Archætyping in Daily News/Disinfolklore
Archætyping and the “Weakness” Narrative. National Security Strategy and Media Narratives. Marshall Plan for Russia Troll. Korea Scenario. Elections and Sovereignty. Civilizational War and Druidy Don.
Part 1: Archætyping and the “Weakness” Narrative
Archetyping is a very important aspect of Disinfolklore as an analytical method, and archetypal Disinfolklore literacy is the first tool in the Disinfolklore analytical methods handbook. So, you won’t be surprised to find that I’m starting today—tonight—with MAGA archetyping Ukraine and Europe as “weak.”
The podcast version of this text is available wherever you get your podcasts (Decoding Trolls channel), and here:
The US is trying to archetype Europe as weak, yet it’s led by a guy who can’t stop sleeping. There was this fantastic still from a video that I took showing Rubio looking over at Donald and seeing that he was basically asleep at this press conference.
Weak MAGA followers like Donald archetype Ukraine as weak and Russia as strong. Meanwhile, Ukraine deals with 7,000 tactical Russian drones and 600 strategic Russian drones daily, while attacking Russia with similar quantities in ways which America, NATO collectively, nor any NATO country individually, between 1945 and today, could ever do.
Now, America is trying to archetype Europe as weak. America is trying to archetype Europe in the same way that Russia archetypes Ukraine and Europe: as weak, and in their view, as a “woman.” We remember “Putler” referring to this hard rock song from the Soviet era, by this Soviet-era band called Red Mold, on February 20th, 2022: “Sleeping Beauty in a Coffin, I went up and effed her.”
The New Lines Institute, in its first genocide report, referred to this as evidence of genocidal intent because it was archetyping—they didn’t use the word archetype—Ukraine as a woman, as a corpse, and as the victim of necrophiliac r*pe. And so, what America is now doing to Europe is what Russia has been doing to Europe and to Ukraine.
Part 2: The National Security Strategy and Media Narratives
They’re attempting this through, obviously, the National Security Strategy, but also Jamie Dimon—a well-named chap. He also referred to Europe as a “weak continent.” It’s this strongman/weak dialectic, which Ruth Ben-Ghiat, I think, has been brilliant at helping us see through. The implication of this archetyping is that 27 individual states (EU 27) acting unilaterally would be strong. Of course, they don’t think that.
We’ve heard today being reported the long version of the National Security Strategy in which several countries—Hungary, Italy, and a couple of others (and I don’t think Italy will be happy to be part of this)—will be “privileged” by American attention, while all the other European countries will be consigned to the gulag, basically. The shame of allying with child-stealing Russia, which can’t even protect itself, and China run by another weakling. It is the stance of a jealous spouse who won’t let their wife speak to other males. Weak.
Basically, how they’re archetyping Europe is that they don’t want individual European countries to talk to anyone else. Today, we see reported in The Washington Post by this guy, David Ignatius—who I’ve never paid any attention to; I kind of instantly archetyped him in my mind. I have a subscription to The Washington Post, so I see him there all the time: “I’ll answer all your questions on Ukraine.” I’ve never even been tempted for a second to dive in. Boy, was my intuition confirmed today when I saw his breathless reporting from clearly inside Donald’s gangster/Russian mafia circles about the breathless chutzpah of a deal.
Part 3: The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP)
They think for a second that Ukraine will surrender the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) to the Russians and let the Americans oversee it as if that’s some sort of a sweetener. This is after the thousands of people who have been murdered, raped, and kidnapped by Russia using ZNPP and Enerhodar.
I was the environmental security focal point for the OSCE for Zaporizhzhia. I covered Enerhodar; I met the mayor, Mayor Orlov. Some of us might remember him pleading with the international community in early March as the Enerhodar native Russian-language-speaking Ukrainian residents tried to stop the might of the Russian army by erecting roadblocks. So, I’ve felt the Enerhodar occupation—obviously not even a millionth as much as the people there who were Ukrainians—but just the idea that these criminals, these gangsters, would come in and offer Russia ZNPP... it’s just absolutely... it would only happen in another universe.
Part 4: The Marshall Plan for Russia Troll
Given my framing of Disinfolklore, I talk about how my fear was that the United States, Donald, and Russia would collude to project all of us into the kind of Disinfolklore universe that I saw Russia projecting Ukrainians into in Russia-occupied Luhansk when I worked, lived, and traveled there daily between 2015 and 2018.
This leads to the “Marshall Plan for Russia” character. We have this character of a Marshall Plan for Russia. They obviously believe in this. Donald and his cronies—his criminal gangster mafia cronies—have taken this troll and are now trying to use it to troll Europe and Ukraine into paying Russia for its destruction.
As I mentioned last week, in the European Parliament’s recent very stiff resolution against Donald’s and Russia’s 28-point plan, they rightly call upon Russia to repay all the material and immaterial harm and damage. These are legal terms.
* Material damage: The 500 billion in infrastructure and counting.
* Immaterial damage: The trillions—I calculate back of the envelope—in trauma, inconvenience, and death. It’s called quantum in law.
