Overwhelming force used by police may seem disproportionate to the, often invented, ‘threat,’ however, overwhelming force is fundamental to their approach as they have surprisingly conventional military mindset.

This is why the police also hate 1:1 confrontations, they much prefer 10:1 and have no shame about thinking like this because it’s a tested operational mindset. Some even say military can be boiled down to to, “getting their first with the most people.” That is of course an overly reductive summary, but it does trace a a common emphasis.

One move in dealing with overwhelming threats historically has been trying to simply outnumber them, another is turning their numbers into a weakness.

“Here’s how it works: Fascist groups promote racist, sexist, and nationalist violence. Individual bigots carry it out—attacking people in the streets, shooting people in churches, stabbing
people on trains. The authorities use these attacks as an excuse to increase control, promising to protect a fearful population. But the greatest threat is not individual fascists: it is the state itself. It is the state that deports and imprisons millions, that suppresses dissent. When a more reactionary government takes power, it will use all the resources and legitimacy that the previous one obtained to carry out even more violence. Only grassroots resistance can stop the rise of fascism.” — Crimethinc

OSS Simple Sabotage Manual

The most interesting section of this OSS sabotage manual to us is not the material how-tos, but the section that deals with conferences and organizations, which can be used as a tool for recognizing when something may be interfering with the effectiveness of a group whether intentionally or not. This behavior may seem pretty familiar to those with experience in activist spaces.

It is also clear that these are the same kinds of things touched on in the OODA loop.

Physical terrain is an often neglected area of analysis for those engaged in low-intensity struggle particularly in cities and towns. Not only can terrain analysis help avoid kettles and exhaustion from too many hills, but it can also help you outmaneuver repressive forces. If you’re opponent needs to hold a strong line like a shield-wall there’s terrain that can break up their forces. Terrain can also hide your forces from view. Having a lay of the land and picking more suitable terrain to engage in can allow you to more easily out maneuver your enemy. The benefits of terrain analysis are near limitless. Remember the map is not the territory, who knows what tactics may reveal themselves to you after a scouting trip.

Historically; guerrillas, maroon communities of escaped slaves, bandits, and state-hating hill people of have been well-versed in terrain analysis. Likewise modern fully escalated insurgents have turned cities into nightmare zones for occupiers using terrain analysis causing some military theorists to go back to the drawing board to work on a new theory of warfare that they call 4th Generational Warfare.

Mountains, jungles, swamps, etc are all thick-space where the state has trouble making incursions and have been friends to rebels for all of recorded time.

The counterpart to thick-space is smooth-space where, instead of terrain blocking repressive forces, terrain lends itself to increased maneuverability which enables anti-state war-machines to outpace the forces of the ruling order. For examples of this think of the pirates and the open sea, nomads and their steppe, bedouin and the desert, etc. Historically these smooth-space operators have been very good at warfare, but have also settled down to either be overcome by new smooth-spacers or to become some of the most powerful empires on earth.

Sadly since the advent of aerial warfare states have become very good at maneuvering over smooth-space, but their dominance is not total. Here lies the importance of becoming the terrain as well as operating within it; if you become distinct you will be obliterated via death from above.

In review; outmaneuver, avoid becoming distinct to your enemies, and set up apparatuses to ward off becoming states.

One interesting tactical choice by the MAGAist on J6 was to do a sort of pincer attack on the capitol giving the security forces at least two concentrated fronts. This seemingly split the security forces even more than bottlenecks and barriers could compensate for. The Capitol Police were just generally out-numbered on top of this, but an interesting tactic none the less.

“”fun fact”” the US Military has their own “Direct Action”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Direct_action_(military)

Emergency Services also have their own “Mutual Aid”

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mutual_aid_(emergency_services)

“The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction.” —William Blake

Weather analysis is another realm that is often neglected. You don’t have to be able to read clouds to do weather analysis as it relates to operations, if you have access a local weather forecast (from the local news, from a website, w/e) you can do weather analysis. Not only can weather analysis better help to dress and prepare better for actions, it can also help you shape your tactics and calls to action in such a way that the weather can give you an advantage. If it’s hot out for example you can remember to dress lighter and try to stay better hydrated while also knowing your enemies will be quicker to anger and if they have heavy gear they’ll be more easily exhausted. If it’s cold you can bundle up in preparing for that and know that your enemy may have a motivation problem due to the weather.

Weather also affects terrain; rain turns dirt to mud, sleet can make it harder for bikes to go uphill, ice can stop cars, etc.

In short, don’t forget to check the weather before planning or attending an action.

It is no accident that almost every major military campaign has started in the spring or summer.

Are you preparing for the coming spring?

Some thoughts regarding watching videos to improve skills and thinking:

•Watching experts preform is proven to better the watcher’s own form. This works from MMA to chess. Of course there’s no replacement for practicing live with an expert that can correct your form as you go so you don’t develop bad habits.

•Watching experts critique media featuring their craft, where said media get things wrong or right etc, is a great way to gain insights. This is one of the ways the FBI finally learned the inner workings of the mafia; the feds would bug the homes of made men and specifically record their shit talking of movies and news stories that featured organized crime.

•Reviewing footage of recent operations can help you better see how things unfold and what you and your group needs to work on or reveal weaknesses in your enemies.

... In contrast, complexity theory is teaching contemporary scientists that the best way to generate order in a complex system is by letting it self-organize in interaction with its environment. As a matter of fact, self-organization is a spontaneous behavior in complex systems, and the environment cannot be controlled. Self-organization, it appears, has been traditionally avoided in the history of social human systems, and diverse mechanisms have been developed to impede it. Thus, the idea of having leaders (in a strictly vertical sense) and governors dwindles in this scenario; top-down leaders become rulers, governors and commanders act as attractors that amplify negative feedbacks, as they inhibit the capacity of human social systems to generate their own adaptive order. https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/carlos-maldonado-and-nathalie-mezza-garcia-anarchy-and-complexity

Sun Tzu’s The Art of War is one of the greatest war theory texts ever written. If read critically it also holds wisdom useful for just about anyone, but especially those interested in strategy, tactics, and operational thinking. Even the bits that extol the virtues of a general can be partially transmuted to lessons about a forces’ cohesion. Regardless, it covers both core basics and clever innovations very succinctly. This is highly recommended reading. We will also be sharing relevant quotes here on our channel as we eventually work on relevant annotations for the whole of the text.

“Plan for what is difficult while it is easy, do what is great while it is small. The most difficult things in the world must be done while they are still easy, the greatest things in the world must be done while they are still small. For this reason sages never do what is great, and this is why they can achieve that greatness.”—The Tao-te Ching

The purpose of the avant-garde as even Napoleon notes, is not to lead, but to maneuver.