Kris Goldsmith

Kris, a combat vet, explains how he studies and disrupts fascism and white supremacism in the U.S.–Kris Goldsmith is an Iraq combat vet who studies disinformation and far right movements. He's the founder of Task Force Butler, an organization of veterans that aims to disrupt online extremist activity and radicalization, and encourage those who have fallen victim to its disinformation to leave that path of destruction.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kris Goldsmith — Army vet, CEO of Sparverius, and founder of Task Force Butler — joins Naveed to discuss his work tracking the online discourse of far-right extremist groups. Find Kris on Twitter: https://twitter.com/KrisGoldsmith85See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Kris Goldsmith is an Army combat Veteran who served in Iraq. As a 19 year-old, he was assigned the task of photographing corpses and documenting mass graves. He developed severe PTSD, and in 2007, as the result of a suicide attempt that caused him to miss redeployment, he was given a less-than-honorable discharge. After years of legal battles, that discharge was upgraded. Kris went on to become an advocate for veterans with “bad paper” discharges, and helped pass crucial legislation that helps them receive the benefits they deserve. Since then, Kris has turned to combating domestic right-wing extremism. To learn more about Kris’s time in the Army, listen to his episode of Warriors In Their Own Words.Find Kris on Twitter at @KrisGoldsmith85Learn more about his organization, High Ground Veterans Advocacy, here.Learn more about Kris’ work fighting domestic extremism here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Warning: This episode contains depictions of corpses, substance abuse, a suicide attempt, and some foul language. Viewer discretion is advised.Kris Goldsmith is an Army combat Veteran who served in Iraq. As a 19 year-old, he was assigned the task of photographing corpses and documenting mass graves. He developed severe PTSD, and in 2007, as the result of a suicide attempt that caused him to miss redeployment, he was given a less-than-honorable discharge. After years of legal battles, that discharge was upgraded. Kris went on to become an advocate for veterans with “bad paper” discharges, and helped pass crucial legislation that helps them receive the benefits they deserve.To learn more about Kris, his advocacy, and his work fighting domestic extremism, listen to his episodes of Burn the Boats, out next Wednesday.Learn more about his organization, High Ground Veterans Advocacy, hereFind Kris on Twitter at @KrisGoldsmith85 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today's crew of Frank and Maggie are joined by Kris Goldsmith (@KrisGoldsmith85), Chief Investigator and Associate Director for Policy & Government Affairs at Vietnam Veterans of America to discuss his incredible 191 page report entitled "An Investigation Into Foreign Entities Who Are Targeting Troops and Veterans Online". Researched over the course of two years, the report digs into persistent, pervasive, and coordinated online targeting of American servicemembers, veterans, and their families by foreign entities who seek to disrupt American democracy. As if we didn't need another reason to delete our Facebook page... Check out the full report: http://vva.org/trollreport/ Support Kris' recommended organization of Student Veteran's of America: https://studentveterans.org/

Kristofer Goldsmith served in the U.S. Army as a forward observer, separating in 2007 at the rank of sergeant. He deployed with the 3rd Infantry Division in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2005. Kris has since become an advocate for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and those with less-than-honorable discharges. He is the founder and chair of High Ground Veterans Advocacy, which partners with veterans service organizations to train vets to become grassroots advocates and leaders in their local communities. Kris currently serves as the assistant director for policy and government relations at Vietnam Veterans of America. He is also a member of Truman National Security Project’s defense council.The goal of High Ground Veterans Advocacy is to empower service members and veterans to become advocates and leaders in Washington DC, their home states, and local communities. Service members and veterans will receive instruction and training to communicate and network with other Military Service Organizations (MSOs) Veteran Service Organization (VSOs), directly engage with the media, write opinion editorials, properly use social media, and effectively engage with elected and appointed government officials. Service members and veterans trained by High Ground Veterans Advocacy will be encouraged to pursue leadership roles within their respective local VSO chapters. High Ground Veteran Advocacy will perform detailed research on military and veterans’ issues, and will propose legislative and administrative solutions to problems faced by the military and veteran community. High Ground Veterans Advocacy will train at least one class of service members and veterans per year to develop highly effective teams focused on educating government officials and the general public on a variety of veterans issues. High Ground Veterans Advocacy teams will work to promote improvements to the transition process when veterans leave the military, healthcare and education, and to expand veterans’ access to all earned benefits.kris@highgoundvets.comhttp://www.highgroundvets.org/@KrisGoldsmith85https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristofer-goldsmith-7920a089 http://taskandpurpose.com/author/kristofer-goldsmith/