The Outrage Psy-Op:

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How Bots, Bad Boyfriends, and a “Legacy” Ego Hijacked America’s Culture War

The current, shrieking panic over “wokeness” and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) is not genuine. It’s not a grassroots campaign or a disagreement about moral principles. Let’s stop pretending it is. It is, in fact, a largely foreign, orchestrated, outrage psy-op of division. This campaign exists for two simple reasons. The first is to drive ad revenue. The second is to serve as the most successful psychological operation (Psy-Op) in modern history.

The anger you see online—the endless cycle of “DEI is ruining everything”—is a tantrum. It’s not aimed at the substance of DEI; it’s aimed at the sensationalized, clickbait caricature of it. And the worst part? That noise is being amplified, and often initiated, by forces that despise the Western society they are poisoning.

1. The Manufactured Outrage: When Bots Sound Like Your Drunk Uncle

You knew it. I knew it. Experts like Malcolm Nance have been shouting about this from the rooftops since 2016. Warning us that foreign “cyber-bears” were testing the fences of our democracy. But if 2016 was the “beta test,” October 2025 was the full-scale invasion..

• Foreign Interference Confirmed: The U.S. Department of Justice and the FBI have repeatedly documented and disrupted Russian state-run bot farms. Often using sophisticated AI-enhanced technology thus creating thousands of convincing, fictitious American personas. Their explicit, stated goal is to sow discord and undermine confidence in our institutions. They target political violence, elections, and, critically, the anti-DEI/anti-woke narrative.
• The Click-Bait Industrial Complex: The foreign operators don’t care about your local school board. They care that the illusion of mass outrage forces algorithms to highlight their extremist content. This fuels a cycle of clicks and outrage media culture forces real conversations into a toxic corner. The true commodity being traded is your attention and your sanity.
• The Inversion of Volume: Remember, these groups don’t need to change anyone’s mind. They just need to out-yell the rest of us. The result is the weaponization of the comment section. Where foreign bots and domestic opportunists have partnered to make noise over truth.
• The Liars’ Dividend: There is a specific sociological phenomenon at play here called the Liars’ Dividend. When a society becomes aware that deepfakes, AI bots, and foreign interference are everywhere, the “dividend” goes to the liars. Why? Because it becomes incredibly easy for a person to dismiss any inconvenient truth as “fake” or “a bot” e.g. Trumps “fake news” mantra. By flooding our feeds with garbage, the Kremlin and their domestic copycats haven’t just sold us a lie. They’ve destroyed the concept of truth itself. Now, when a legacy-status manager gets called out for incompetence, they don’t have to defend their work. They just have to scream “Woke Bot!” and walk away with the dividend.

Wait What’s A Legacy-Status Manager?

If you’re like me, you’re probably thinking, “What is a legacy status manager? What does it have to do with fake news?” It’s easy to assume we’re speaking of legacy media in this context. However, the focus is actually on the well-connected Ivy League school culture and its “legacy” status. I’m talking about the people who didn’t necessarily climb the ladder. They were born on the top rung or handed a key to the executive elevator. Using nepotism, family connections, or ‘old boys’ club’ networking to achieve their positions instead of true merit. In a true meritocracy, their lack of growth or reliance on outdated skills would be an immediate liability. But because they have “legacy status,” they view any push for diversity or updated standards as a personal attack. For them, DEI isn’t a threat to “quality”—it’s a threat to their “monopoly.”

• The Scenario: A junior employee points out that the Legacy Manager’s department or hiring is inefficient or biased.
• The Move: Instead of looking inward (Growth), the manager screams “Woke Bot!” or “DEI Agenda!”
• The Result: They use the public’s general confusion about bots to cash in on the Liars’ Dividend. Successfully distracting everyone from their own incompetence.

2. The Irony of the Curb-Cut: Why You Secretly Love the Thing You Hate

The final irony is devastating. The core principles of DEI—equity and inclusion—inadvertently help the very people who claim to hate them. Often without them even realizing it. The anger isn’t directed at the substance of DEI; it’s directed at the consequences of a fairer system. This is the “Curb-Cut Effect.”

• ADA and the Dignity of Access: Accessible store layouts and electric shopping carts were mandated for people using mobility aids as described in the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Today, everyone benefits. From parents with strollers, the elderly and injured, delivery drivers, and yes, wider individuals moving through crowded spaces.
• Equity in the Wallet: Policies like the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974 changed how lenders made decisions. They had to base decisions on objective financial metrics rather than arbitrary bias against women or minorities. This didn’t shrink the financial system it grew it. Leading to a democratization of credit for a broader swathe of the population. That created a stable, predictable economy for all.

The person railing against DEI is literally railing against the very framework that makes their daily life better. DEI policies created a more accessible world for his injured father, his working sister and his own future self.

3. The Psychology of the Backlash: Projection, Stagnation, and the Zero-Sum Lie

So, why the screaming? The deep anxiety driving this backlash is rooted in the false, simplistic theory of a zero-sum game. The idea that the “pie” of opportunity is fixed, and if someone else gets a slice, yours must shrink. This is pure delusion. A strong DEI policy makes the total size of the economy and the opportunity “pie” grow.

