for out liberty, our sovereignty..." Conceded a bit when the interviewer, relentless in their own cause, responded with (this actually happened this morning, right before my ears), "OK, so you're not scared, but you must at least feel a bit of despair". Interviewee: "Well, maybe..." 

Kin-dread Spirits(?): They say that nurses eat their young, a paradoxical type of scenario where veteran nurses, instead of showing empathy and compassion to those who have also responded to the call, all-too-often end up treating them in such a way that contributes to a high early burnout rate. So, what do you call it when fellow journalists, when finding a colleague (a Ukranian correspondent who escaped a particularly harrowing experience) in distress, otherwise vulnerable, engage them with a series of questions that start out benign (e.g., "I'm sure you're feeling relieved...") but devolves into something less uplifting, a bit predatory, as in "Oh wow, it must bring you great pain to know how many friends and family, how many you left behind..." And speaking of vulnerable, on behalf of another colleague, this same morning, "So where exactly are you reporting from...Ok, so you want to play it safe and not give out your exact location, knowing that the invaders have technology to locate you, that you have to watch your words as well as your back, but can you give us more information about your surroundings, how you're all feeling there...?" 

I call it "Trait Baiting!" AKA "Playing, preying on their emotions, strongest of feelings".

My Sixth Sense: Tells me we're going to hear a lot more in the coming days. Just Listen.