What's hilarious is that this was just sent to me in DM as a threat from a detractor. And FYI, just the idea of how it's done being put into the zeitgeist itself is a form of intelligence operation to stymie speech. So, when @SenatorSlotkin goes full frontal with what the plan is, the signal you should be getting is that they are afraid because there is no more time for subtlety.
— Tom Luongo (@TFL1728) October 21, 2026
Jake Neel is the host of the Jake Neel Podcast.
I think people would be surprised that the CIA is sophisticated enough to infiltrate the influences that Gen Z and Gen Alpha watch because they're like, "O, there's no way these older guys are able to get in here and do this kind of thing with us. You know, like we are watching TikTok. We're watching, I don't know, Sora AI videos, Instagram reels, but if you were theoretically going to design a psychological operation, what would be the main areas you think you would have covered on social media?
You mean like if I wanted to recruit someone like you?
No, I suppose like do you think they're everywhere? Do you think it's just media? Do you think it's podcasts maybe? Do you think it's just Tik Tokers? Like how many, is it everywhere?
I think it's in every area where media is consumed. And I'm not saying, let's be clear, so when I'm saying like somebody is an operative or whatever word you want to use, they're not like walking around on their off time, pulling out their secret CIA ID card and badging into the main building. That's not what happens. Even if you go back to Project Mockingbird, they're just getting some talking points in a letter every once in a while. They're just saying, "Oh, you know what, don't have this guy on your show" or "Don't allow this to be spoken about on your show" or "If they talk about this, you're going to cut it out." It's simple things like that. So very basic instructions. And the way that somebody like a Gen Z is, ah, let's use a hypothetical person instead of a real person.
So you're talking about how someone like me could get recruited into this? Yeah. So, it's not like designed from birth?
Oh no, no, no, not at all. They'll typically capitalize on the people who already have talent and skill. It's not like they're going to like . . . they don't have to worry about that because people are going to rise to the top and they don't have to worry about training them in charisma, media, on-camera presence. They just find the people that are already doing well. It saves him a lot of time and a lot of money. So let's say one day someone, let's just use you as an example. Somebody comes up and says, "Hey man, I love your podcast . . . ," yada, yada. They're in a restaurant or bar or whatever and they say, "I have a serious question for you though. Are you a patriot? Would you consider yourself a patriot?" Now I've got you locked into identity, right? Exactly what we talked about at the beginning of our show here. So you consider yourself a patriot, and then we'll go on a little bit and I'll get you to make a few more comments and stuff like that, and I'll get you to make a few more agreements that say that yeah I support the country and all that kind of stuff. And then I say, "Well, I have, I have an offer for you. But before I show you anything, I just want you to say yes or no, would you be willing to entertain the offer and look at what I have? And it might be uncomfortable. Would you be willing to look at it?"
Yep. Stage One is I show you all of your browsing history, captures from your webcams on all of your phones and computers of you doing the most compromis[ing thing] you could ever possibly imagine. Every bad thing you've ever done recorded in some way. And I'd say, "I like your podcast. I think you're doing a great job and I want to protect you and I want to keep all of this from the public eye. But we also want to give you $20,000 a month." So, A, I'm going to protect you, and B, I'm going to give you $20,000 a month from all of this. So you have the carrot and you have the stick at the exact same briefing and you agreed to receive the briefing from me even after I told you it was going to be stressful. So now you feel like you chose all of this. So you walk away not feeling like I shoved this in your face. I told you it was going to be stressful, and you agreed to it, and you agreed that you're a patriot and all the other agreements. And now you're, if you say yes, the reason that you're doing this on your podcast is for your country because you're not going to call yourself compromised. We have this thing called cognitive dissonance that keeps our brain from thinking "I'm a bad person." We have a hardwired thing in our brain that says, "I did this bad thing for this good reason." It's in our, everybody's brain. So now when you start to go back on the podcast, you're going to go back to that sense of patriotism because that's how that person anchored that conversation at the very beginning and probably at the very end. So now even though you're being asked to silence people, not have certain people on the show, leave something out of your podcast, you're telling yourself and this whoever's your handler is telling you this is for the greater good. This is for the good of the country because we have these brand new initiative that are coming out. The Saudis are doing X, Y, and Z. Chinese are preparing operations to X, Y, and Z. And if this thing got out, it could have caused a massive panic and a massive crisis so you did the right thing . . . and you kept the Americans safe by doing that. And you'll tell yourself that and you'll feel good about it. So when a person is like in this situation they will feel good about what they're doing even if it feels a little off in the back of their mind they'll still feel like I'm at the end of the day I'm doing the right thing.
What happens if I say no?
At the end of the day, if you said no then and this is all hypothetical I'm making all of this up completely. At the end of the day, if you said no, the conversation would turn to "Well, I think you're doing a great job. I appreciate you having this discussion with me. And I have to say that there is no way that I can prevent this stuff from reaching the public eye unless we, you decide to work with us, and all I'm asking you to do is just work with us once a week for 5 minutes. But it's up to you." And I'll let, that'll be a mind virus in your brain for weeks and weeks and weeks and it'll never go away. And all I've got to do is leave you a business card with a phone number on it, and you'll call. Eventually, you'll call.
