>>64157148
I don't see arf itself (or the owners) as an intelligence op, just that some of the establishment moderators, and a small but vocal aka tens-of-thousands-of-post-hogging minority of the site's userbase, get most of the attention in GD. Remember also that a huge chunk of the site's user base are GWOT vets, and many are older back-to-Vietnam era vets, meaning they came up through the cold war era "U.S. absolutely loves Israel! (this was mentioned upthread) That's their training, brainwashing and upbringing period. They need deprogramming. Plus several on there (e.g. a noted arf moderator that is also an academic) have the establishment-swamp Zionist support slant that is, hewing to the post-1980s Israel covert false flag operations line, whatever Israel does/whatever country it bombs is fine; these few outspoken (thousands of posts) members are the 'Guard Dogs' for the 9/11 skepticism red line that shall not be crossed on arf.
But as also mentioned, we're coming into a new era not just on a big firearms forum like that but in mainstream media overall, particularly through social media where strong skepticism of the state of Israel today 2025, is punching through (thanks mostly to Israel's own mistakes and continued mass murder of children which isn't exactly going over well in global PR these days). All I'm saying is don't take the flavor of arf and its userbase solely from these loud vocal minority post-hoggers in GD, or that people are still shouted down ("antisemite!111!!11") for expressing even the tiniest Israel skepticism there; for every poster in GD that does, there are dozens of silent/lurking or low-post-count members on the forum that affirm their outspoken stance. We're winning in the long run
