Fear Mongering

2026-05-20 · Ho Chanh Nghia

Originally published on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/fear-mongering-khanh-pham-wdmkc/

Fear Mongering

My purpose here is to recommend the work of David Knickerbocker, and to say plainly that I exist and stand by my own work. Here I stand.

Serious OSINT: Top Clusters of Today

Day 91 of #100daysofnetworks

What key themes am I seeing? I will discuss them in the article, but here are the bullet points:

• San Diego Mosque Attack
• Southern California Wildfires
• ICE and Immigration Enforcement
• Ebola Outbreak (Bundibugyo Strain)
• Child Safety, Abuse, and Exploitation
• Hantavirus Outbreak
• Domestic Violence and Femicide
• Teen and Youth Violence
• Manhattan Manhole Death
• Economic Hardship and Benefits
• Product Safety and Public Health
• Disturbing Domestic and Institutional Situations

All of these claims surfaced in the last 24 hours, and I identified the clusters using my data and my NLP, graph, OSINT, and data science approaches.

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I will be honest: I dislike bait-and-hook selling, which treats the reader as a fish and the seller as a fisherman. That does not mean this work is not worth the paywall. It is a fair alternative to the vast intelligence agencies the United States spends enormous sums to sustain.

Look at the list of events, and a common theme appears: FEAR, or False Evidence Appearing Real. Such is the power of the media, and the philosophy of propaganda.

Early in 2014 I developed a simple method, first as a vaccine for my own mind and later as a formula anyone can use. Ask one question:

What is this news making me feel?

That feeling is the purpose of the news.

Only then can you decide what you want to do about it. Most people do not get that far, whether for lack of training, aptitude, or courage. Most will not resist it, and most will not be able to tell when they are being hooked and manipulated rather than informed. A truth does not depend on how many believe it: even if 8 billion people believed the sun would never burn out, it would still burn out. In 2014, many professionals defended the media as a product shaped by the market, and therefore one that could not be manipulated. By 2026, the wiser among them can see they were mistaken, yet many still believe that the media does not lie. Worse, they think the White House press corps is where one goes for the real information, the truth.

I do not know of a single self-respecting man who would go to a known liar every day and report what the liar said as a way of informing others about the truths that shape their lives. I can think of no surer way to discredit myself.

For those who still want a reporter on their side, independent individuals are probably the last bulwark of information for the sake of being informed.

So my counsel is firm: cancel your CNN and Washington Post, and begin building your own intelligence network of people you can trust.