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highplainsdem

(62,227 posts)
Wed Jan 29, 2025, 05:46 PM Jan 2025

Declassified CIA Guide to Sabotaging Fascism Is Suddenly Viral (404 Media)

https://www.404media.co/declassified-cia-guide-to-sabotaging-fascism-is-suddenly-viral/

A declassified World War II-era CIA guide to “simple sabotage” is currently one of the most popular open source books on the internet. The book, called “Simple Sabotage Field Manual,” was declassified in 2008 by the CIA and “describes ways to train normal people to be purposefully annoying telephone operators, dysfunctional train conductors, befuddling middle managers, blundering factory workers, unruly movie theater patrons, and so on. In other words, teaching people to do their jobs badly.”

Over the last week, the guide has surged to become the 5th-most-accessed book on Project Gutenberg, an open source repository of free and public domain ebooks. It is also the fifth most popular ebook on the site over the last 30 days, having been accessed nearly 60,000 times over the last month (just behind Romeo and Juliet).

“Sabotage varies from highly technical coup de main acts that require detailed planning and the use of specially-trained operatives, to innumerable simple acts which the ordinary individual citizen-saboteur can perform,” the guide begins. “Simple sabotage does not require specially prepared tools or equipment; it is executed by an ordinary citizen who may or may not act individually and without the necessity for active connection with an organized group; and it is carried out in such a way as to involve a minimum danger of injury, detection, and reprisal.”

The guide’s intro was written by William “Wild Bill” Donovan, who was the head of the Office of Strategic Services during World War II, which later became the CIA. The motivating factor for writing the guide, according to a passage within it, is that citizen saboteurs were highly effective at resisting the Nazis during World War II, and the Office of Strategic Services wanted to detail other ways sabotage could be done: “Acts of simple sabotage are occurring throughout Europe. An effort should be made to add to their efficiency, lessen their detectability, and increase their number,” the guide states. “Widespread practice of simple sabotage will harass and demoralize enemy administrators and police,” the guide states, adding that citizens often undertake acts of sabotage not for their own immediate personal gain, but to resist “particularly obnoxious decrees.”

-snip-



https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26184

or

https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/26184?ref=404media.co
18 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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Declassified CIA Guide to Sabotaging Fascism Is Suddenly Viral (404 Media) (Original Post) highplainsdem Jan 2025 OP
Accidentally block ICE vehicle by parking your car badly. Accidentally drop a load of bricks in front of a field office Bernardo de La Paz Jan 2025 #1
I also suggest reading From Dictatorship To Democracy by Gene Sharp ck4829 Jan 2025 #2
' citizen saboteurs were highly effective at resisting the Nazis during World War II, elleng Jan 2025 #3
Recommended! Drum Jan 2025 #4
K&R Think. Again. Jan 2025 #5
maybe pin it in the way forward forum. mopinko Jan 2025 #11
trump is turning more toward a soviet model Turbineguy Jan 2025 #6
K&R SheltieLover Jan 2025 #7
Small actions: paper clip in the copy machine. cbabe Jan 2025 #8
Free audio book through Librivox TommyT139 Jan 2025 #9
cool, thanks DoBW Jan 2025 #12
Malicious Compliance! JustAnotherGen Jan 2025 #10
Don't Mess With The CIA Deep State Witch Jan 2025 #13
Kick and save Unwind Your Mind Jan 2025 #14
Man that sounds like what sovereign citizens do..LOL LeftInTX Jan 2025 #15
I skimmed the entire thing. It mostly calls for widespread vandalism to slow down society, so the allies could defeat LeftInTX Jan 2025 #16
K&R orangecrush Jan 2025 #17
This book is now #1 at Project Gutenberg, with about 10x as many downloads as the book in 2nd place: highplainsdem Jan 2025 #18

Bernardo de La Paz

(60,320 posts)
1. Accidentally block ICE vehicle by parking your car badly. Accidentally drop a load of bricks in front of a field office
Wed Jan 29, 2025, 05:52 PM
Jan 2025

Whatever you do, be safe. Maybe keep a maga hat for such occasions. Government flunkies will expect maga to be and act stupid.

