News You Can Bruise for 2006 October 13

Today's linkdump theme is psyop, the nonlethal military tactic that is either a brilliant way to militarize the skills of drafted philatelists and comic book nerds, or one of your smaller-scale government boondoggles. I can't form an informed opinion because, as with other kinds of spam, there's little information available about the response rate. (I thought everyone knew about psyop, but Evan didn't, and I'm guessing he stands in for a chunk of the NYCB-reading audience.)

I've been browsing psyop sites like this one which is frequently updated, not just when there's a war; and this link-filled one. You can spend many a disturbing hour reading through those articles and browsing the scanned propaganda leaflets.

Two of my favorite articles are these WWII case studies: Gray and Black Radio Propaganda against Nazi Germany and H.M.G.'s Secret Pornographer. "In 1939 it never occurred to me that one day my turn would come to wage war on Hitler by pornography." Click through if you like, but there's no topping that sentence.

I can't find my favorite leaflet, but it was put out by the Germans in 1945 and it basically said "Don't get killed in the last five minutes of the war! We've already lost, so give yourself up and stay safe in a POW camp until Germany officially surrenders!" Not really on message; I think oversight was getting a little lax by that point.