I’ve been reading about 5^th Generation Warfare, or 5GW lately. It’s a topic of interest because it seems like something that is taking place in our world now. The book that I’m reading talks about an “unseen hand” controlling the populace by making small, controlled groups look like the majority by suppressing the speech of the real majority. Shadow-banning, deplatforming, canceling and bot attacks. People are also controlled by confirmation bias leading them to believe that their beliefs are the only beliefs that matter. Then they weaponize the battlespace of the mind by making topics relevant that will polarize groups. One group will have the righteous position and the other is seen as illegitimate or unrighteous. Methods used are:

-Discreetly manipulate minority group making them vocal and thinking they are the majority.

-Leverage messaging to develop an in-group/our-group dynamic.

-Keep influencing both groups and encourage demonization of the other group’s viewpoints.

This is then psyopped by reinforcing the in-group’s values and motivations through artificial news reports and social media sharing. The in-group’s feedback loop is therefore an echo-chamber of their own thinking, which messes up decision making because there is no outside-the-box thinking. The other group, the out-group, gets a feedback loop that is filled with doubt. The out-group is silenced in secret and publicly demonized to try to keep them from mobilizing as the majority they are.

In a 5GW Psyop campaign, everything is weaponized until something better can be weaponized. It is non-kinetic, irregular hybrid warfare, however, it can have kinetic effects inducing groups to riot. We can undercut this weaponization by protecting our minds. We protect our minds by controlling our emotions. I think it’s important to state here, not to suppress emotions, but to be in control of them, to regulate them. How do we do that?

1. When we feel ourselves getting triggered, before letting it affect our thinking, we can ask ourselves some questions.

• What am I feeling right now?
• What happened to make me feel this way?
• Does the situation have a different explanation that might make sense?
• What do I want to do about these feelings?
• Is there a better way of coping with them?

2. Keep a daily journal and write about the mood we are in. This helps to bring our moods and emotions into conscious awareness so that we can regulate it.

3. Breathe. Try this:

• Take a deep breath
• Hold it for a count of 5
• Release

4. Use a Mantra- Something like: I am calm, I am relaxed, I am strong yet flexible.

5. Express or release your emotions in a safe and controlled way. Being mindful of your surroundings and the situation can help you learn when it’s OK to let feelings out and when you might want to sit with them for the moment.

6. Use Stress Management Techniques- Exercise, take a walk outside, meditation, massage, work on a hobby.

One of the chapters in the book I’m reading is entitled, The Flies Must Conquer the Flypaper, it’s telling us to manage our own psychological susceptibilities that make us vulnerable to unseen manipulation. Instead of automatically accepting what is given to us, I think that takes raising the level of mindfulness to consciously consider what is really being given and do we really want it. On the 5GW battlefield, techniques used to manipulate people are:

-the use of stereotypes in wording in order to elicit an emotional response.

-loaded language and/or selective information.

-wording with negative connotations and being vague.

All this is designed to bring up an emotional response. If we recognize that this is happening, we can disconnect our emotions on our end, and stop ourselves before becoming emotionally invested. When we get emotionally invested, then polarized thinking takes hold of our psyche. If we can stop it before that happens, then we are conquering the flypaper.

Developing a mental toughness is a necessity. We maintain control of our lives by thoroughly researching something before making a decision from a) people you know who are sensible, b) public libraries and c) internet (watching out for manipulation.) But the best way to stop emotional investment and short-circuit polarized thinking is through the use of critical thinking.

The use of critical thinking involves:

• Drawing knowledge from experience in conjunction with the application of logic and reasoning
• It involves examining beliefs or any form of knowledge in light of any evidence that supports any conclusions drawn
• Recognizing problems and finding workable solutions
• Gathering pertinent information, recognize assumptions
• Comprehending information and interpreting data with clarity and accuracy
• To evaluate arguments and test conclusions and generalizations
• To be able to reconstruct one’s beliefs based on a wider range of experience
• To make accurate judgments about specific things and qualities in everyday life

Critical thinking is self-directive, self-corrective. It works in the gray area of a subject rather than the black and white dichotomy of polarized thinking. By using facts and data, logic and reason, emotions remain in a healthy place and do not affect our ability to consider the whole picture from all angles. 5^th Generation Warfare (5GW) uses the narrative as the weapon, in the battlefield of our minds, trying to control how we see, think and feel in order for us to give over our trust and not think for ourselves.