Great interview. Steven is level headed and relatively well informed.
That said, I find Alex's thinking disturbing. "Where there's smoke there's fire" and "You just gotta believe that there's all these connections"? Really? That's not anything like close to science. Worse, it's dangerous. It obfuscates reasoned understanding and corrodes societal cohesion, which just happens to be one of the goals of psi-ops/info-ops.
What if someone accused Alex of being a misinformation agent because, well you know, there are such things and he has a forum and he's attacking societal institutions? It must be true! Where there's smoke, there's fire. Who's he working for? The Chinese? Russians?
Or people have herpes. There's lots of herpes in California. So Alex has herpes! Silly, but that is CT thinking in a nutshell.
Terrible and stupid, right? Why do the same to others then?
It's terrible to accuse Comet Pizza of torturing children in the basement when there is no evidence that the place even has a basement, let alone kidnapped kids in it, just because there is such a thing as pedophilic rings and Podesta and Clinton have sick friends. How can anyone seriously make that leap. It does explain my gripe about The Finders and Alex's accusation that it was a CIA operation. I could never understand how his "evidence" forced that conclusion. Now I get it. We just "have to believe".
What if law enforcement and the judicial thought that way?
More observations;
A comment or statement often made by CTers - "He is a former Intelligence officer"!!!!!!!!
Steven correctly alluded to the issue with that "evidence" (former intel). There are a gazillion people who were "in" intelligence; many were pimple faced kids doing everything from cryptology to cartology to scout snipers to filing international cables. Intelligence covers a wide range of mostly mundane, but classified, activities. There are hordes of analysts who sit in a cubicle working on very specific and limited scope product. There are officers who are in the field, overwhelmingly, in foreign countries, trying to gather intelligence and recruit foreigners to provide the same. That is what the CIA does 99% of the time. IC People stay in their lane and anything outside of it is on a limited need to know basis. That never stops people from guessing and gossiping about the bigger picture, but I don't consider guessing and gossip to be evidence, although I note that CTists do. Stargate, btw, was a DIA project, not CIA. The DIA dropped it and the CIA picked it up only in the early 90s.
I've heard it said that Gloria Steinem was a CIA officer. No, she wasn't. She was recruited as a source by the CIA to provide information and to perform a role. She was never "in"the CIA. There are many people that the CIA convinces to agree to cooperate with them. Again, that's what they do. But those sources have little to no idea what the bigger picture is.
Loved Steven's comments about co-opting. Right. Try to guide organically forming movements that might pose a threat. Or at least try to understand them by gain insider info.
So I am not impressed by anyone claiming validity because they were "in"intelligence unless the topic is specifically one they were assigned to and they were at a level where they would be making decisions based on collating data/product from many desks.
People - including former military and IC - tell stories to make themselves appear more relevant or interesting - or because it's fun and that's what people do. Again, at best they are probably guessing at what was happening unless they worked on that specific issue for some time and at a high level. Then they are unlikely to reveal classified info and end up telling a story anyhow; or just not talking. Much truth to those who know, stay silent and those who do not run their mouths.
We, as humans, are first and foremost story tellers. Being a former member of the IC makes for fertile grounds for story telling. The veil of mystery and Hollywood depictions intrigues people. Everyone wants to hear interesting tales and become "in the know". You can get a lot of free beer that way; or maybe talk circuit gigs or book deals if you're more ambitious and less circumspect.
CTists don't always follow their own own smoke = fire philosophy. For example, 9/11. Islamic terrorists like to blow stuff up. They declared war on the US. They tried to blow up the towers in 1993. They were attacking US embassies with bombs, US military installations and ships all through the 90s. Lots of smoke (literally) there, but somehow it doesn't =fire for the CTists. Nope.Must of been "The Jews" or our own government. Crazy - people are story tellers and the world is an ink blot test. They see the patterns they want to (or have to based on their psychology).
Is Q-anon an info op? Most certainly. I like what Steven had to say about that. Info op by whom? A lot of that stuff is coming from the political parties and their hired guns in the political marketing and PR sector. Mostly democrat/Clinton sponsored, but some conservative crap too- or it could be an organically developed myth born of people's need to make sense of big confusing world. A collective subconscious kind of thing. Prophets alway arise in times of trouble and need.
I have some bad news for all of us, but especially CTists - that is, there is no one in charge, no master minds, no cabals, no geniuses controlling and directing everything. There are just people taking care of their own interests, which may, or may not, align with yours or mine. They fight each other just as we all we all conflict. No one can herd the cats, though some may try - and fail. Some step up and try to run things, some keep their heads downs and follow orders and some go 1%er rogue. No one has "the big picture" because the big picture is too big and its madnesses (from a physical human standpoint). CTists want there to be godlike figures. They just want them to be benevolent, but see them as malevolent because bad things happening the world. Get over it. It's just life and people doing what life and people do. It's always been that way and always will be. No one is running the show.