Richard Carmona
Many years ago, when I was a U.S. Army Special Forces soldier in combat, we used covert dissemination of disinformation to disrupt our adversaries or even cause them to align with U.S. interests. These psychological operations or psyops techniques, when used effectively, can become invisible weapons by mobilizing civil unrest and undermining trust in organizational structures.
Decades later, as the U.S. surgeon general, I began to notice these psychological warfare techniques being used increasingly on an unsuspecting U.S. electorate by domestic political operators attempting to capture their political allegiance. Now, the seeds of this psychological warfare have germinated and grown, threatening the security of our fragile, ever evolving democracy.
In recent years, a new variant of Stockholm syndrome has emerged — one that doesn’t involve physical captivity but mental ensnarement through misinformation and disinformation, spread through tabloid media, online platforms and cable news.
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