42 million Ukrainians have suffered a tort, and each of them has an individual claim for compensation. Quite apart from anything else, what they are trying to do with this breathless reporting by this clown Ignatius is re-archetype this war as something akin to the First World War: “right and wrong on both sides.” Whereas, of course, this war is like the Second World War.
Part 5: The Korea Scenario
The other perennial character in Russian Disinfolklore since the beginning of the war is to try and archetype its full-scale invasion as somehow akin to something to do with Korea. The “Korea Scenario” has popped up again and again.
It initially popped up very early in the war when it became clear that what Russia was trying to do was divide Ukraine into two. They wanted the Left Bank of the Dnipro River and the Right Bank. In March 2022, [Kyrylo] Budanov first revealed this, where the Korea Scenario for Ukraine meant it would occupy all of Left Bank Ukraine, including Odesa and the entire sea.
Then that transmuted into—I write about it in September 2022—”Ukraine war gives North Korea reasons to draw closer to Russia” (Wall Street Journal). We all laughed when we saw Russia was getting 40% of its ammo from North Korea. I wrote a piece when I discovered that the GDP of North Korea is $18 billion. That week, I read about how Taylor Swift’s world tour had added $5 billion to the United States’ GDP. Basically, three North Koreas is a Taylor Swift tour.
Now we have this perennial troll popping up again in the form of this breathless article by Ignatius. He’s just straight reporting what is in the 28-point peace plan, which is just trying to normalize the division of a modern nation-state into two parts along the lines of North Korea and South Korea.
Part 6: Elections and Sovereignty
We saw another perennial troll popping up again yesterday: how America wants President Zelenskyy to hold elections. This has popped up since January 2018. Me and a colleague, an ex-British Army colleague in Luhansk City at the time where I was working, did the math on the calculations for how much it would cost to run free and fair elections according to OSCE standards in Russia-occupied Luhansk and Donetsk over hundreds of polling stations.
The cost in materiel and forces would have been about $1.5 billion at that time. The idea of Western countries paying that amount of money then was preposterous. That became the big sticking point in Paris in December 2019 when President Zelenskyy said “no” to the Steinmeier formula.
Now, we have these January 6th insurrection supporters calling for illegal elections during wartime in Ukraine. They try to archetype President Zelenskyy as the dictator when, of course, Russia is the dictator who has never had free and fair elections in its history.
Part 7: Civilizational War and “Druidy Don”
One of the aspects of the National Security Strategy which really tickled me was the use of the term “civilizational.” This goes back to Huntington’s 1993 book on the Clash of Civilizations. The idea is that the choice for humanity is between Christianity and Islam. But as I’ve demonstrated in my Power of Mana work, Islam is an Indo-European religion generated mainly in Iran (an Indo-European culture), as indeed is Christianity.
Pat Buchanan announced this “culture war” between conservatives/mystical traditionalists versus the transnational cosmopolitan elite in 1991. In December 2013, he published Putin’s Paleo Conservative Moment, praising Putin’s vision. This is the declaratory war which unites “Putler,” the people around Donald, and the people around J.D. Vance.
I call him “Druidy Don” because he’s kind of druidic in the sense of “truthiness.” He connects with people’s minds and persuades them of things. He’s leading society like the Brahmin in India, the Flamines in Rome, and the Druids in Celtic culture.
Part 8: The Reality of the “Peace Process”
Every news broadcast has been talking about peace talks. But of course, all of us understand this is not about peace talks.
* Rubio talks about “sovereignty,” but what he really means is Ukraine sacrificing its territorial integrity.
* The Irish Government uses the three pillars: sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity.
* Donald and Witkoff appeal to “prosperity”—Ukraine can lose its territorial integrity but be prosperous in 10 years.
On one side, we have this bizarre soap opera taking over America—this mafia Don’s family, Russian-mafia-adjacent group. On the other hand, you have real power: The European Parliament resolution. The European Parliament underlines that any peace agreement must oblige Russia to fully compensate Ukraine for all material and immaterial harm.
Part 9: The Impossible Geography of the Peace Plan
I had three thoughts on the recent story about America recognizing Russia-occupied parts of Ukraine:
* Good luck determining which areas Russia occupies.
Good luck getting “Putler” to agree with Donald which parts of Donetsk, Luhansk, Crimea, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson Russia actually physically occupies—never mind the parts which it doesn’t occupy but claims.
The frontline is a grey zone of 30 to 50 kilometers. “Putler” recently said Russia controlled Pokrovsk and Kupiansk, yet Russia doesn’t occupy those towns. The idea that in the 28-point plan you can “stabilize the lines” is so complicated that it’s virtually impossible.
* Forcing recognition is beyond America’s power.
Forcing Ukraine and the EU to recognize Russia’s destruction of the post-WWII legal order is beyond America’s power. This isn’t just about Ukraine recognizing Crimea as Russia; this is literally the end of the post-WWII legal order.
* Global Convulsions.
Recognizing parts of Ukraine which Russia claims to occupy as Russian will convulse America’s relations with every country: Israel, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan. It has implications for 100 countries that have border issues. It would transform America from being the world’s only indispensable ally into the enemy of the international legal order.
As the European Parliament’s resolution said, the initiative has “raised legitimate concerns regarding the United States’ commitment to international law and the security of Europe and Ukraine.” That is a real shot across the bow.