Mindf*ck

As usual, there are things we will never get to learn about all this Russia-Trump-2016 mess.

Whatever the sleuthing academics of the future come up with will help to evolve the story - and our understanding of what went on - but Daddy State politicians always try to stall, knowing most of us will lose interest eventually, and since we don't pay much attention while it's happening, they'll be back in business as soon as they know enough of us have forgotten all about it.

Mindf*ck, Christopher Wylie

At first, it was the most anticlimactic project launch in history. Nothing happened. Five, ten, fifteen minutes went by, and people started shuffling around in anticipation. “What the fuck is this?” Cambridge Analytica’s CEO, Alexander Nix, barked. “Why are we standing here?”

It was June 2014. Fresh out of university the previous year, I had taken a job at a London firm called SCL Group, which was supplying the U.K. Ministry of Defence and NATO armies with expertise in information operations. Western militaries were grappling with how to tackle radicalization online, and the firm wanted me to help build a team of data scientists to create new tools to identify and combat internet extremism. It was fascinating, challenging, and exciting all at once. We thought we would break new ground for the cyber defenses of Britain, America, and their allies and confront bubbling insurgencies with data, algorithms, and targeted narratives online. Then billionaire Robert Mercer acquired our project. His investment was used to fund an offshoot of SCL, which Steve Bannon named Cambridge Analytica.

Here's hoping Christopher Wylie is telling it straight and that there will be a few more who can corroborate his story.