The real motivation is psychological:

• Projection of Insecurity: The loudest critics of DEI are often the legacy beneficiaries. The ones who inherited their job or status, like the Harvard graduate who coasted with a 2.5 because his dad built a library. DEI threatens to create a true meritocracy, which terrifies those who have always had a protected status. By claiming the diverse candidate is “inept,” they show their anxiety about their own unearned success. This anxiety is projected onto the group that threatens to inadvertently expose them.
• MAGA: Men Against Growing At-all: This political movement is defined by a deep resentment. It shows disregard for psychology and sociological study. The argument against “picky” women who demand empathy in the dating pool mirrors the argument against DEI. It reflects a refusal to adapt to a world that requires earned value over inherited status.

This failure to grow is a weakness that was identified long ago. The goal of the adversaries isn’t just to steal data; it’s to sow chaos. As former Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev reportedly said of the West:

“We will take America without firing a shot… We do not have to invade the U.S. We will destroy you from within.”

This quote perfectly describes the current psychological warfare. The adversary didn’t need to fire a shot. They just needed to find the people who refused to grow. Then, they pointed them at each other and handed them a weaponized concept like “woke.”

4. Conclusion: The Solution is Self-Awareness (and a Difficult Talk)

And this brings us to the ultimate, horrifying conclusion. We have been the victims of the greatest, most successful psychological war in human history. This happened precisely because the segment of society that was successfully manipulated was simultaneously convinced that psychology itself was “woke.” By choosing to “opt out of psy,” they left their minds wide open to the operation.

The cycle of manufactured outrage is designed to be a loop of addiction. It’s a constant dopamine rush of external blame that replaces the difficult work of inward reflection and solutions.

Leaving us with the age old question: What then must we do? The good news is that these solutions don’t need a new government program. Just proactive personal psychological disarmament and the courage to engage with those effected.

The Two Steps to Disarm the Psy-Op:

1. Stop Feeding the Bots: Recognize that the feeling of white-hot online rage is the primary metric of the psy-op’s success. When you feel that urge to furiously click and share a headline that makes your blood boil, pause. Verify the source, and refuse to be the free labor for the person—or bot—who profits from your mental collapse.
2. Rescue Your Own: With the holidays upon us, many of us will be facing people who have fallen deepest into these mass delusions. These individuals include our parents, aunts, uncles, friends and neighbors. This is the time to start the difficult, years-long work of pulling them out. It’s not about winning a debate; it’s about breaking the spell. Draw inspirations from the 2015 documentary The Brainwashing of My Dad. It requires patience, empathy, and the willingness to introduce the clear, tangible threat of foreign adversaries who are targeting them. Use the information on the communist threat of Putin’s psychological warfare to break through the manufactured, domestic outrage.

The defense against this war is not a political banner. Its self-awareness, empathy and courage. Courage to admit that the competition you fear most is the one unrealized potential in ones self.

Pulling a loved one out of the “Outrage Psy-Op Loop” is a hostage negotiation, not a debate. If you go in with facts, they’ll go in with the defenses the bots gave them. Instead, try these psychological “pivot” points:

Strategy 1: Identify the “Invisible Hand”

• The Goal: Shift the enemy from “The Woke” to “The Manipulator.”
• The Script: “Dad, I’m not even arguing about the policy. I’m worried about how much these companies are making off your blood pressure. The DOJ just caught a Russian AI farm. They pretended to be Americans to stir this exact topic up. They don’t care about the issue; they just want us fighting so we don’t notice what they’re doing.”

Strategy 2: The “Curb-Cut” Reality Check

• The Goal: Ground the abstract “DEI” demon in their actual life.
• The Script: “You hate ‘equity’ policies, but you love that the grocery store has those electric carts and wider aisles since your knee surgery. That didn’t happen by accident; it happened because people pushed for ‘inclusion’ laws. Why are we letting a TikTok video convince us that making things accessible for everyone is a bad thing?”

Strategy 3: The Growth Challenge

• The Goal: Address the MAGA (Men Against Growing At-all) stagnation directly.
• The Script: “It feels like you’re stuck in a loop of being angry at a world that’s just changing. I remember when you used to be the guy who could adapt to anything. Since when did you become afraid of a little competition or a new perspective? You’re better than this clickbait.”

Strategy 4: The “Digital Detox” (The Brainwashing of My Dad Method)

• The Goal: Break the dopamine loop of the outrage machine.
• The Script: “For the next three days while I’m home, can we just leave the news off? Let’s see if we actually feel worse, or if we just realize how much of that stress is being manufactured for us by people who don’t even live in this country.”

The Holiday Mission

Remember, your goal with this post isn’t just to be “right”—it’s to offer a way out of the fog. By framing the solution as Personal Psychological Disarmament, you’re giving people back their agency.

The truth is, when you choose not to grow, you can unwittingly leave yourself open to foreign actors. Actors who are all too happy to fill that potential space with manufactured rage. Making you a weapon against yourself and the country you profess to love.