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I recently heard your interview on with Jonathan Fink on Silicon Curtain and I found it fascinating to decode Russian propaganda in this way. I had never studied anything about Eastern Europe until Feb 2022, to be honest. I took Tim Snyder's Yale online course to get some understanding of why this genocidal invasion of Ukraine was happening. (My training as an artist/illustrator is using a visual language. By intuition, I use a lot of cultural symbols in my work and explore ways to project or influence a narrative.) I love mythology of all kinds, so Disinfolklore really sparked my curiosity...how I could understand more, align more visually with Counter Disinfolklore. It would be fantastic to read what you would use as "foundational texts" for this! I am just starting to read the articles you have here.

Given the tsunami of Russian disinformation that is flooding through our free speech social media, the more we can promote education in each individual that combats this disinformation. Maybe Disinfolklore is the way. Thank you for this!

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Great to hear this. I too listened to T Snyder’s lecture course. It was wonderful. His Holodomor lecture was so memorable. You might also be interested in this other publication of mine https://www.powerofmana.net/p/timothy-snyders-move

The “Finding Manuland” podcast series I recently began curating (see any podcast platform) might also be of interest: it deals with many of my sources going back 6,000 years.

Would always be happy to see any relevant illustrations you conceive for either project.

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Since I only just started reading your work, trying furiously to catch up, starting from last year and working up towards your recent stuff. This one is definitely a cornerstone piece. Dense and comprehensive, frames up your approach quite well. What would you say are your foundational texts for becoming fluent in discerning Disinfolklore from a linguistic and folklore/trope/archetypal aspect? I know your approach is a novel synthesis of multiple disciplines but I’d like to become more proficient.

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This is a really good question about which are THE foundational texts @TessaRakt. I will mull it carefully for a while before answering. I’ve read over a 1,500 texts since February 2020 when I started, in earnest, to explore my intuition about Disinfolklore. But the question of which are, say, the ten or twenty most important is one I’ll work on. ‘If I was teaching Disinfolklore as a university course, what is on my reading list’: this is what I’ll turn your question into, if you don’t mind 🤔🫡

This is the most important paper that I’ve read lately: The genetic history of the Southern Arc: A bridge between West Asia and Europe: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abm4247

On another note, here I talk about the genesis of Disinfolklore to Silicon Curtain podcast: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xN3JTRpPXSw

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I find your framework highly relevant and workable. Something about is quite Jungian and seems to concisely dissect why various trolls resonate with the Collective Subconscious of our “Manuland.” Honestly, it the esoteric aspect of your framework that seems to be missing from so many disinformation and maskirovka expert analyses. If you could take a few days to think about what you would assign as a prof, that would be outstanding and so appreciated!

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My philosophical foundations rest on these texts:

A Contemporary Critique Of Historical-Materialism by Anthony Giddens

A Theory Of Moral Sentiments By Adam Smith

Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand

Critique Of Cynical Reason by Peter S/oterdijk

Democratic Theory:The Philosophical Foundations By Eddy Hyland

Dialectic Of Enlightenment by Max Horkheimer and Theodor W. Adorno

Discourse on Equality (1 & II) by Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Essentially Contested Concepts by WB Gallie

For The Sake Of Simple Folk: Propaganda In The Reformation by Robert Scribner

Humanism and Terror By Maurice Merleau-Ponty

Journey To The End Of The Night By Céline

Language, Logic, Truth by A Ayer Lectures In World History by G.W. Friedrich Hegel Legitimation Crisis by Jürgen Habermas Loyalty, Exit, Voice by Al Hirschman Magic Mountain by Thomas Mann Marx's Theory of Alienation by István Mésaros Marx's Theory Of History: A Defence by Cohen Morals By Agreement By David Gauthier Myth Today by poor, blissful Roland Barthés On The Genealogy Of Morals by Friedreich Nietazche One Dimensional Man By Herbert Marcuse Perfume by Patrick Süskind Reform Or Revolution By Rosa Luxembgurg Search For A Method by Jean-Paul Sartre Snapshots By Alain Robbe-Grillet Tender Is The Night by F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky

The Gay Science By Friedreich Nietsche

The German Ideology By Karl Marx

The Grundisse By Karl Marx....

The Paris Manuscripts A.K.A. The 1844 Manuscripts AKA The Economic And Philosophical Manuscripts By Karl Marx

The Persistence Of Modernity by Albrecht Wellmer (I almost wrote Durer)

The Politics Of Private Desire by Michael Laver

The Post-Modern Condition: A Report On Knowledge by Fraçois Lyotara

The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhp

The Wretched Of The Earth by Frantz Fanon, 1963, Presence Africaine This Side Of Paradise by F.Scott Fitzgerald What is Philosophy by Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari

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Whoa, impressive. I do not have the heavy critical theory background as you, but interested to explore. Merci!

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