[Blog] Sorry, I'm manipulative

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I admit it; I'm manipulative. Quite often so, indeed.

My shtick is not to intentionally use wrong info or arguments, but very often I write something hoping that the reader really concludes something that wasn't mentioned directly.

A recent, harmless example;
 

The British were probably the last Europeans to understand this; even as late as early 1918 they still had a 'forward strong, little depth' defence on the Western Front. They suffered accordingly, with the many infantrymen in the observable forward trenches getting hammered by artillery. Other armies had previously (at least partially) moved to a defence with a thinly manned continuous forward trench for pickets with most infantry beyond the LOS.

This wasn't a superficial bashing of the British, but in part a hidden message that you're almost a behind the curve by almost a century if you disagree with my notion of "forward weak" on grounds of intuition or whatever. It supported my next line:

 

You better keep your exposed LOS troops rather few in number.

I already admitted in a comment discussion that entire blog texts are essentially meant to convey a 'hidden' message:

I rarely write non-"[Fun]" posts for but one reason. There's often a hidden one as well.
This time I coupled a popular topic with the messages that looking at military history can help understand parts of our world and I wanted to demonstrate how the integration of tactical and technical details can further the understanding of what the tools of war mean.
Rifles and cartridges are not mere chunks of metal, or some object of fascination for hobbyists. They were shaped by evolving circumstances, serve a purpose within their context - and a successful solution can be outdated and outright wrong soon thereafter.

My habit of writing blog posts with 'hidden' intents and messages and my approach of attracting milporn seekers and then releasing a small avalanche of pro-peace anti-interventionist messages on them has come to my attention step by step. It wasn't some cunning plan formulated when I founded this blog. It just developed over time, by exploiting opportunities. Sometimes I just write about some hardware topic (because I myself feel the fascination of technical hardware, too) and end up colouring it heavily with one or two of my recurring themes.

One of the style elements on this blog which I attempted to honour for years is the "moral of the story" in italic text at the end, which summarizes the point of the text. I found that even these were often not the really intended (hidden) message.

It took me quite long to understand this subconscious subtleness of mine as I am usually characterised as not very subtle by others. Some anglophone contacts (not Germans) described (or complained about) my approach as 'abrasive', 'blunt', 'brutal' or similar not exactly soft words.

I believe the more usual milbloggers attempt to manipulate as well, albeit typically from opposing political points. I cannot know for sure - only they themselves can know it.

Now you've got a new free mini game available; you may attempt to discern the hidden messages from my blog texts...

S O
defence_and_freedom@gmx.de

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