ck4829

(37,769 posts)
2. I also suggest reading From Dictatorship To Democracy by Gene Sharp
Wed Jan 29, 2025, 05:53 PM
Jan 2025

If the Trump admin wants to be a dictatorship, then we should exploit all the weaknesses a dictatorship has, and no, they aren't immune to it. They also rely on the same sources of power as any other regime.

https://www.files.ethz.ch/isn/126900/8008_FDTD.pdf

elleng

(141,926 posts)
3. ' citizen saboteurs were highly effective at resisting the Nazis during World War II,
Wed Jan 29, 2025, 05:57 PM
Jan 2025

and the Office of Strategic Services wanted to detail other ways sabotage could be done:.'

LeftInTX

(34,317 posts)
15. Man that sounds like what sovereign citizens do..LOL
Wed Jan 29, 2025, 10:36 PM
Jan 2025

Last edited Wed Jan 29, 2025, 11:35 PM - Edit history (1)

It's good advice for Democrats in congress.



Telephone: At the office, hotel, or local telephone switchboards, delay putting calls through, give out wrong numbers, cut people off “accidentally,” or forget to disconnect them so that the line cannot be used again.

Movie Theater Patrons: To ruin everyone’s time at the movies (without a cell phone, that is) bring in a paper bag filled with two or three dozen large moths. Open the bag and set it in an empty section of the theater. “The moths will fly out and climb into the projector beam, so that the film will be obscured by fluttering shadows.”

Managers and Supervisors: To lower morale and production, think of the worst boss you’ve had and act like that. Be pleasant to inefficient workers; give them undeserved promotions. Discriminate against efficient workers; complain unjustly about their work. When possible, refer all matters to committees for "further study and consideration." Attempt to make the committees as large and bureaucratic as possible.

Employees: Be forgetful. Clumsy. Work slowly. Think of ways to increase the number of movements needed to do your job: use a light hammer instead of a heavy one; try to make a small wrench do instead of a big one.

Transportation: Make train or air travel as inconvenient as possible. One particularly effective trick: issue two tickets for the same seat on a train in order to set up an “interesting” argument.

They also advocate for widespread vandalism to sorta make a government dysfunctional. (Burning buildings, clogging toilets, flooding buildings, cutting off electricity to wide areas, put sugar, sugar, salt and sand in gas tanks, slashing tires, sabotage farmers by picking crops too early, destroy stored crops by pouring water on them, cause mass food poisoning (ah I remember that cult in Oregon did this) muck up the train tracks so that trains derail, change signs on the highway to order to cause collisions, cut phone lines
https://www.cia.gov/static/5c875f3ec660e092cf893f60b4a288df/SimpleSabotage.pdf

This might be "workable" and applicable.

I remember the "off Fox" thing. Or just turn it off.
Can we muck up AM radio? Scramble conservative MSM signals?





After skimming this entire thing, I think the most applicable thing would do something about propaganda!!!

I don't think widespread vandalism would not be of much help right now. Of course, if we could unplug Trump's mic, take his phone away, take his pen away etc, give him laryngitis, assign a bad throat doctor to him, it could save the country!!!

LeftInTX

(34,317 posts)
16. I skimmed the entire thing. It mostly calls for widespread vandalism to slow down society, so the allies could defeat
Wed Jan 29, 2025, 11:13 PM
Jan 2025

them. It is designed to be used in conjunction with the fact that the US was at war with the nazis.

The most helpful (practical) section was on pages 26-27, it starts at the motion pictures section and what to do about propaganda.

highplainsdem

(62,227 posts)
18. This book is now #1 at Project Gutenberg, with about 10x as many downloads as the book in 2nd place:
Fri Jan 31, 2025, 07:50 PM
Jan 2025

"Simple Sabotage" was 5th most popular book in the last 30 days on Gutenberg when I wrote this article, it's now #1. Yesterday it had ~10x more downloads than the one in second place:

Jason Koebler (@jasonkoebler.bsky.social) 2025-01-31T23:38:10.881Z
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