The pruning attack: belief is downstream, and the decision to close is the terrain

Corollary to CB-113, this brief examines narrative attacks that need hesitation rather than belief: keeping weak possibilities open, getting accurate ones dismissed early and making closure feel dangerous. It asks how an adversary manipulates which hypotheses a principal's team keeps under consideration, and how that team decides, proportionately, when to close them. Built from research on repetition, counterfactual thinking and high-volume propaganda. For principals and the teams managing a narrative attack.